Death Cab for Cute/Tegan & Sara/New Pornographers, July 5 at the Hollywood Bowl

If you haven't been able to tell by now, I'll go to just about any show. I'm a sucker for shows at the Hollywood Bowl and of course I trust Vanessa for her music taste (and ability to drink). She got tickets for us, along with one for Noa, and I don't really care what I'm doing if it's with those two. I'm not a Death Cab for Cutie fan but I admit I hadn't seen them when I had the chance at various festivals over the years and, playing with the L.A. Philharmonic, I looked forward to a special show that might change my opinion. But really, I was going to see openers the New Pornographers and Tegan & Sara. The three of us took our time picnicking outside and missed most of the New Pornographers but I didn't mind, since I've seen them before, they're not an amazing live band in the first place, Neko wasn't singing with them, and I was fairly full of wine. Tegan & Sara did a fine set but even they had to admit that they were way out of place in such a gigantic space (and looked positively tiny on stage). At that point, and with more wine in me, I anticipated Death Cab, and I suppose for a fan of theirs it was a splendid show but to me it was just as boring as anything I've heard by them. And a symphony playing behind a band might make the show a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle but it's not going to make it any more exciting. And when they played their own material as just the band I wondered what having the Phil did for them in the first place. And I never figured out which was the guy who wears glasses in the band, making pretty much all of them as uninteresting as their music.

Death Cab For Cutie's set-list:
"Marching Bands of Manhattan"
"Your Heart is an Empty Room"
"The New Year"
"Crooked Teeth"
"President of What?"
"No Sunlight"
"Photobooth"
"Summer Skin"
"I Will Possess Your Heart"
"Little Bribes"
"Cath..."
"The Sound of Settling"
(with the Los Angeles Philharmonic:)
"I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
"You Can Do Better Than Me"
"Grapevine Fires"
"Title and Registration"
"A Movie Script Ending"
"Soul Meets Body"
"Transatlanticism"

Tegan & Sara's set-list:
"Dark Come Soon"
"I Bet It Stung"
"Walking with a Ghost"
"Hop A Plane"
"Living Room"
"Like O Like H"
"Burn Your Life Down"
"19"
"Where Do the Good Go"
"Call it Off"
"The Con"
"Back in Your Head"

The New Pornographers' set-list:
"My Rights Versus Yours"
"The Laws Have Changed"
"Use It"
"All the Old Show Stoppers"
"Challengers"
"Mass Romantics"
"Sing Me Spanish Techno"
"The Bleeding Heart Show"