On the day Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber topped Forbes’ list of the richest and most powerful celebrities, Death Cab for Cutie showed Toronto you can still thrive in the music biz without big money or gimmicks. The Seattle-area quartet put on a no-nonsense, no-frills, no-BS performance at the Phoenix on Wednesday that showcased their stellar musicianship and Ben Gibbard’s flawless vocals.
Kicking off with a lengthy intro to “I Will Possess Your Heart,” Death Cab rolled through a two-hour set that featured several songs from the upcoming “Codes and Keys” album, the band’s seventh and first since the 2008 monster “Narrow Stairs.”
Highlights included Gibbard’s acoustic rendition of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” which turned into a singalong (“You and me have seen everything to see/From Bangkok to Calgary”) and “Soul Meets Body,” which, well, really soared into the atmosphere. Gibbard is one of the rock world’s best male vocalists at the moment, sounding the way you might imagine Morrissey sounding if he were heterosexual.
Adrian Brijbassi 