{"id":13328,"date":"2026-10-09T13:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T12:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=13328"},"modified":"2026-10-09T13:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T12:39:39","slug":"death-cab-for-cutie-victoria-warehouse-reviewed-by-peter-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=13328","title":{"rendered":"Death Cab for Cutie @ Victoria Warehouse, reviewed by Peter Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Still cute, but maybe stuck in time?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Screenshot-2026-10-09-at-13.36.52.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"672\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Death Cab for Cutie @ Victoria Warehouse | 19<sup>th<\/sup> September 2026<br \/>Reviewed by Peter Wild<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My Death Cab journey starts a little over 20 years ago \u2013 at some point between their 2003 album <em>Transatlanticism<\/em> and their 2005 major label debut, <em>Plans<\/em>. My love affair with REM had been waning ever since <em>Monster <\/em>and I was looking for a new replacement favourite band. To my mind, it felt like <em>Transatlanticism <\/em>was their <em>Document<\/em>, and <em>Plans<\/em> their <em>Green<\/em>. Whatever followed would be stratospheric, surely. <em>Narrow Stairs<\/em> was the follow-up in 2008 \u2013 I caught them at the Manchester Apollo on that tour \u2013 and, whilst it wasn\u2019t their <em>Out of Time<\/em>, it did well for them, getting nominated for Grammies and selling hundreds of thousands of copies. It didn\u2019t set my world on fire like <em>Plans<\/em> did, but I would have still described myself as a fan. And yet here we are, some 18 years later and Death Cab seemingly fell out of my world.<\/p>\n<p>This is the context for the Victoria Warehouse gig. What went wrong? Why did I stop listening? I think I gave 2011\u2019s <em>Codes and Keys<\/em> a cursory listen but <em>Kinsugi <\/em>(2015), <em>Thank You For Today <\/em>(2018) and <em>Asphalt Meadows<\/em> (2022) all passed me by. I think it might be the music though. Death Cab for Cutie are the proverbial elephant surrounded by blind men \u2013 depending on where you grab them, you might say they were emo, electronica (or indietronica as they are sometimes referred to), college rock or just flat-out guitar pop. It\u2019s admirable for a band to try and change things up each time they record \u2013 but Death Cab came to strike me as a band chasing legitimacy, exploring different influences without necessarily doing anything interesting with the convergence. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is borne out as they take to the stage at the Warehouse like conquering heroes, in good shape for their collective ages, rattling out the hits and the deep cuts with the kind of urgency that might leave you feeling like the band had something to prove. They open with \u2018Riptides\u2019, the lead single from their most recent album, <em>I Built You a Tower<\/em>: \u201cI\u2019m too tired to talk,\u201d Gibbard sings, \u201cand I can\u2019t seem to hold it together.\u201d Thankfully bassist Nick Harmer helps power things along with a Hooky-esque bassline (Gibbard has credited New Order as a major influence). This is followed by \u2018Roman Candles\u2019 (the lead single from previous album <em>Asphalt Meadows<\/em>) \u2013 which sounds like <em>Violator<\/em>-period Depeche Mode (Gibbard has credited Depeche Mode as a major influence) in that it\u2019s abrasive and dissonant, at least when set against Gibbard\u2019s resolutely pop voice.<\/p>\n<p>Next up we get \u2018The New Year\u2019 (from <em>Transatlanticism<\/em>) \u2013 the first bona fide DCFC classic and you can tell from the roars it elicits from the crowd. What\u2019s more, it\u2019s a song that sounds like no one other than DCFC. The lyrical refrain \u2013 \u201cThis is the new year \/ I don\u2019t feel any different\u201d \u2013 might well be a common Gibbard trope but it still lands. \u201cI wish the world was flat like the old days \/ Then I could travel just by folding the map,\u201d remains a great line.<\/p>\n<p>The band revert to the new album (\u2018Punching the Flowers\u2019 \u2013 more <em>Violator<\/em>-period Depeche Mode) and tracks from <em>Kinsugi<\/em> (\u2018The Ghosts of Beverly Drive\u2019 and \u2018Black Sun\u2019 which are kissing cousins of songs by The Cure(yes, Gibbard has cited them as a huge influence). \u201cThere was little feeling,\u201d Gibbard sings on \u2018The Ghosts of Beverly Drive\u2019,\u201cplease work with what is left.\u201d It\u2019s all fine, of course: consummately professional, delivered with aplomb&gt;. But you can\u2019t shake the feeling that for all the urgency, for all of the jumping up and down, for all of the energy exerted, the band have missed their window and can\u2019t quite work out which way is up and what sound they want to call their own.<\/p>\n<p>The proof of this comes in the form of \u2018I Will Follow You Into the Dark\u2019 (and to a lesser extent \u2018Summer Skin\u2019 and \u2018Crooked Teeth\u2019) \u2013 DCFC\u2019s biggest hit by some way \u2013 when the crowd comes together in a form of collective rapture. For all of their sales, for all of their critical plaudits, for all of their songs used to grace American films and TV shows, the band stalled here back in 2006. Which isn\u2019t to say that they don\u2019t have songs that are fine (\u2018Trap Door\u2019 and \u2018Stone Over Water\u2019 on the new album are worth a listen \u2013 even though, yes, they sound a bit like New Order) and more to say that the urgency with which they propel themselves through the set is largely as a result of their patchwork sound and the way in which their back catalogue is comprised of uncomfortable bedfellows.<\/p>\n<p>They have tunes undoubtedly, songs that people feel passionately connected to (see \u2018Soul Meets Body\u2019, see \u2013 unfathomably \u2013 \u2018I Will Possess Your Heart\u2019), but they remain perennially second tier, a band that would like to be taken as seriously as, say, The National, but lacking their gravitas (either vocally or lyrically). Their last but one song at the Warehouse is \u2018The Sound of Settling\u2019 \u2013 and that might be the last word on the experience of seeing them.<\/p>\n<p><em>Reviewed by Peter Wild<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Still cute, but maybe stuck in time? Death Cab for Cutie @ Victoria Warehouse | 19th September 2026Reviewed by Peter Wild My Death Cab journey starts a little over 20 years ago \u2013 at some point between their 2003 album Transatlanticism and their 2005 major label debut, Plans. My love affair with REM had been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":422,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Death Cab for Cutie @ Victoria Warehouse, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=13328\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Death Cab for Cutie @ Victoria Warehouse, reviewed by Peter Wild - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Still cute, but maybe stuck in time? 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