On a warm and windy night, a long line wrapped around the block at the Midland Theater in Downtown Kansas City, MO for a sold out show, featuring none other than Death Cab for Cutie.
The venue, which holds just shy of 2,400 people, was about halfway filled up when the opening act for the night, a band from Los Angeles called Momma, a four piece made up of two ladies who covered both vocals and guitar, and two males, playing bass and drums.
The band sounded more like an 90s alternative/college radio band than anything else, which is not bad, but the crowd seemed less interested in them, with one audience member yelling “GO HOME” within the first three songs of the groups set. However, a quick witted response was given in “You arrived just in time” from band member Etta Friedman, and the band continued the rest of their set.
As songs were finished and the band walked off stage, the audience clapped and cheered the band, for their performance or for clearing the stage for the headlining act one will never know. But the 8 song playlist was fantastic to anyone who cared to listen and brought back a sense of the late 90s alternative rock back to Kansas City.
More information on the band can be found on their website at www.mommaband.com/
Momma’s Set list:
Rip Off, Medicine, Tall Home, Bang Bang, No Bite, Brave, Motorbike, Speeding 72
With a short intermission done, and the light falling to black in the room, a roar went up as Death Cab took the stage. This night, which was about half way through the bands Winter 2023 tour, saw a slight change up in the sit list. On almost every show, with only a few exceptions, the band would play one of their beloved hits, A Movie Script Ending, during the fifth song of night. However, this night, similar to Birmingham, AL, the band replaced the song with Why You’d Want to Live Here. This choice of song, being played only once before this year on tour, is an interesting replacement.
Why the change? It was planned, as none of the band members seemed surprised at this song switch. And it has been performed only one other time since, which was on day one of the bands two day shows in Austin TX. Was this a commentary to how the band feels about Kansas City? And likewise Birmingham and Austin? If so, then why? What does the band have against these three cities? If it is nothing, then why throw out A Movie Script Ending and replace it with this song for the night? And only on a few select nights in the tour?
While the song itself relates to the city of Los Angeles, California, one has to wonder with lyrics like “I'm in Los Angeles today, it smells like an airport runway. jet fuel stenches I’m in Los Angeles today, garbage cans comprise the medians of freeways always, Creeping when the population’s sleeping And I can't see why you'd want to live here” and on and on about how bad LA is, if this is not a slight on Kansas City itself, and likewise on the other two cities to date. As anyone from The Metro will tell you, KCI is almost always a mess, especially over the past few years with the construction going on; and speaking of construction, there seem to be an endless amount of it on the street, being Downtown KCMO, in the Crossroads, somewhere on I-35 or 435, and it goes on and on, like you could replace “Los Angeles” for “Kansas City” and it would fit (minus the maps of celebrity homes part of the song). One has to ask, is this the way the band feels about our beloved city?
The crowd did not seem to notice the change, or the fact that A Movie Script Ending was even to be played that night, and rocked out to the bands every note in the sweaty theater.
Death Cab for Cutie’s Set List:
I Don’t Know How I Survive, Roman Candles, The New Year, Cath…, Why You’d Want To Live Here, Here to Forever, Black Sun, Northern Lights, I Miss Strangers, Crooked Teeth, Rand McNally, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, I Will Possess Your Heart, Your Heart is an Empty Room, Asphalt Meadows, We Looked Like Giants, The Sound of Settling, Foxglove Through the Clearcut.
Encore:
Brother on a Hotel Bed, Pepper, Soul Meets Body, Transatlanticism
