d-plan and death cab last night

Stayed out far too late last night to see the Dismemberment Plan and Death Cab for Cutie last night in Fort Worth with Matt, the newly redesigned Erica, and non-blogger Vikas. (Last night was sort of a trial run for the eventual merger of my blog and non-blog worlds. Vikas handled it admirably, I thought.)
It was my first show at the Ridglea Theater, so it was a surprise to hear how bad the sound was. With Death Cab, that’s almost acceptable, since their sound is pretty consistent and if you just mike up the guitars, it still sounds nice. (Even though lead singer Ben Gibbard compared the show to “playing in a high school gym.”) But with the Plan, you really need better sound for the keyboard-heavy tracks. You wouldn’t think there were any keyboard-heavy D-Plan tracks from last night. (I’m a little concerned about the Luna show there next week — that’s another band that really needs good sound.)
But enough bitching — it was a great show. Travis from the Dismemberment Plan was more spastic than usual, which was fun. And they seemed to be in a punkier state of mind than usual, which would explain rocking out to some unusual early selections from the D-Plan canon. (Yeah, I’ve seen them all of one other time, so I’m an expert on their usual “state of mind.”) Death Cab was calmer, but their sounds transfered well into the setting, in a head-nodding kind of way.
In all, I agree with Erica, that it was great to see a bunch of talented musicians having a blast on stage. Two very fun bands I can recommend to you when they come to your town. The show gets the official crabwalk.com seal of approval.