As the Postal Service neared the end of its set at Just Like Heaven on Saturday, singer-songwriter Ben Gibbard paused to thank fans for their love and support of an album, 2003’s “Give Up,” the group’s only studio release, that no one in the band expected to become the huge hit it did.
“When Postal Service made this record, we thought it would be a tiny little record that our friends would like and then go away,” Gibbard told the crowd that filled Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to hear “Give Up” played in full. “We never imagined we’d be here 21 years later playing it for you.
“You’ve taken it and brought it into your lives, and this song goes out to you,” he said as the band slipped into “Brand New Colony,” the ninth of 10 songs on the album.
Just Like Heaven filled its two stages on Saturday with a host of indie rock favorites whose careers mostly started in the late ’90s and ’00s – Phoenix, the War on Drugs, Tegan and Sara, Phantogram, even a surprise appearance by Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend – but it was Gibbard’s that delivered the biggest emotional rewards.
His main band, Death Cab For Cutie, and the Postal Service side project have toured since September to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their signature albums from 2003.
Death Cab played first, arriving on stage at twilight to play all 11 tracks on “Transatlanticism,” the album that took them from the indie rock scene of the Pacific Northwest to worldwide success. “The New Year,” which opens the album, and “The Sound of Settling,” which falls midway through, are probably its biggest hits, and on Saturday they were greeted with cheers from the opening notes.
But the album, and the performance at Just Like Heaven, contains much more. The title track, a gorgeous, sprawling epic, was followed by the lovely, intimate “Passenger Seat,” sung by Gibbard with only a piano for accompaniment. “A Lack of Color,” which closed the show was a similarly delicate jewel, just vocals and acoustic guitar, to finish the set.
The impact of the two albums was softened Saturday by having Phoenix play between Death Cab and Postal Service, but when the latter band arrived on stage for its headlining turn, it quickly rekindled the mood, helped by the fact that its best-known songs, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” and “Such Great Heights,” are the first two tracks on “Give Up.”
The group – singer-guitarists Gibbard and Jenny Lewis and keyboardist Jimmy Tamborello – was augmented by Death Cab’s Dave Depper on keyboards. Dressed entirely in white, they seemed to glow in the stage lights.
Highlights included “Nothing Better,” which saw Gibbard and Lewis trading verses as lovers at the end of their road together. “Clark Gable” and “We Will Become Silhouettes” were just as moving. After “Natural Anthem” closed out the album, Gibbard and Lewis returned for an acoustic repeat of “Such Great Heights,” before everyone in both Postal Service and Death Cab returned to the stage to close out the night with Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence.”
Here’s what else stood out at Just Like Heaven on Saturday.
Women in ‘Heaven’: Just Like Heaven followed Cruel World, with its ’80s New Wave and goth vibes, by a week in Pasadena. And while Cruel World was noticeable for the absence of women on stage – Debbie Harry of Blondie and Martha Davis of the Motels were almost it at Cruel World – the opposite was true for Just Like Heaven.
Beth Ditto of Gossip showed off a powerful voice performing the post-punk dance rock of that band. Molly Rankin’s clear, reverbed-drench vocals and guitar led Alvvays through a strong set of indie pop love songs. Emily Haines of Metric remains a powerful (and on Saturday, very sparkly) front woman for the synth-and-guitar rock of Metric.
Phantogram and Sleigh Bells are both male-female duos, but it’s Sarah Barthel of Phantogram and Alexis Krauss of Sleigh Bells who hold the crowds attention with their animated vocals as Josh Carter and Derek E. Miller play alongside them.
All of the above delivered strong sets on Saturday, but the sisters Tegan and Sara shined especially bright, delivering a set of indie pop songs that included “The Con,” “Walking With the Ghost,” and “Closer,” to an adoring crowd midafternoon in Pasadena.
More fun, please: Here’s the thing about a lot of indie bands of Just Like Heaven’s vintage: They can be so serious. Death Cab and Postal Service played gorgeous music, it’s true. The War on Drugs was fantastic in its young Bob Dylan meets Dire Straits lane of sweeping epic guitar rock. The indie and electro-pop acts mentioned in the previous songs have a bunch of infectiously catchy songs.
But only Phoenix felt like a party. From the opening numbers of “Lisztomania” and “Entertainment,” the crowd danced and sang along non-stop. There’s a lot of funky music in the French electronic rock band’s catalog, and at Just Like Heaven that was a very welcome treat.
And! They brought out the biggest surprise guest of the day. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend came to join the band on “Tonight,” a song he sings on Phoenix’s most recent album “Alpha Zulu,” and he stuck around to play guitar on “1901,” too.
Babies? Babies!: It took a few hours before I realized the biggest non-musical difference between Just Like Heaven and Cruel World – the kids. There were hundreds of infants born this year, toddlers in strollers, preschoolers, and elementary-age kids at Just Like Heaven on Saturday. Maybe there was a Mommy or Daddy and Me ticket special.
Most of them were well attended by their parents, unlike Coachella Table Baby – an infant, asleep on a table at Coachella, no parent in sight, that a friend snapped a photo of years ago.
Late in the day, I figured it out. The Cruel World fans are older – their kids are adults. But Just Like Heaven fans, they were teenagers or 20-somethings when these bands first broke out. They are prime breeding age, and if you wanna see Death Cab, the Postal Service, and all the rest, well, maybe you just pack up the juice boxes and string cheese and go.
