Review: Death Cab For Cutie, The Postal Service and Slow Pulp make memories in Pittsburgh

Sarah Wilson
·2 min read

PITTSBURGH ― When you have two indie powerhouse bands playing anniversary shows for two of the most lauded albums of the 2000s who do you get to open?

Slow Pulp. The band has earned high praise for its 2023 album “Yard” and evolving indie sound that is a little grit and a little folk, blending into a not-quite shoegaze sound.

Slow Pulp at Petersen Events Center.
Slow Pulp at Petersen Events Center.

Next up was Death Cab for Cutie with a track-by-track of the whole “Transatlanticism” album. It was brilliant. Ben Gibbard’s voice sounded fantastic from the first note of “The New Year” all the way through. There was a focus and polish that one expects from DCFC but it didn’t break the connection to the crowd in the least. And a nice name check to Pittsburgh’s own Roboto Project went over great with the crowd. He also dedicated “We Looked Like Giants” to Slow Pulp.

Death Cab for Cutie at Petersen Events Center.
Death Cab for Cutie at Petersen Events Center.
Death Cab for Cutie at Petersen Events Center.
Death Cab for Cutie at Petersen Events Center.

Hearing the album as a whole, in that setting with the band’s enthusiasm palatable was fantastic. They finished up with “A Lack of Color” and Gibbard announced a ‘15-minute break’ and they’d be back.

Postal Service delighted fans at the Petersen Events Center.
Postal Service delighted fans at the Petersen Events Center.

Then Gibbard retook the stage with his other popular indie band, The Postal Service. All band members were dressed in white, including Jenny Lewis, to great cheers from the audience. Her voice added a perfect complement to Gibbard’s. As with DCFC the set was the whole of an album, “Give Up,” run straight through. It was a treat to hear. The band was perfectly framed with lighting that fit their sound well. The whole set was brilliant.

Postal Service delighted fans at the Petersen Events Center.
Postal Service delighted fans at the Petersen Events Center.

The encore featured an unplugged guitar version of ‘Such Great Heights’ with just Lewis and Gibbard. Slowed and acoustic, it was an interesting choice that worked. Just like the second encore song, when the band returned to pull off a legendary Depeche Mode track, “Enjoy the Silence.” The song fit, somehow, perfectly with the night.

Postal Service delighted fans at the Petersen Events Center.
Postal Service delighted fans at the Petersen Events Center.

Overall, a fantastic night of music full of nostalgic sounds that still feel as fresh and relevant as they did back in 2003.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Death Cab For Cutie, The Postal Service make memories in Pittsburgh