Gate Called "Beautiful"
(or, report from the Stars/Death Cab show, Nov. 13)

Sarah and I arrived late to San Francisco's Warfield Theater on Sunday night, due to some combination of a Vietnamese meal that was more leisurely than it should have been, and my own mistaken assumption that a DJ would be playing at eight o'clock instead of seven. And we only heard three and a half songs by my favorite rock and roll band -- Stars from Montreal, Quebec -- before Death Cab for Cutie took the stage and we remembered a little piece of Seattle, the city we called home for our first year as one flesh.

But walking past the lobby and into that beautiful place, packed with singing, dancing, sweating, drinking humanity, the stage illuminated, the band launching into the otherworldy chords and melody of "Ageless Beauty" Amy and Torq singing their hearts out and exhorting the masses to Love: my friend, it was like walking into Heaven.

And you know, leaving the show was almost the same; 1000 people were praying, "I need you so much closer/I need you so much closer/ so COME ON, COME ON" and exploded into exultant cheers right as Mandy pulled up to the curb. We hopped in and sped away.


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The Seattle Weekly will publish my rejoinder to this column on November 23rd.


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Amoeba Music yielded the following (each with one-sentence review):
Steve Burns - Songs for Dust Mites. If the Flaming Lips weren't as good!
Starflyer 59 - Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice. The new wave transformation is complete!
Half-Handed Cloud - Thy is A Word and Feet Need Lamps. Haven't listened yet, but come on...Bible stories!