Wednesday 28/06/06 Death Cab For Cutie @ Brixton Academy, London

If justice decided to prevail itself within the last few years then tonight’s Death Cab For Cutie headline show at Brixton Academy would be followed by four more sell outs. After all, label mates Hard-Fi did so after one album. But due to a major lack of ‘people just not getting it’, this is the only date in which the Seattle quartet takes centre stage in one of London’s most prestigious venues. Truthfully, if their signature wasn’t penned down to a major and America’s hottest teen-soap hadn’t name-dropped them to its millions of viewers in the last few years, then tonight may not have even been.

The sweet keys of ‘Passenger Seat’ and stomping guitars of ‘The New Year’ kick off the set and are more than enough to stand the hairs up of their adoring crowd. The calming, gentle voice of Ben Gibbard works flawlessly together with the high energy of his fellow band members, emphasized through early tracks ‘Company Calls’ and ‘405’, as well as latest single ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’ in which the singer was lit solely to the left of the stage with an acoustic guitar in his hands. An enchanting moment.

It wouldn’t have been a Death Cab show without bassist Nick Harmer’s Flea-like dancing in the middle of the stage virtually throughout the entire set. That and the percussion-dominated instrumental featuring both drummer Jason McGerr and front man Ben sporting their own kits which even Mogwai would be proud of, made for one classic performance. The set was finished off with a three-song encore, including hook-crazy pop-gems ‘A Movie Script Ending’ and ‘The Sound of Settling’. Despite a future of forthcoming album releases, anthemic singles that not enough people will hear and a spin-off project titled The Postal Service, at least the ones inside Brixton tonight get exactly what it is this band does and will intend to do.