November 4 2006: Death Cab for Cutie – Providence Performing Arts Center, Providence RI

I had just kind of assumed I’d never see Death Cab play again, for solely economic and nerve issues. Meaning that I couldn’t justify spending $30/$35/$40 to stand next to people who get on my nerves. But Whitney and I found ourselves offered free tickets in exchange for our services in registering voters before the show, and I’d never been to Providence and didn’t have anything better to do on a Saturday night, so why not.

And Providence was beautiful. I liked it a lot. And the theatre was probably the nicest (indoor) place I’ve ever seen music at, hands down. It was in the Schnitzer/Paramount vein (for those readers familiar with the theatres of Portland and Seattle), and just fucking gorgeous. And it held over three thousand people, all there to scream their little hearts out at what is an increasingly shaggy-haired band, and apparently growing exponentially more hair every year.

So yeah. Lots of girls in high school. How do I know this for sure? Because sitting there at our table in the foyer before the show I would ask people if they were planning on voting and more often than not the response was, “Um, we’re not old enough to vote. Giggle giggle.”

But the band played great, and it was lots of fun. They opened with “405,” a tune I haven’t heard live since 2002, and which continues to be inarguably be my favorite song of theirs to see. And though I’d have appreciated it more if it had just been Ben and Chris by themselves instead of the full band playing, I was just pleased to see it again. And it was fun to see “I was a Kaleidoscope” and “Company Calls” and “Photobooth,” as it always is. And it was fun to hear them play songs about Bellingham while 3000 miles away from there. But I think it was the first time I’ve seen them play nothing from “Something About Airplanes," which is kind of sad in a way.

But yeah. Fun times, and perfectly justifiable times due to the fact that we didn’t pay a dime and got 10th row seats. And I got to marvel at this big theatre and all these screaming kids and how Death Cab now employs a guy to shoot glow sticks into the audience. And I got to watch in fascination as this guy near me tried to throw a glow stick at Walla only to get his ass thrown out by a couple of burly security guys. I suppose you can't be sure your band’s hit the big time until you’ve got burly security guys throwing people out of the theatre for tossing things at the stage, an activity I seem to recall as having happened with some regularity at Death Cab shows in days gone by…