Indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie has big plans in Brooklyn this weekend.
The group are headed to Brooklyn Paramount for a three-night run — Aug. 8, 10, and 12 — celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark album “Plans.” The limited engagement will feature the band performing the album in full, plus a revolving slate of surprise songs from their catalog.
Formed in 1997 in Bellingham, Washington, Death Cab for Cutie quickly became a defining voice of their generation, driven by frontman Ben Gibbard’s emotionally complex and deeply personal songwriting. Their breakthrough came with 2003’s “Transatlanticism” (later named one of NPR’s “50 Most Important Recordings of the Decade”) and was followed by the critical and commercial success of “Plans,” their 2005 Atlantic Records debut.
Widely praised as one of the most emotionally resonant records of the 2000s, “Plans” features fan-favorites like “Soul Meets Body” and “I Will Follow You into the Dark” — songs that continue to strike a chord with listeners, and members of the band, 20 years later.
“Playing ‘Plans’ is as close to stepping into a time machine as I’ll ever get in my life,” bassist and co-founder Nick Harmer told Brooklyn Paper. “I can easily go back to the memories of making that album, of touring it, of where I was in my life in 2006 after it came out. Then I think about how much time has passed and everything we’ve been through musically and personally since then. There’s a real sense of nostalgia. But also, at this life stage, the songs carry a different gravity.”
Harmer specifically referenced tracks like “What Sarah Said,” a haunting song about watching someone you love die. “I’ve had more experiences in ICUs since then, more personal memories that bring up emotion,” he said. “It’s remarkable how much of life washes over me while playing, and I just let it carry me away.”
The “Plans” anniversary tour is as emotionally charged as it is short and sweet — just three cities across North America. While the shows were initially planned as one-offs, demand prompted the band to add additional dates in each city.
“We started modestly,” Harmer said. “One show in Seattle, one in Chicago, and one in New York. But when they went up, they sold really fast. So we added [more]. It all happened unexpectedly.”
But the sense of intimacy remains, and it’s no accident. The band is particularly excited to bring the show to the new Brooklyn Paramount, whose size and atmosphere match the tone of the music.
“We’ve never played the Paramount before,” Harmer said. “The venue was recommended to us, and it just looks amazing. We were looking for an indoor space that wasn’t huge but allowed for a more intimate connection with people — and the Paramount just felt like the right place.”
The band is using the format of the shows to offer fans both familiarity and surprise. Each set begins with “Plans” played in full, followed by a rotating selection of songs from their catalog, spanning nearly 30 years.
“The second half of the set is totally different each night,” Harmer explained. “It kind of falls under Ben’s purview — he makes our set lists every day. But it’s fun for us because we show up and are like, ‘All right, what are we doing tonight?’”
Fans attending the Brooklyn shows can expect a unique experience each night — something Harmer is leaning into himself.
“The first night for me was very unexpectedly introspective,” he said of the tour’s opening night at Climate Pledge Arena. “I was really thinking a lot about myself and journey and all of these things and there was a lot of personal memories coming up while we were playing.”
But night two was totally different, he said.
“I was expecting to kind of go up and have another kind of inward trip into myself and it was just this outward celebration,” Harmer said. “It felt like it was a totally outward thing compared to the night before.”
Ultimately, he’s embraced the unpredictability of each performance: “I have no idea how each night’s really going to go. I’m just going to kind of let the vibes carry me to where they’re going to carry me.”
“That’s what’s kind of fun about playing multiple nights too,” Harmer added. “You don’t just get the one moment. Each night, depending on the crowd energy and everything, it’s just going to be a little bit different.”
And, for the hardcore followers, the nightly changeup is good excuse to attend more than one performance.
“There’s a real sense of anticipation when you know what song is coming next,” Harmer said of playing the album front to back. “And then to break from that and go into a surprise element for the back half — those are two totally different experiences in one show. That contrast has been really fun for us.”
But as the band looks back, they’re also looking ahead. Once the “Plans” shows wrap, Death Cab will head into the studio to begin work on their next record.
“We’ve got new material cooking,” Harmer said. “We’re excited about seeing how that process goes in the fall. Hopefully we’ll have a new album out sometime next year. All’s to say, we’ve got some forward-looking stuff coming, just as much as we’re looking back right now, too.”
And for fans who couldn’t quite fit this tour into their plans — “that pun is unavoidable at this point,” Harmer laughed — the album certainly isn’t going anywhere.
“I know there are people that are upset that we’re not taking it to other places,” he said. “There’s always a 25th anniversary, right?”
