On June 10th, Alex and I went to McCarren Park Pool to see Death Cab for Cutie perform. It was over 95°F and I had laryngitis… but there was no way I was going to miss Death Cab.

We got to the venue at 6 PM, one hour before the show was to start. We met up with Alex’s cousin, Gabrielle, and her friend, Britney. They found a spot right at the base of the stage. Alex and I didn’t think we wanted to be so close so we wandered away from them and went to get beer. We ended up putting down $18 for 3 cups of (supposedly) Brooklyn-brewed beer. Ridiculous. At least they allowed water bottles in, provided they were still sealed. (My guess is that they didn’t want anyone sneaking booze into the place.)

Finally, the opening act (Rogue Wave) took the stage. They seemed to have decent music but I couldn’t understand the lyrics! The singer kept his lips way too close to the microphone. They were also kinda mellow, making it difficult for the audience to really get into the music. The drummer was wearing really short track shorts, which were the highlight of their act. (”Who wears short shorts!” screamed Britney.)

Finally, Death Cab for Cutie came on. The crowd went insane; much clapping, screaming, and yelling ensued. Everyone took out their cameras and started snapping photos. When the music started, though, everyone kinda mellowed out. They opened with a song off their newest album, Narrow Stairs, entitled “Bixby Canyon Bridge.” Mid-song, the backdrop came unfurled to reveal the cover art for Narrow Stairs, causing the fans to roar wildly with excitement. It was followed by “The New Year” (off Transatlanticism), which is probably one of my favorites. You can bet I was lip synching right along with Ben Gibbard. (Who, by the way, was directly in front of us and no more than 10 feet away, on a stage that was approximately 6 ft. off the ground.)

During “Grapevine Fires” (again off Narrow Stairs), Ben’s guitar stopped working. He took it off and waited for his new guitar. Meanwhile, the song went on with just one guitar (manned by Chris Walla) while Ben provided the vocals. Towards the end, a new guitar was finally brought out and Ben finished off the song.

By this time, Ben was also sweating profusely. It was just rolling off of him as if he’d just stepped out of the shower or walked in the rain. (Hmm… Foreshadowing?) Have I mentioned that it was almost 100°F that night? New York was in the middle of a heatwave when Death Cab came to town.

After a heart-wrenching rendition of “I Will Follow You into the Dark” (off Plans), wherein Ben sat alone in the foreground with an acoustic guitar in his arms and a microphone in front of him, the band played “I Will Possess Your Heart” (off Narrow Stairs). With the amount of sweat rolling off of him, I am surprised Ben was able to stand, let alone perform another solo (this time on the keyboard). Then, during “Cath…” (again off Narrow Stairs), Ben’s guitar broke. Fed up, he hurled it across the stage and grabbed the mic, bellowing the lyrics into the transducer. He unwound the cord from the mic stand and attempted to walk across the stage. However, the microphone cord was too short and he ended up accidentally unplugging it. As stage technicians scurried onto the platform, Ben simply started singing the song without any instruments or amplification devices. It was actually kinda beautiful.

It was at this point that Ben approached the edge of stage and reached out to the audience. The fans just swarmed to him. I was jostled in the process, as a 16-year-old fanboy standing next to me (who, in a hipster attempt at dance, tossed his hair the whole night) ran towards Ben. Eventually, Ben walked to the other end of the stage and some of the people moved with him, giving me room to breathe.

The next song Death Cab played was “We Laugh Indoors” (off Photo Album), with which aforementioned fanboy (whom I have dubbed “Hair and Elbows” for his hair tossing and arm waving) heartily sang along. As soon as the band stopped playing, he yelled out, “Thank you for playing that song!” Then, he turned to his friend and quietly said, “That’s the one song I wanted to hear them play tonight.” Then, turning towards the stage again, he yelled out “Thank you!” one more time. Aw, what a polite kid. I just wish he tucked his elbows in more.

The final song of the night ended up being “Sound of Settling” (off Transatlanticism). Normally, this is a song just like many of DCFC’s other songs: mellow and zen-like. However, this is when a heavy wind picked up. The backdrop suddenly picked up air and began waving in the background, like a glorious flag. Ben moved to the center of the stage and approached the edge. With his hair flowing in the wind, he put one foot on a speaker (or woofer or something), raised his microphone, and sang his heart out. (It looked like a scene from a movie. At one point, I seriously thought, Who turned on the wind machine?) The audience was cheering wildly, suddenly energized by the electricity in the air. Meanwhile, the stagehands started making hand gestures for the band to get off the stage… now. (The light fixtures hanging above the stage were swaying dangerously in the air.) The band, however, was not budging. Ben finished the song, threw both arms victoriously in the air, thanked the audience for coming out, and ran off the stage with his band-mates.

Suddenly, dust was flying everywhere. The waterless pool was transformed into a vacuum, moving dust and debris in circles. People were shielding their eyes and mouths with their arms moist and sticky with sweat. It seemed like there was a tornado on the way. Then came the lightning, followed shortly by the thunder. Thousands of people made their way (surprisingly peacefully) towards the exits.

As Alex and I approached his car, it began to rain. As we pulled out of our parking spot, it poured. It was difficult to see out the windshield, even with the wipers turned on to full speed. We were barely able to make out the people running across streets and bicyclists riding dangerously in the street. We finally found the highway (which was not an easy feat due to the rain and the fact that we are not from the area) and made our way home safely to Staten Island.

The storm ended almost as quickly as it had begun. It seemed that the skies opened up to offer momentary relief for the suffocating heat experienced by millions of New Yorkers over the last few days.

Really, the night could not have been more perfect.

The following is a complete setlist from that night:

1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. The New Year
3. Why You’d Want to Live Here
4. Photobooth
5. Crooked Teeth
6. Long Division
7. Grapevine Fires
8. A Movie Script Ending
9. Company Calls
10. Company Calls Epilogue
11. Soul Meets Body
12. I Will Follow You into the Dark
13. I Will Possess Your Heart
14. Cath…
15. We Laugh Indoors
16. Sound of Settling

One of the best things about my internship is that I get to spend 6 hours a week on various forms of public transportation. What’s so good about that? I can read again! Oh, how I’ve missed reading. The last book I read, Belinda, was over my winter break. The book I read before that? I can’t even remember.

Therefore, I’ve been devouring books rather passionately — and very quickly. I just finished Time and Again and Flowers for Algernon. Next on my list: The Idiot.

From Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake:

She wishes the curtains were open, so that she could talk to the American women. Perhaps one of them has given birth before, can tell her what to expect. But she has gathered that Americans, in spite of their public declarations of affection, in spite of their miniskirts and bikinis, in spite of their hand-holding on the street and lying on top of each other on the Cambridge Common, prefer their privacy.

Alex
Photo by Allie

Alex and I went to MoMA yesterday. We didn’t know it, but tickets were free. We spent two hours wandering around, trying to figure out why people look so hard to find meanings in each piece.

“Bingo. Suddenly, fourteen-fifteenths of the boat is full of water, and the other fifteenth is a pocket of compressed air, capable of supporting life briefly. Most of her crew died, she fell fast and settled hard onto the bottom, breaking her back and leaving the bow section pointing upwards, as you see her. If anyone was still alive in the bubble, they died a long, slow death. May God have mercy on their souls.”

In other circumstances, the religious reference would make Randy uncomfortable, but here it seems like the only appropriate thing to say. Think what you will about religious people, they always have something to say at all times. What would an atheist come up with? Yes, the organisms inhabiting that submarine must have lost their higher neural functions over a prolonged period of time and eventually turned into pieces of rotten meat. So what?

— Cryptonomicon