The high-demand 20th Anniversary Transatlanticism and Give Up tour, co-headlined by Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service in celebration of their respective records first released in 2003, has extended into 2024 with a stop at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on April 29.
Death Cab’s founding bass guitarist Nick Harmer, who connected from home in Seattle before tour began, shared some of the “real-life time machine” feelings that have come up in rehearsing and performing the band’s breakthrough record in its entirety. No, it’s not stale night after night, he clarified — quite the contrary.
“It surprised me how fresh and vibrant it felt every single moment on stage, there was never a moment I felt like we were on autopilot or going through the motions,” said Harmer. “You couldn’t not feel the whole time. If anything, you’d leave the stage not physically exhausted but just emotionally and psychologically drained from the experience of the journey.”
Harmer and I got nostalgic together, including about other bands the burgeoning Death Cab for Cutie were listening to around the time of the first Transatlanticism tour in the early ’00s. (Shoutout to Spoon, Modest Mouse, Low, The American Analog Set and The Dismemberment Plan.) He also got nerdy on gear, by request, on “how bass should sound.”
Hear this full interview and other exclusive artist content on WNXP’s podcast channel.