Everyone remembers where they were the first time they heard “I Will Follow You into the Dark.” For me it was in 2010, as a freshman in high school, while an upperclassman strummed her guitar and sang out of tune at a talent show in the auditorium. The song, off of 2005’s Plans, is Death Cab For Cutie’s most played track on Spotify nearly two decades after its release, and likely still today is the gateway into the band’s impressive discography for teenagers everywhere.
Now celebrating their most recent release – this year’s Asphalt Meadows – Death Cab is in the midst of a hefty North American tour, and last Friday night, they made Forest Hills Stadium in Queens their home.
The atmosphere was about as perfect as it could get for the band – an outdoor venue on a cool late September night, bridging the gap between summer and fall, with the sun still on its way out when the band took the stage. Their sound filled the packed stadium, playing to an appropriate mixture of fans who were either jumping around on the floor or relaxed in their seats on the bleachers.
During their set, frontman Ben Gibbard mentioned that the band’s first ever show in New York was in 1999 at Mercury Lounge – a 250 cap venue. When it came time in the set for “I Will Follow You into the Dark” – played acoustically – the singer circled back to that Mercury Lounge show, noting that “there were maybe 20 people there.” I’ve been to my fair share of shows that feature acoustic songs thrown into the mix, and pretty much without fail, you can hear an abundance of chatter and people talking over the performers. But at the 13,000 capacity stadium, you could have heard a pin drop during breaks in the song, with everyone’s attention focused solely on Gibbard, until he asked the crowd to sing the last chorus for him (followed, of course, by an additional chorus, so as to not leave the audience feeling cheated).
Death Cab is a band that has existed for nearly as long as I’ve been alive, and soundtracked so many late night drives and precious memories with friends through so many phases of my life. Finally getting to see them live for the first time, and sing along to their songs for real, was a joy.
Check out some photos from the show below!
