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Next show:

BAD FRIDAY!
Peluché,
Dead Coast,
Les Sueques,
Calva Louise,
Flights of Helios,
Videocean,
Dirty Blondes
+ SoundsXP DJs

The Windmill, Brixton
Good Friday, 14th April 2017
3pm till late

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Gig Review

Death Cab For Cutie/ Das Pop
London, Koko

Article written by Ged M - Jul 21, 2008

Death Cab For Cutie were formed ten years ago in Washington State in a town nicknamed “the city of subdued excitement”. Like bands from rainy climates, their music is introspective and melancholy, shot through with occasional shafts of bright sunshine. Their set is too long (80+ minutes) and there’s too much that is just indie by numbers (three minutes of chiming guitars, plaintive vocals and lovelorn lyrics could sum up 70% of the set). When it’s good it explains why they’re on a major label: Gribbard’s solo, emotive ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark’ provokes a mass singalong, ‘Crooked Teeth’ is a heavenly pop song, ‘Cath’ is riff-laden rock and ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ starts heavy like Black Sabbath and then hits a Krautrock groove. There are some great pop songs here but the general feeling is slightly dull, as you’d expect from a corporate sponsorship event in an unsympathetic venue as the awful Koko. And if you don’t believe me, you can pay to listen to the show on iTunes - but listen selectively!

“Well, they were distinctly average” said a colleague about Das Pop (or “Das Poop” as he mistakenly texted me) and he was being generous. The Belgian four piece play unmemorable guitar pop with only the sight of a bouncy, floppy-fringed singer/keyboardist called Bent Van Looy and guitarist Reinhard Vanbergen sporting wilderness beard and dungarees to take your mind off the banality of the music. Even though it was a free show it’s time-dear and I’ll never get back those wasted 30 minutes.

Links:
http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/home/
http://www.atlanticrecords.com/deathcabforcutie
http://www.myspace.com/deathcabforcutie