Death Cab For Cutie – KOKO, London 14/07/08

18 July 2008, 15:03 | Written by Peter Bloxham

(Live)

Back in May, a few of my friends went to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Electric Ballroom. Anyone listening to them bang on about it upon their return could be forgiven for thinking that they had actually gone to see Jesus or Batman or something.

The incessant fawning and the constant reminders of how I “so should’ve gone, seriously” finally got the better of me. When a date was announced for the 14th of July at Koko I wrote myself a reminder on my calendar – ‘go to death cab’.

Predictably, by the time this show had worked it’s way around I was really looking forward to it. This was to be my first Death Cab for Cutie gig and I was fully prepared to be blow away. I wasn’t.

This isn’t necessarily Death Cab’s fault. They played an interesting and varied set, nobody could accuse them of neglecting their back-catalogue ‘New Year’ and ‘Crooked Teeth’ were particular highlights, while the new material seems to make perfect sense live, representing encouraging development for an already seasoned band. ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ is also a great live experience.

What fell short then? Well pretty much everything else, unfortunately. The venue was absolutely packed, with a fairly significant element of semi-interested, casual observers who were happy to have a chat and a pint. The sound was pretty woeful, the band sounded distinctly as though they were playing in the next room. The atmosphere was sapped as a result, Death Cab had an uphill struggle to engage the audience, even without the technical difficulties that plagued them. Most frustrating.

None of this, however, seemed to be able to cloud the performances of ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’ and ‘Transatlanticism’ the former inspiring one of those rare moments when it’s actually okay for the audience to sing along, the latter reminding just exactly why it remains such a seminal anthem.

I was pretty disappointed with the way things turned for this show, if anything it’s really inspired a need in me to go and see Death Cab for Cutie again – which leaves me back at square one, really.