UC Berkeley, the school known for helping develop the atomic bomb during WWII, was acknowledged on Friday, August 11 for creating another bomb-hosting a concert to Washington’s home-grown talent, Death Cab for Cutie. After picking up my friends one by one, we headed off to Berkeley in time, but as with any concert, finding parking was like being a mouse trying to find freedom in a labyrinth-nearly impossible. Growing impatient and seeing a huge flock of people slowly migrate towards the Greek Theatre, we eventually found parking and made our trek towards the campus, jubilant over what we were about to encounter. As we made our way to the theatre, we were greeted by an old lady giving out free samples of Cliff Bar’s newest flavor, Dark Chocolate Walnut. I chose to save my money and refused to buy the $3.75 Coke to wash down its horrid taste. After that fiasco, we entered the theater and were amazed at the structure we were gazing upon. The architecture of the theatre was reminiscent of the ones created during the Roman ages when Gladiators were the main event.Finally, we sat down in the middle of the performance by Mates of State, a group from Kansas that comprises of a husband and wife duo, who base their music primarily off of drums and the electric organ. They were an upbeat group with some interesting songs, but I wasn’t feeling their vibe, so I was tuning out from time to time. Second up was the band Spoon, a four-member indie rock band from Texas with an ever-increasing fan base. A much larger audience than the preceding performers knows Spoon. In my opinion, Spoon had much better songs to perform. They performed songs from their successful albums Gimme Fiction and Kill the Moonlight, as well as many other songs. They kept the audience in a buoyant mood until the waning moments of the real reason everyone came to UC Berkeley’s Greek Theatre. There was a brief five to ten minute intermission in order for the stage crew to get everything ready. All of a sudden, the lights went out and everything was pitch black. In mere seconds, a handful of various bright colored lights moved in a circular motion over the audience. Everyone erupted into cheers and with their eyes focused on the stage; you could make out the silhouettes of the group members of Death Cab for Cutie walking through the dimly lit stage. After the stage lights got brighter, the group finally began their performance, playing numerous songs, both old and new, especially from their latter two albums that garnered a lot of success, Transatlanticism and Plans. They performed their songs with tremendous amounts of energy, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. After a while, the music abruptly ended, the lights went away, and the group members started to slowly walk off the stage. I, the gullible person that I am, assumed that the concert was over, but as usual, I was proved wrong. Moments later, Ben Gibbard, lead guitarist, walked on stage with a guitar and performed a favorite of mine, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” The remaining members joined Ben on stage and continued to perform a couple more songs. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, “Everything must come to an end,” and after the final song was played, the concert was really over. After Ben said his goodbyes and praised San Francisco, even though the show was in Berkeley, for being a beautiful city, we were on our way home, recollecting on the car ride back about our favorite moments while trying to look for a place to eat at 11 o’clock at night.
