Live Review: Death Cab For Cutie, Say Hi

It was rather difficult to actually seek out who had the role of main support for the evening's event.

While this scribe discovered that it was the one-man project known as Say Hi (Eric Elbogen is his real name), many of the growing audience were left baffled. This perplexing joint emotion is actually a pretty perfect way to describe Say Hi; baffling but in an oddly brilliant way. How to describe Say Hi? Well, as previously mentioned it is one man armed with a laptop and what would seem to be a small synth of sorts. His persona is akin to a high-school geography teacher who also acts as a guidance counsellor at the school Napoleon Dynamite attends and his music could have been the soundtrack to that remarkable movie. He was comically awkward, peculiar in his hilariously cringeworthy dance moves and all in all ridiculously riveting. Musically landing somewhere between Flight Of The Concords, Gary Numan and a humorous The Postal Service re-imagination, Say Hi politely worked the audience into loving the following songs, which all proved very charming highlights: November Was White, December Was Grey; Devils; Take Ya' Dancin'; Blah Blah Blah; Such A Drag; Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh; Critters and Let's Talk About Spaceships. It may have been confusing to begin with, but it was all-consuming by the conclusion. Sometimes the best things come in small (and very bizarre) packages.

Sometimes just from the audience members alone one can tell who the headline act is or, to a degree, at least what genre they subscribe to. With an abundance of cardigans, flannelette, sweaters and thick-framed glasses in the now-near capacity HQ complex (given a new fashion theme of "geek-chic"), it must have been time for Seattle's emotional indie rock darlings Death Cab For Cutie. However this was not to be a delicate and intimate affair of emotional release, not this time around. Mister Ben Gibbard and his merry men wanted a rock show and that is what they brought to Australia.

As they launched into what could only be described as an ongoing onslaught of Death Cab For Cutie favourites, it was very easy to become immersed, amazed and even (at times) deafened by this performance. Incredibly, Gibbard still maintains an endurance and an active presence when in a live-setting like an excited child at a playground, wanting to try all the equipment (instruments in this case), and simply have fun in doing so. He is truly a born performer as he does not ever seem to shy away from any situation with music. Fans' dearest tracks included: No Room In Frame, Crooked Teeth (interchanging guitars and keyboards for different soundscapes), Photobooth, Black Sun, The New Year, The Ghost Of Beverly Drive (which emulated the amazing Mutemath in a live-setting), a mellow take on Grapevine Fires, Little Wanderer, No Sunlight, a church organ feel was brought to President Of What?, an acoustic rendition of You've Haunted Me All My Life then What Sarah Said and I Will Follow You Into The Dark. A post-rock atmosphere was utilised for I Will Possess Your Heart with Gibbard moving from guitar to piano and back again. This brought about a math-rock presentation of El Dorado, You Are A Tourist, Cath, Soul Meets Body and Marching Bands Of Manhattan.

The performance concluded with an encore of Passenger Seat (which had shades of Jeff Buckley), Your Heart Is An Empty Room and a questionable choice in A Movie Script Ending. Finally, to close, Transatlanticism actually sounded like an orchestra had joined the band on stage. It was an epic journey, but with eight studio albums in Death Cab's arsenal, this came as no surprise. As Gibbard joked during one of the few breaks in between songs: "Every day is a gift, that is why it is called 'The Present'."