Photographs by Sarah Rix
On Tuesday night, I went to see The Postal Service at one of Toronto’s most famous venues, Air Canada Centre, which is best known to host the biggest music and sport events in the city. So it’s a well known fact, that an event in ACC is an event with a lot of production, sponsors and money behind it. What that means for the fans is the guarantee of the level of entertainment which is not easily achieved.
The Postal Service, originally from Los Angeles, CA, is an electronic group around vocalist Ben Gibbard of “Death Cab for Cutie” and producer Jimmy Tamborello, with Jenny Lewis on background vocals, keyboards and samplers, who happen to be also playing bass on that night. The band’s been around since 2001, however it was mentioned that the current setup been together for not longer than 3 months. As expected, the production value of the show and the performance of the band was world class, and judging by the reaction of the fans, the combination managed to keep the supporters happy and entertained throughout the show.
The Postal Service played a 14-songs set, plus 2 encores. Now, before Tuesday night, I’ve never heard of their music before, so I actually had the opportunity to hear them fresh for the first time, which is always a pleasure, however, I exactly knew the songs that were goin’ to be played. Before the show, I did a quick research online, asking my best friend Google for the setlists from The Postal Service’s previous shows in this tour. The result was the exact same 16 songs, every night, in every city:
01- The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
02- We Will Become Silhouettes
03- Sleeping In
04- Turn Around
05- Nothing Better 06- Recycled Air
07- Be Still My Heart 08- Clark Gable
09- Our Secret (Beat Happening cover)
10- This Place is a Prison
11- There’s Never Enough Time
12- A Tattered Line of String
13- Such Great Heights 14- Natural Anthem
Encores:
15- (this is) The Dream of Evan and Chan
16- Brand New Colony
So I took a note from the songs, and followed them through out the show at Air Canada Centre. With a help of an incredibly attractive fan who I happened to be sitting next to, I managed to detect all the songs, as they were written in my note, and even impress that particular fan by “foreseeing” the upcoming songs. That worked great for me, but I think that’s a disadvantage for the band to play the exact same set of songs over and over again, and for the fans, once you’ve seen a show, you’ve seen all the shows in the tour. That beign an advantage or disadvantage, I’ll let you decide on your own.
Mainstream Electronic Dance music is indeed a tough game to play in the music industry. There are literally tens of thousands of artists and producers who are perfecting the genre as they’re moving forward. To be recognized in such a tight competition is a success by itself, and The Postal Service seems to be doing pretty well and I’m sure there are many here in Toronto who are already looking forward to experience The Postal Service-ness again, in the near future.
