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Nov 22, 2017 By Christopher Roberts Death Cab for Cutie

Death Cab for Cutie played their first ever show 20 years ago today, on November 22, 1997. In honor of that anniversary the band have shared the audio for the acoustic set on Bandcamp for $4.00, with some of the proceeds going to the Seattle-based charity Aurora Commons. The show was performed at The Pacer House (basically a living room show in a friend’s house) in the band’s native Bellingham, Washington and recorded on Dictaphone. Listen below. Also below is the original flyer for the show.

The band’s Ben Gibbard had this to say about the show in a press release: “This is a recording of the first ever Death Cab For Cutie show. It was made by our friend Trevor Adams on his Dictaphone at The Pacer House in Bellingham, Washington on November 22, 1997. Sprawled across couches and sitting cross-legged on the floor were 25 of our closest friends and fellow musicians. Everyone played acoustic or semi-acoustic with no PA. Trevor made and passed bowl after bowl of microwave popcorn because he was (and I assume still is) a great host.

“Chris Walla and I had just finished the You Can Play These Songs With Chords cassette and we thought it would be fun to play a few shows around Bellingham to celebrate the release. We recruited Nick Harmer to play bass and Walla’s childhood friend Nathan Good to play drums. None of us thought we were starting a band nor did our ambitions for DCFC extend very far past this particular evening. We simply thought it would be fun to play these songs for our friends before moving on to other things.

“I remain forever grateful to Trevor for inviting us to play in his living room 20 years ago today. It was one of the greatest nights of my life at the time and its significance has only grown since.”

Death Cab for Cutie’s latest album, Kintsugi, also came out in 2015 (via Atlantic). Read our 2015 interview with Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard.

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