Concert Review: Death Cab proves that raw alternative rock perseveres

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Death Cab for Cutie, including vocalist Ben Gibbard (center), performs at the Mud Island Amphitheater Wednesday evening.

It would be easy to dismiss last month's retirement of alternative rock stalwarts R.E.M. as the simple result of fatigue. The band, which virtually invented what became known variably as indie or college rock, had been at it an astounding 31 years, after all.

But is it also possible that Michael Stipe and company had sensed a wind change? To be sure, the genre R.E.M. pioneered is alive and well, but the raw, stripped-down, almost garage aesthetic they had championed for so long has given way to the lush, hyper-produced soundscapes of groups like Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, and Bon Iver. So crowded is the scene with layered vocals, keyboard tweets, and faux symphonies, one wonders if there is even room right now for direct, honest songcraft in alt rock?

Seattle band Death Cab For Cutie has obviously thought about this as well. And the conclusion, delivered before a crowd of about 2,500 Wednesday night at Memphis' Mud Island Amphitheater, was a qualified, 'Yes.'

Photo by Nikki Boertman

Death Cab for Cutie vocalist Ben Gibbard (right) performs at the Mud Island Ampitheater.

For most of their 14-year career, Death Cab For Cutie has trafficked in hyper-literate, emo-tinged, guitar-driven pop rock of the sort their Athens, Ga., forefathers would have been proud. But on their just-released seventh studio album, Codes and Keys, the group turned down the guitars and pulled out the keyboards for an album awash in dance beats and studio tones and moods.

Old ways die hard, however. And the experimentation of the studio, in a live setting, gave way to a primal need to rock it out Wednesday night.

Unlike a lot of touring bands with a new record to sell, Death Cab For Cutie refreshingly did not shove their new material down their fans' collective throat. Only a handful of songs -- generally the most accessible -- from Codes and Keys made the 90-minute set, including the insanely catchy title anthem, which found frontman Ben Gibbard taking to a piano elevated at center stage where the drums ordinarily would be placed. (Consequently, drummer Jason McGeer found himself thrust stage right, a move that had the effect of removing him, physically and musically, from band mates Chris Walla and Nick Harmer.)

In most cases, as on "Doors Unlocked and Open" or the Cure-like "You Are A Tourist," the trance-y vibe of Codes and Keys became a more fleshed-out, energetic rock groove in concert, an adaptation that helped the new songs better blend in with the older material that dominated the night.

Though known for depressing dirges, Death Cab For Cutie seemed in a crowd-pleasing mood, overstuffing the set list with favorites like the opening one-two punch of the slow-building epic "I Will Posses Your Heart" from 2008's Narrow Stairs and the power-pop masterpiece "Crooked Teeth" from 2005's Plans.

Opening the show was alternative rock band Telekinesis, which delivered a vigorous, at times almost punk set of tightly-constructed pop, including the freak-folky "Foreign Room, " which the band dedicated to Apple Computer head Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday.

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