Death Cab For Cutie are, according to Wikipedia*, an American indie rock band and the people I know who've heard of them either knew of one of their singles, "I Will Follow You Into The Dark", or have the Twilight soundtrack album.

I went to see them at Manchester Academy on Monday, and I although I was excited it wasn't as much as usually when I go to shows, mainly because I really like this band but don't know a lot of their songs, aside from the album Plans. I obviously would've enjoyed it a lot more, like with any concert, if I knew more of their music, and honestly for the first few songs I was disappointed by the fact that I wasn't recognising things (I know it was my fault).

Then, about four or five songs in, the band left the stage and Ben Gibbard picked up an acoustic guitar and Poppy and I just looked at each other and beamed, knowing he was going to play the song we knew the most.

He was strumming the intro chords over and over, and it struck me then how charistmatic he actually was. Whilst the rest of the band were talented and relevant and definitely a part of the show, from what I saw Death Cab For Cutie is so much more driven solely by its lead singer than some other bands. Not as much as IAMX, for example, but he did more than hold it together, he spoke and sang and honestly seemed like it was mostly just him thoroughly enjoying himeslf and interacting with the audience.

"I Will Follow You Into The Dark" was one of my favourite moments of anything, ever, I think. You could barely hear Gibbard's voice, because the whole audience were singing along, to every single word, and it's things like that that make me think I'm so much less alone in this place sometimes.

I felt so much more attentive after that. Somehow we were shoved very close to the front, and ended up in what I guess was the mosh-pit. My shoes are slightly torn, we jumped up and down a lot and sang along, all the time, because when everyone around you is belting out the chorus at the top of their lungs it's so much easier to learn the words.

They played "Summer Skin" and "Crooked Teeth" (one of my favourite moments!) and "Soul Meets Body" (possibly my favourite baseline EVER) and their new single which I vaguely knew, called "You Are A Tourist".

I don't know the name of the song, I'll google it in the next few days, but there was a really memorable moment where, with everyone around me, I was shouting the words to a song I was only just getting to know. And it went;

"WE ARE ALL THE SAME,
UNDERNEATH THE SYCAMORE!"

And there's something remarkable about yelling that with hundreds of people around you, when nobody can hear their own voice.

They played another song I didn't know and said it was a request, and a boy near me started screaming and smiling, and it was obvious that it was his request and his song. And nobody around seemed to recognise or like it as much as a lot of the others (you notice differences when you're so intensley close to the heart of the crowd) but watching him dancing and smiling so hard he looked worn out, with his friends, was sort of amazing. Poppy said that when that was happening, a woman stood behind us whispered "Freak." and that sort of ruined my memory of it.

I got a little teary-eyed at the end, and couldn't really form a sentence for a minute or so, then we were going to wait outside but had to go to the hospital.

I booked the tickets for that concert at a time there didn't seem to be a lot else going on locally. And as it got closer I thought I regretted it a bit, not because I don't really like the band but because people I'm a bigger fan of or more dedicated to started announcing tour dates. But I'm really really glad I went, I've developed much more of a love for Death Cab For Cutie, and for their audience, from the camp boy headbanging to the bearded guy beside me who between every song yelled "DEATH CAAAAAAAAB", and every single voice singing along with "I Will Follow You Into The Dark".

<3

*Hey this is cool, the picture at the top of their Wikipedia page at the moment is from my concert. :D