I am sure we have all read the old fable Rip Van Winkle, whose protagonist Rip falls asleep in a field, to later wake up and discover that he has time traveled to a different place and a different time. I’m sure some fans of Death Cab lately have arrived at similar sensations lately, seeing the once regionally tied Northwestern band suddenly doing interviews in the USA Today and their new album Narrow Stairs debuting at number 1 on the billboard top 100 list.
To be fair, it wasn’t really the band’s fault to start with. The venue that Death Cab played at in Chicago is generally not an Indie band scene. Jay Spritzer Pavilion is an acoustically and aesthetically grand open air stage set in Millennium Park, right across the way from one of top tourist spots in Chicago, the Bean. The Pavilion allows for guest to come and spread out their blankets on the grassy promenade, whip out the Chardonnay and Whole Food’s Hummus or what not, and gaily listen to the sounds of whoever is playing on stage that night. With tickets priced at 10 dollars for the lawn seats, Chicago’s finest suburbians and local hipsters snatched up the tickets quicker then you can say “I-Pass” and told their friends and coworkers for weeks about how cool it was that the band they were going to see all of sudden had their songs on the radio and fancied themselves cultural for going to the park after work instead of home to watch “Dancing with the Stars”
Before I become hypocritical, everyone becomes a fan at some point. I began to like Death Cab after hearing “Photobooth” on one my brother’s mixes. In any occasion in life, there are very few people there in the beginning; probably less then 100 people saw Michael Jordan catch his first alley-oop pass, few probably read Robert Frost’s first poem, and no one remembers that Francis Ford Copolla thought Robert DeNiro was too ugly to be in the first Godfather. The point of this though isn’t to be the guy yelling “I was there! I saw them in ’93! I knew they were cool before you did!” (Interruption: Listen to LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge” for more on this sensation) No, the point is to look at its unattended effects, especially on our culture. People for the most part are bored, unhappy, and dissatisfied with their lives. Numerous studies show it, it’s even been a focal point of Barack Obama’s recent championing of the “Change” campaign in his election bid. Where does this come from? Crappy Jobs? People have had crappy jobs forever. I don’t think one of the dudes laying bricks for one of the Pyramids who died before it was ever finished probably thought his job was too sweet. There are obviously numerous explanations and theories, but I think at heart, people are not embracing things they truly enjoy. One of them is music. With record companies and radio shoving Nickelback down our throats, people lack choices. So the mainstream latches on to what is available to them.
This was on display at the concert on Tuesday night. With a vibe more reminiscent of a Cubs game, chattering, people watching, and gazing at the skyline all took precedence over the music. Odd sights were seen, such as two 50 year olds exuberantly dancing with each other to the song “Tiny Vessels”, a song about using a girl for her looks. It was also the first time a person with a baby perched on their shoulders blocked my view of the stage. Overall, there was a sense of confusion from the concertgoer , a sense of “What’s the big deal about this band?” and “Why isn’t he playing any of those Postal Service songs?” It was almost like watching someone play golf for the first time, duffing the ball all day, and wondering how this could be a fun game. This left the people who were true fans of the band and their music feeling like outsiders, a unique situation at a concert.
Which is all in all unfortunate for Death Cab, they deserve better then to continue to be hit with this onslaught of phony popularity they have been riding since their appearance on the O.C. Admittedly, their moving past their peak as a band judging by their old albums, but their new album Narrow Stairs, is a fine album. Tracks such as “Cath…” and “Grapevine Fires” are as good as any songs they have produced in their career. Hopefully they felt the vibe on stage themselves and will go back to playing in smaller venues and embrace the fans who helped them become the band they are today.
