Gig Review - Death Cab For Cutie @ Nottingham Rock City, 5/7/11

Photo by Dom Henry

After three years, Seattle indie-rock quartet Death Cab For Cutie returned to Rock City on the back of their surprisingly brilliant latest album Codes And Keys. With a career-spanning setlist, Death Cab delivered a 2-hour hits-packed show sure to have left casual fans and die-hards equally satisfied.

The band played a significant amount of the new material which slotted in well alongside the well-established classics. Recent single ‘You Are A Tourist’, with its squealing guitar riff, made a strong impression, as did the soaring title track and the gorgeous ‘Stay Young, Go Dancing’.

Yet, predictably, it was the older tunes which gained the best reaction from the initially-subdued crowd. ‘The New Year’, from breakthrough album Transatlanticism, made a powerful live presence, as did ‘Expo ’86’. Whilst ‘The Sound Of Settling’, Death Cab’s biggest commercial hit, got the most hands in the air, it was the beautiful acoustic ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’ which created the biggest singalong, the crowd belting out the poignant lyrics word-for-word.



‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ was another obvious highlight in a gig full of them, building up over the course of an epic eight minutes, anchored by its brilliant grooving bassline, as well as the fantastically melodic ‘Cath…’. Best of all, however, was ‘Transatlanticism’ itself, a stunning, hugely emotional climax that left nary a dry eye in the house. Death Cab For Cutie proved once again on Tuesday that, despite their moniker, they’re still a band with a big, beating, life-affirming heart.

• [mp3] Death Cab For Cutie - Codes And Keys
• [mp3] Death Cab For Cutie - Portable Television

Originally publish in the Nottingham Post.

Codes And Keys is out now, and is really rather brilliant - get it from Amazon here.