IMAGI-BLOG
Ben Gibbard, All Apologies
Submitted by Joseph Riippi on May 9, 2007.
Last night at Town Hall in New York City I caught Ben Gibbard's solo set, preceded by the always-entertaining Neil Young lookalike Johnathan Rice, and the incomparable David Bazan (aka The Lion named Pedro).
The show was good. Quite good, in fact. Gibbard opened with a cover of Donovan's "To Sing For You" (no doubt having recently watched the Pennebaker documentary "Don't Look Back," when Donovan sings the same song to Dylan), and from there transitioned into the Postal Service's "Brand New Colony." He played an assortment of greats ("Passenger Seat," "Photobooth"), new not-so-greats ("Crooked Teeth"), and absolutely fan-fucking-tastics ("I Will Follow You into The Dark" and a new song called "The Ice Is Getting Thinner") and a bunch of others, although notably nothing (I'll repeat that, NOTHING) off Something About Airplanes or We Have the Facts.... Yes, that's right, Gibbard had an acoustic guitar all to himself and didn't play "405".
What he did play at the end for the encore, however, deserves mentioning. He covered "All Apologies." On the piano. He said it was an honor to be asked to play it for a forthcoming movie about Kurt Cobain. Now, as anyone who knows me can attest, I love Death Cab for Cutie. I think they're an amazing, wonderful band. And those same people will tell you I think the same of Nirvana, but for very different reasons. But Ben Gibbard covering Kurt Cobain was like listening to an utter castration of all that makes Nirvana great. Ben's sensitive, innocuous tenor works so much better than any other voice for verses like, "I watch the patchwork farms slow fade into the oceans arms" (from the Postal Services's "Recycled Air," wonderfully done last night) but "All Apologies"? It was absolutely devoid of any impact, save for the brick wall of applause that came down from the fans there enraptured. (The most vocal of whom were most likely not even born when Bleach came out in 1989).
Great set, but for that encore, Ben, you owe us All Apologies.
» permalink «
3
Joseph Riippi said on May 9, 2007:
....but really. It was BAAAADDD. If you'd told me about about it I'd be interested. The same way I was interested way back when Death Cab covered Bjork for the Stability EP with "All is Full Of Love." And THAT worked wonderously. This, however, was just utterly non-plussing. The song had lost everything good about it, and Ben sounded completely insincere. The lyrics aren't interesting and dark "All we are is all alone" doesn't work articulated with Ben's voice. It works with the agony of Kurt's. Likewise Kurt wouldn't have been able to pull off "Tiny Vessels."
Anyway, there's my Craigslist rant for the day. But not on Craigslist.
» reply
5
imaginary dana said on May 9, 2007:
Your description is apt, Joe (I particularly like "non-plussing" -- I've never heard the word used that way, but I liked it!).
Do you know anything else about the film?
» reply
6
Diana said on May 9, 2007:
i'm pretty sure it's "all in all is all we are," but even so, "all alone is all we are" doesn't sound too far from a Death Cab song...was it as bad as Ben's cover of Thriller? but don't get me wrong, i'm unashamedly the biggest Death Cab fan out of everyone i know and i'm annoyed that i didn't get tickets to the Ben/Johnathan show at UCLA.
» reply
7
Joseph Riippi said on May 9, 2007:
...did I really misquote? Oh well...I'm pretty sure Ben sang "all alone is all we are" because that's what i wrote down in my notebook. But maybe it was just me? i doin't know...
It was as bad as thriller. His voice works great for some things, but awful for others.
» reply
8
Diana said on May 10, 2007:
i wouldn't be surprised if he sang the wrong lyrics -- listen to the Death Cab cover of This Charming Man, the lyrics are entirely wrong ("on two bicycles on a hillside" "this man said it's crucial" "under this charming calm" "i'm just a country boy") the list goes on, it's terrible
» reply
Reviews
imaginary dana said on May 9, 2007:
...I'm curious to hear this cover! While part of me agrees with your assessment (Ben's sweet tenor seems ill-suited to convey the gritty, bitter lyrics that Cobain managed so effortlessly), I'm a fan of a good musical paradox. I think this sounds intriguing.
Though the other part of me sees the square movie industry exes making the musical call for this one. "Well Nirvana was big and from Seattle... and now Death Cab are big and from Seattle! We'd better get that Ken Hibbard to sing this one!"