My strongest first impression was how incredibly tight the band was — and how much more complex these songs are than the recordings let on. Many have band members playing multiple instruments, switching off between guitar and keys, and a lot of them carry three distinct guitar parts. It takes a great band to replicate that live, and they did.

The performance

The sky opened up. Rain poured through most of the set, and I was grateful to be under the pavilion — though the wind kept driving it in sideways and we still got wet. A crazy storm.

Something about the music and the weather together made me nostalgic for the early days with my wife. That spring was extraordinarily wet, and the rain that night pulled those months right back to the surface. Seeing Death Cab sent me straight to the Postal Service on the drive home, and it rained like hell the whole way — I was flooded with memories of my first few months with Mrs. TKD.

Between the day we met and July 15th, it rained 49 out of 95 days, and it was colder than normal. I still carry the specific pictures: picking her up on rainy nights, both of us in wool sweaters and jeans. So here is my deep thought, arrived at under that downpour — music and rain dominated our first 95 days together.

Highlights

Japanese Breakfast opened, and Michelle Zauner absolutely rocked it — a strong, high-energy set that set the tone for the night.

A highlight of the show was Ben Gibbard alone at center stage for “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” — just him and an acoustic guitar. An incredible song about love and death, and the whole pavilion went quiet for it.

Ben Gibbard alone at center stage with an acoustic guitar, lit by a single spotlight, during his solo performance of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”

Japanese Breakfast setlist

Intro: Planetary Ambience

  1. Paprika
  2. Honey Water
  3. Road Head
  4. Picture Window
  5. Boyish (Little Big League cover)
  6. The Body Is a Blade
  7. Mega Circuit
  8. Kokomo, IN
  9. Slide Tackle
  10. Be Sweet
  11. Diving Woman

Death Cab for Cutie setlist

  1. Riptides
  2. Roman Candles
  3. The New Year
  4. Punching the Flowers
  5. The Ghosts of Beverly Drive
  6. Black Sun
  7. I Built You a Tower
  8. Company Calls
  9. Pep Talk
  10. Codes and Keys
  11. I Will Possess Your Heart
  12. I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Ben solo, acoustic guitar)
  13. Stone Over Water
  14. How Heavenly a State
  15. Cath…
  16. Crooked Teeth
  17. Trap Door
  18. You Are a Tourist
  19. The Sound of Settling
  20. Soul Meets Body

Encore

  1. Title Track
  2. Here to Forever
  3. Marching Bands of Manhattan
  4. Transatlanticism

The full Death Cab setlist is also archived on setlist.fm.