Postal Service’s setlist:
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
We Will Become Silhouettes
Sleeping In
Turn Around
Nothing Better
Recycled Air
Be Still My Heart
Clark Gable
Our Secret (Beat Happening cover)
This Place Is a Prison
There’s Never Enough Time
A Tattered Line of String
Such Great Heights
Natural Anthem
Encore:
(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan
Brand New Colony
Almost ten years ago I used an FYE gift card I got for being in my sister’s wedding to buy Siren Song Of The Counter Culture by Rise Against and Give Up by The Postal Service. I’ve seen RA countless times over the years, (most recently at The Joint in 2012), but The Postal Service is a totally different story. The Death Cab For Cutie/DNTEL collaboration would go on to become the second biggest selling album in Sub Pop history (right behind Nirvana’s debut), inspire a host of imitators (Owl City chief among them) and work to increase the fan base of the individual members who make up the group. But outside of a few remixes and covers, TPS has remained largely dormant since the album came out, coming up in the news only during frontman Ben Gibbard’s annual “There are no immediate plans for more Postal Service” interviews that have become almost a bi-annual event.
So it was actually quite a surprise when The Postal Service announced that, in conjunction with a deluxe reissue of Give Up, they would actually be returning to the stage for a series of live dates surrounding Coachella, and even more surprising, one of them would be in Las Vegas. DNTEL’s Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard, along with the band’s “unofficial third member'” Jenny Lewis (who contributed the bulk of backing vocals on the original Give Up) and Omaha-based singer/songwriter Laura Burhenn made up the live band, with the group trying, and largely succeeding, at recreating the electronic-based music in a live setting. This meant Gibbard and Lewis sharing guitar, drum and vocal duties with Burhenn providing keyboard and Tamborello manning the laptops and offering the occasional Daft punk-esq backing vocals.
While the tour was in support of the group’s sole album they chose to forego the obvious approach of playing it straight through in sequential order, though they did stick with the album’s opening and closing songs – “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” and “National Anthem” – as anchors to the main portion of the set. In between, the quartet played the new songs from the deluxe version of Give Up – ““Turn Around” and “A Tattered Line of String” – along with a moody cover of indie pop band Beat Happening’s “Our Secret.” One of the biggest response of the night was to “Nothing Better,” with Lewis, taking on the female lead vocals originally provided by Jen Wood on the album, and Gibbard engaging in a bit of awkwardly cute theatrics, acting out the song in a series of crossed fingers and cloying glances. And of course, as nearby casual fans pointed out “oh, it’s the song from that commercial!” the crowd went nuts for the band’s best-known song “Such Great Heights.” I was particularly happy that the encore included “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan,” the original Tamborello/Gibbard colab from DNTEL’s 2001 Life Is Full of Possibilities LP which resulted in the Postal Service forming.
I’m generally unaccustomed to being part of a sold-out crowd of thousands, preferring tiny halls and bars to the massive, Beauty and the Beast-esq Chelsea Ballroom, but a band as beloved and long-missed as the Postal Service is definitely deserving of the pricey tickets, fancy lighting and theatrics. It was a pretty memorable night. I just hope it’s not the last time I see them.
-Emily Matview
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