Heartbreak, discontent, growing disillusionment of Los Angeles and fame are some of the great themes of rock ‘n’ roll albums. Death Cab For Cutie’s 8th studio album Kintsugi is definitely one of them. Death Cab has been a household name for all indie aficionados, emo high school and college kids into the early 2000s indie wave and the chance hipster barista or tortured novelist. They have come a long way since they first started as mopey romantics to now platinum-selling indie rockers, Ben Gibbard (lead singer) also got reasonably famous when he married actress Zooey Deschanel, which may or may not have been the main muse of the bulk of the songs on their latest album.
Now let’s talk about the actual concert in KL Live, which Malaysian Death Cab fans celebrated over as this concert had been a long time coming, as if it wasn’t already apparent – Malaysia has an assembly of underground indie obsessives and the venue was clearly filled with a generation that adores Death Cab’s music. We could feel the thick buzz of anticipation and excited energy could be felt in the air as the band, led by Ben Gibbard took to the stage.
Death Cab’s gloomy alternative rock music is more often than not the type of music you’d want to actually cry yourself to sleep to, but that did not stop us from embracing the entire show and getting into the concert, swaying and moving along to the beat. However, it was startling to observe that many of the audience members were made up of those who were “too cool” to dance or to sing along to their songs. The audience remained rather motionless when the band performed songs off their latest album Kintsugi but they did cheer loudly during Black Sun and moved slightly to the bouncier bass beat of The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive. Many fans were anticipating the more well-known hits but with 19 years of music making under their belt, there was no way the band could quench everyone’s thirst.
Gently picked guitars, moody melodies and layered but delicate keys swelled in the venue and all the instruments on stage flowed together effortlessly, each guitar echo effect and tapping of the drum built up to a beautiful symphony of melancholic euphoria. Gibbard’s identifiably soft voice and emotion-drenched lyrics filled the room, nonetheless the band brought a few rockier moments with The New Year which was saturated in heavy distortion and squealing guitar riffs.
One of our favourite moments was when the band had a chance to jam together on I Will Possess Your Heart, with a heavier bass line and airy guitar swirls. The pinnacle moment everyone waited for came when Gibbard grabbed his acoustic guitar and launched into the pensive and heart wrenching hit, I Will Follow You Into The Dark which the audience confidently sang along to (obviously so) as he continued to pluck his way through our hearts with this morbidly romantic lullaby. Passenger Seat was another tearjerker, as the piano crescendo pulsed throughout the hall and our hearts swelled.
Death Cab tunes have always geared towards vulnerability in the context of despair and fuelled by lyrical venom from significant chaos. Although the Malaysian audience was slightly tamed for our liking, we are sure that everyone left the venue with injuries, real or imaginary from the hearts and souls of the characters made up in Gibbard’s lyrics. Playing for nearly two hours including a four-song encore that ended with Transatlanticism, the painfully brilliant epic-by-accretion title song from their fourth studio album released in 2003, Death Cab seamlessly landed its thudding blows of lonely intimacy.
As we headed home for the night, feeling as though we just returned from a transcendent journey through our deepest emotions, we realise that Death Cab For Cutie truly highlights the darkness of the heart and the beauty that can come from anguish.
by: Adeline Tan
