¡All-Time Quarterback!

Last Monday I saw Death Cab for Cutie live for the first time and despite being in the obnoxiously large Bank of America Pavilion it was one of the better shows I've been to in a while. Death Cab ran through the "hits" and to my surprise even a few songs that preceded 2003's landmark Transatlanticism (The playing of the LA-eviscerating "Why You'd Want to Live Here" was quite a surprise.) Watching Ben Gibbard alone on the piano in front of five thousand people playing the closer "Tranatlanticism" was a major testament to how far the band has come from being lo-fi gloom peddlers to arena filling headliners.

The origin of Death Cab stem from solo records Gibbard made under the moniker "¡All-Time Quarterback!" in 1999. Recording on a Casio tape recorder with a broken keyboard and an out of tune guitar, the sessions stack up against any of Gibbard's finer musical and lyrical moments. Like a low quality manifesto against suburban life and invisible scene politics, Gibbard uses wit and charm to detail the absurdity through the eyes of a world weary observer.