The Youth in All of Us

10/11/05. First Ave. Youth Group opens, the sweet and silky smooth group of young men from Australia. They adore Death Cab for Cutie (DCFC) , Built To Spill, and even Bob Dylan. Who doesn't? The singer looked a bit like Napoleon Dynamite, the oh-so-cute (says Katie) drummer played blazingly well and loud, and the bassist looked very warm in a leather hoodie. They broke-in the crowd to their incredible live show, with equal parts being intense and calm. They kept their composure for the slow ones, then rocked out awkwardly and random to their unique brand of music. It was perfect, and a great start to the night.

Then the adorable and suddenly huge DCFC took stage. I've been a fan for over 2 years, jumping late on the indie bandwagon after hearing The Photo Album. However, I've now seen DCFC 3 times, each time in the fall at First Ave. I must say this was not the best show of theirs that I've seen. Maybe it was because the crowd responded slowly to some of their newer, glossier pop songs than the old faves. Maybe it was also because it was a 21 plus show; less people were dancing and singing passionately along to the songs compared to the all ages shows.

Either way, it was still an amazing performance, and they played a solid mix of the old goodies and new goodies. They extended most of their songs, and Ben and Chris switched from guitar to keyboard with every other song. Also, Chris wore a First Ave. sweatshirt; you definitely can't say anything bad about that! Plans is still a wonderful album. It sounds like it's on a major label with the slick production and more basic song-structures. Then again, they signed with Atlantic and still expressed their artistic freedoms, like keeping Chris as the producer. The sound is still distinctly DCFC, and very enjoyable.

Two encores made the audience happy. Especially when Ben came out with just his acoustic guitar and played the oh-so-catchy-and-quite-sad song, 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark.' It's smooth, and the lyrics match his way of singing perfectly. That's how the band works, and you couldn't ask for it (you could, but you wouldn't want to) any better.