The triangular Ben Gibbard-shaped silhouette feverishly rocked and swayed as a wave of guitar distortion slowly grew in force. The Death Cab for Cutie frontman and his mates were only faintly visible on the giant low-lit stage, but it was impossible not to see and feel Gibbard’s adrenaline mounting as the band launched into “The New Year” in front of a virtually sold-out Climate Pledge Arena — a big stage, even by Death Cab standards — on Friday.
The track is one of the Seattle indie rock greats’ most explosive songs and the ready-to-blow crowd reciprocated as the blustery rocker came crashing in with those swelling guitars and Nick Harmer’s stabbing bass lines.
Conveniently, the fuse-lighting fan favorite is the opening track off Death Cab’s seminal “Transatlanticism,” which the band is playing in full on its current tour with another Gibbard-led band, The Postal Service. The co-headlining run marks the 20th anniversary of “Transatlanticism” and The Postal Service’s lone record “Give Up” — two era-defining indie rock albums, for Seattle and the genre more broadly.
For fans of a certain age, the album anniversary tour has become commonplace, both a crowd-winning serving of nostalgia and a savvy marketing move. The strong response to the Gibbardpalooza tour even surprised the man himself, who didn’t expect to play two nights at the hometown arena Death Cab helped christen in 2021. There isn’t a babysitter in Seattle with the weekend off, as another millennial-heavy crowd is expected to pack Climate Pledge for the second show on Saturday, exactly 20 years to the date since “Transatlanticism” was released on Seattle’s Barsuk Records.
But Friday night wasn’t just another stop on a ticket-selling anniversary run.
“Seattle, oh my God, we’re so [expletive] happy to see you guys,” Gibbard exclaimed before another fan favorite, “Title and Registration.”
Really, he didn’t need to say anything. His body language made it clearer than a translucent vinyl record. Gibbard, as pensive and eloquent a songwriter as his generation’s produced, isn’t necessarily thought of as a dive-headfirst-into-the-drum-set sort of rocker. But early on, the amped-up frontman furiously paced and stomped around the outsized stage like he could smash his guitar at any second, even during the delicate “Title and Registration.”
Unlike The Postal Service, Gibbard’s one-off collaboration with electronic producer Jimmy Tamborello that played a reunion run a decade ago, Death Cab has steadily toured and recorded over the past 25 years. With a number of songs off “Transatlanticism” — Death Cab’s commercial breakthrough that officially made the band indie-famous — ingrained in its set lists over the years, it was the deeper cuts, like acoustic closer “A Lack of Color” that made for the most memorable moments.
As the album’s title track, a set-list staple that’s one of the band’s more subtly dramatic numbers, segued seamlessly into the less common “Passenger Seat” (just as it does on the album), the crowd seemed to savor the moment. The audience, one of the most attentive and engaged that arena’s ever seen, was frequently pindrop-quiet when songs like the stripped-down piano ballad — performed by Gibbard and multi-instrumentalist Zac Rae — called for it.
Between Gibbard’s upshifting falsetto on the back half and the crowd’s perfect response, concisely howling with appreciation during Gibbard’s first few vocal pauses, it was as bone-chilling as a Seattle January.
As intimately as Seattle has come to know Death Cab and Gibbard — the Capitol Hill OG seen around town stumping for the Showbox or catching Treepeople at the Croc — over the years, it was almost a little strange (in a good way) to see their faces blown up on the arena’s big screens. No doubt a major reason the co-headlining run is drawing crowds so large is the opportunity to see The Postal Service for the first time since Gibbard, Tamborello and singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis reunited for a 10th anniversary run in 2013.
Released on Sub Pop eight months before “Transatlanticism,” “Give Up” became a certified indie smash — the second highest selling album in the homegrown label’s esteemed history, trailing only Nirvana’s “Bleach.” That’s some serious company, and appropriate considering that the two landmark albums helped ensure that Seattle and the Pacific Northwest would play a prominent role in the indie-rock boom of the 2000s, after the grunge era’s sunset.
“There started to bubble up this, I would like to think unpretentious, but very literate, emotive, earnest music that was coming from the Northwest,” Gibbard said in an interview before the shows, referencing bands like Modest Mouse and Portland’s The Shins and The Decemberists. He continued: “These weren’t, like, cool records. People weren’t writing about them as if they were cool, because I think that earnestness is often uncomfortable for some people.”
There’s a high degree of humility in those words, as the critical consensus on the well-aged indie classics (and those PNW bands collectively) has certainly been favorable over time. And when the just-enough stage and arena lights brightened to illuminate the packed-out upper levels during The Postal Service’s set, it was a clear testament to the staying power of two records Gibbard wrote in an attic apartment on Mercer Street 20-some years ago.
After a brief intermission, The Postal Service — dressed in all white and bolstered by Dave Depper and pop-ins from drummer Jason McGerr, both of Death Cab — took the stage with the humming synths that open one of the band’s more recognizable tunes, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.” As the clacking electronic beats swept in and Lewis’ airy backing vocals signaled the crew was ready for liftoff, the crowd erupted in response.
Even with all the glitchy, bleeping electro notes twirling about, there’s a stillness at the center of “The District” and so many Postal Service songs that make them feel like standing in the middle of an 8-bit snow globe.
While hardly uncommon today, The Postal Service’s melding of indie rock and electronic music was still a novel concept back in the early 2000s. What sets the band apart even to this day is the synergy between Tamborello’s warm tones and Gibbard’s poetic heart-on-sleeve lyricism, delivered with a gentle breeze. It’s a wonder how well-worn the songs felt, even back then, considering the long-distance collaboration between Gibbard and Tamborello that had the two snail-mailing each other demo CDs (hence the band name). That tender harmony was on full display with songs like “Sleeping In” and a slow-drifting “Recycled Air.”
As well-received as Death Cab’s brisk run through “Transatlanticism” was, prompting a standing ovation, the crowd was even giddier for the once-in-a-decade chance to see The Postal Service. The rarity of the performance and more danceable fare made the reunited act the de facto headliner of what’s technically a co-headlining tour, all told roughly a two-hour show, including the intermission.
For a special Seattle treat, The Postal Service was joined by local singer-songwriter Jen Wood to sing her buzzing and buoyant duet with Gibbard on “Nothing Better,” a gleeful rendition that put a whimsical spin on a love denied.
While Lewis, a prominent indie rock singer-songwriter in her own right, is a little underused in The Postal Service, she received a larger share of the spotlight during the encore, joining Gibbard for a second, acoustic-only pass through “Such Great Heights.” The penultimate duet — mimicking an indie-folk version fellow Sub Pop vets Iron & Wine recorded years ago — set up a walk-off cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence,” featuring the rest of the Death Cab crew.
Dedicating the endearingly lo-fi “Brand New Colony” to the hometown a few minutes earlier, Gibbard harked back to the songs’ attic-apartment origins, sounding a little astonished to be playing them on the Climate Pledge Arena stage two decades later. “I never in a million [expletive] years would have ever thought that you guys would have been here tonight. So Seattle, this song is for you.”
As successful as the anniversary run has been, perhaps we’ll see ’em in another 10.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.