Death Cab for Cutie put on a great show at Cal Poly Monday night, fans said.
“It was a good show for sure,” said history junior Chris Andrews. “I was afraid because we were sitting high up, that the sound was going to be bad, but the acoustics sounded excellent; the staging was done really well.”
Aerospace engineering senior Beckie Holzer had a similar account.
“It was really good. They played new stuff and old stuff from (their album) “Plans,” she said. “The encore was really good.”
Before the doors opened, thousands stretched from the Recreation Center to Mott gym. Some fans began lining up as early as 2 p.m. The concert opened with a solo performance by Matt Costa. His band members joined him after the first song to complete the five-person band.
The show started off slowly, but the crowd got going when Costa, a multi-instrumentalist, replaced his harmonica and acoustic guitar for an electric piano to play “Mr. Pitiful,” off his latest album “Unfamiliar Faces.”
After the opening acts, Death Cab for Cutie walked onstage together in front of a backdrop of the their latest album, “Narrow Stairs,” where they were greeted with cheers and a standing ovation.
While the band started things off with new material, the fans finally started singing along when they played one of their biggest hits, “I Will Follow You into the Dark.”
When the band played their last song and walked off stage, the fans screamed, yelled and stomped until they returned for an encore. They went on to perform “Title and Registration,” which was later followed by songs like “A Movie Script Ending.”
“It’s our first Death Cab show and I think it’s a good deal for two acts,” said Raquel Ramirez, 20, of Santa Maria, who said she has been a fan of the band for four years. “I bought my tickets weeks ago,” she added.
While the crowd was large, the show did not sell out. Only 2,300 of 3000 tickets were sold, a fact that surprised many who attended.
“That’s really sad, but I think it’s because a lot of people didn’t like the new album,” said Ramirez. “I liked it.”
Other fans were more outraged at the news. “Heck yes! (I’m surprised), (“Plans”) was a No. 1 album and they actually have a legit opening act,” said communications sophomore Trevor Hogan, who found himself at the tail of the line.
The tickets were $25 for Cal Poly students and $30 for non-students, like high school senior Jessie Ekeland, 17, of San Ynez Valley, who said the show was good deal.
“Thirty dollars for general admission for getting good seats for arriving early is not bad at all,” she said. Ekeland added that she was surprised that a big act like Death Cab for Cutie did not sell out, but the lack of publicity might have had something to do with it. “I only heard about it on Facebook,” she said.