Ben Gibbard Post-Show Review
The September 10 Craft Artist Series interview at Denver’s Fillmore was another event striking in its intimacy. A legendary room with a 3500 capacity--which Death Cab For Cutie (DCFC) recently sold out two nights running--was turned into a nightclub with table seating for 350 people. A lucky audience was treated to almost two hours of conversation with and performance by DCFC’s frontman, Ben Gibbard. In this setting Gibbard laid bare his inspirations and creative practices, showing himself to be a performer of remarkable candor, humility, and humor. Played in this bare bones format, songs such as DCFC’s “405” and the Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” came across as beautiful songs with very sturdy construction and deliberate lyric structure.
While DCFC might seem a band that has emerged relatively recently, their career is entering its second decade. Gibbard’s frank discussion of the band’s methodical build from a regional indie act to an international success story helped the audience to understand how this measured growth has allowed the band a remarkable degree of control over their own work. With their last full-length, Plans, approaching platinum status it is abundantly clear that DCFC has solidified their place in the mainstream—without losing contact with their original aims and intentions. At the heart of their success is Gibbard’s songwriting. “Title and Registration,” which he performed during his Craft interview, demonstrates Gibbard’s unique capacity to portray the collision of the mundane and the epic in everyday life.
