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December 9, 2005

My C@L Bona Fides, Music Edition

Now that I've seen Death Cab For Cutie, I just need to pick up some performance fleece

Lately, I've summed up my fondness for the city of C@L's highly evolved taste in music as follows: C@L is one of the few cities its size where most of the residents -- whether they're into rock music generally or indie label pop specifically -- know what a "Death Cab For Cutie" is. You don't need to listen to the exquisite local indie radio station (though it certainly doesn't hurt) to know that Death Cab For Cutie are a very popular local band that you sure wish would really hit the big time. Even the Ashlee Simpson fans, the Andrea Bocelli aficionados, and the folks who just don't really listen to much music all are pretty sure that they've heard of something called Death Cab For Cutie. That's the kind of town C@L is.

It isn't much of a secret that one of my favorite parts of living in C@L so far has been the music scene. Beyond the nifty local (listener-supported, I might add) radio station, KEXP, this is a town where there's a decent show pretty much every night of the week, and where you can expect to see said show (in most cases) without having bought your tickets two months in advance. Just this fact alone is enough to make me swoon a little bit (having spent six years in New York, where the sheer size of the population and the limits of the concert halls meant that most bands you'd want to see could definitely round up a couple hundred people to buy tickets ahead of time -- meaning that unless you acted early, you weren't getting in). The live shows really couldn't be any more convenient. And, to top it all off, they have an over-the-top rock museum and even a fantastic record store in my neighborhood, Easy Street Records, which is home to an extensive used CD collection.

And, of course, there are the C@L music fans. It's as though there's something in the lattes that gives one an intrinsic sense of the perfect noise-pop song. It's uncanny, and more than a little bit pleasant. It just makes sense that these are the people who had the good judgment to hand the world Kurt Cobain and Sub Pop records. They have outstanding taste in pop music. Sure, the scope of C@L's taste might a tad bit limited, but hey, it isn't that big a city (and isn't so culturally diverse...not a ton of different influences coming together in this town).

There's also something completely charming about the way the locals actively root for the homegrown music acts. The best analogy I have on this is that C@L roots for their bands in the same way the cities back East root for their sports teams -- they're very tied up the bands' successes, and feel a considerable amount of pride when one of their own hits it big. If we go with the analogy, the prevalence of references to Kurt Cobain around town and the lingering presence of Pearl Jam are the equivalent of your team winning back-to-back championships in the early 90s. People speak fondly of those times, when the C@L bands "changed rock music forever" -- the same way a Celtics fan would talk about Larry Bird or 49ers fan the Bill Walsh era.

With all that in tow, you can see why I approached my trip to see Death Cab For Cutie last night as something of milestone in my time in C@L. Here I was embracing one of the two local acts that appear destined for celebrity (Modest Mouse being the other) -- this was the equivalent of attending baseball games in April when you could sense a championship year in the making. I wanted to be a part of something big, to join my fellow C@Lites as they basked in the reflected glory of their hometown favorites. Seeing Death Cab in C@L was legit; I'd be earning my bona fides. I almost wanted someone to punch my little card from the coffee shop; a few trips to the REI, some hikes and maybe a switch to a car running on biodiesel and I might have enough credits to be mayor!

With that kind of buildup, you can imagine my disappointment when I got to the show and, well, it didn't rock. I mean, I like Death Cab For Cutie. I have a bunch of their albums. I even have a bunch of the Postal Service (the Death Cab guy's side project) as well. I'm bought in, and I think they're great. But the show didn't rock. And it turns out that I like shows that rock. (Mostly, that means that I like shows that are loud and enthusiastic.) For listening at home, I can do mellow. But if I'm out, I want some noise -- I want to feel the music in my marrow and not be able to hear for an hour after the show. And that's not the kind of show this was. It was skillful, it was well-done, sure, but it needed about 30 percent more rocking.

I turned and said as much to a friend at the show. Something to the effect of, "This is a little mellow." High comedy and sports metaphors ensued:

"No no, man, this is just what they do."

"Oh no, I mean I get it. And I like it. It sounds really nice. I bought their record. It just isn't very...what's the word I'm looking for...tough."

[Pause.]

"So what you're saying is that you can run on these guys."

"Exactly. They're a little soft up the middle."

"Right."

All that said, it was fun night out, the music was quality (if not quite loud enough), and it all went to support a good cause (except the effing service charge on the tickets -- BOOOOO). And, of course, I can check off one more item on my list: I am a proud C@L resident and I have seen Death Cab For Cutie.

Posted by thatkid at December 9, 2005 9:12 PM under C@L , ThatKid

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Posted by: C@L guy at December 12, 2005 11:36 AM

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