Death Cab for Cutie/Ben Kweller - 4/9/2004 - Lupos at the Strand, Providence, RI
Two things must be said:
- I'd barely heard of Ben Kweller before attending this concert. I didn't own album, just borrowed one from my roommate to do some prep work, All I knew was that the guy was a bit adorable. I was there for Death cab.
- The first and only (until this night) Death Cab show I'd seen was a three or more hour-long event at The Middle East. It was long, it was beautiful, it was perfect.
Now, given these two important facts, plus the fact that I was sick and in no condition to actually be attending a rock show, it is probably unsurprising that this wasn't the best show I've ever seen.
Everything was happening in halves. Half the crowd was there for Death Cab and didn't give a flip about Ben Kweller. The other half of the crowd was there for Kweller and felt invaded by the Emo. Half of the emo folk were there for the scene points alone and half of the non-emo people were Death Cab fans that in no way self identified as emo.
All in all, the crowd was having significant problems operating as a unit. There would be no united giddy mass, no communal bouncing. No sing along moment. I never really remember the crowd is important to the experience until moments like these.
Death Cab opened which confused many in the Death Cab half of the crowd and bored many in the Ben Kweller portion. They put on a relatively solid, but not particularly death defying show. The set was incredibly short-- felt particularly short to me after my ages long show at The Middle East-- and, while they did perform many of my favorites, it left me feeling like something was incomplete.
I believe that Death Cab and Kweller regularly traded off opening and closing the shows through out this tour, I could be incorrect. In either case, Kweller was the night's closer and that definitely was a bonus for him. Half of the crowd cleared out, more people trickled in, and the entire mass of people suddenly felt a lot more united in their interests. That, plus Kweller's incredibly loud and bouncy music, made for a very pleasant end to the evening.
Kweller's lyrics don't leave me woozy the way Death Cab's can, but it was a really energetic and entertaining live show. I had fun and that's the important part, even if, ultimately, I'd trade it all for another hour of Death Cab with a fully interested crowd.
