Ben Gibbard with Matthew Caws - Bowery Ballroom (New York) - Tuesday, January 10, 2006

This show was a rare opportunity to see BEN GIBBARD of DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE play solo in an intimate venue, much smaller than the larger halls and theaters his band normally plays. So I was really looking forward to it. As he explained later, Gibbard was here in New York for Death Cab for Cutie to play Saturday Night Live the following Saturday. He decided to play an impromptu, one-off solo show, and called up his friends MATTHEW CAWS (from NADA SURF) and ANDREW KENNY (from THE AMERICAN ANALOG SET) to play solo sets opening for him.

I got there a bit late, so I missed Kenny’s performance. A few minutes after I got there, Caws went on. Though I wasn’t sure how his songs would come off solo (having heard no Nada Surf songs aside from their 1996 alternative radio and MTV hit “Popular”), I was quite impressed. He played just an acoustic guitar, mostly while sitting down. Though I’m sure the songs sound very different with a full band, solo they had a melodic sensibility not far from those of SQUEEZE’s GLENN TILBROOK and other late ‘70s/early ‘80s power-pop and new wave luminaries. His performance was strong enough that I’m really looking forward to checking out Nada Surf’s most recent two albums.

After a relatively short intermission, Ben Gibbard came on, only a few minutes after the scheduled on-stage time of 10:30 pm. Playing with just a “s*** acoustic guitar” (his words, not mine), he opened with THE POSTAL SERVICE’s “Brand New Colony.” In the next hour he played a combination of old and new Death Cab for Cutie songs, Postal Service numbers, and randomly chosen covers, such as ALAN HULL’s “I Hate to See You Cry,” THE MONKEES’ “Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow” (a song written by NEIL DIAMOND, whom Ben called “the man” when he introduced the song; I can’t say I agree, but the song was great) and THE LONG WINTERS’ “It’ll Be a Breeze.” The crowd was a mix of label people and hardcore fans, like the woman standing next to me, who sang along to every song, cherishing the occasion to see one of her heroes in the smallest New York club that he’s played at in years.

Aside from the unexpected covers and a chance to hear Postal Service songs on an acoustic guitar, free from their electronic backing, one of the highlights was an incredible version of Transatlanticism’s “Title and Registration,” along with similarly affecting versions of that album’s “A Lack of Color” and “The Sound of Settling.” Their excellent new album Plans was a bit underrepresented in the set, with Gibbard explaining that many of those songs would require a piano. Since he only had a guitar at his disposal, he played just “Crooked Teeth” and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” from that album. Regardless, like the older material that was played (including “405”, “Photobooth” and “Why’d You Want to Live Here”), those songs were excellent, as was the closer, a version of SPIRITUALIZED’s “Hold On” that was an appropriate ending to a night of jovial, good-spirited fun.