The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie ‘grateful’ to close festival

Alternative rock bands The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie closed out All Points East with an emotional and electric set, celebrating the 20th anniversaries of their respective albums Give Up and Transatlanticism.

The American bands, both fronted by 48-year-old Ben Gibbard, played the albums in full to a 35,000-strong crowd in East London’s Victoria Park.

Death Cab for Cutie opened the headline slot with the track The New Year, as frontman Gibbard announced: “We are Death Cab for Cutie, we are from Seattle, Washington – this is Transatlanticism.”

The indie rock band, who wore all black outfits, moved through the album track by track with the crowd particularly enjoying upbeat hit The Sound of Settling and the more sombre Tiny Vessels.

The album Transatlanticism explores the sadder side of relationships, with lyrics about lost loves, fleeting loves and loves that are not meant to be.

During the title track, the crowd sang along to the refrain “I need you so much closer”, bringing a depth of emotion to the mid-point of Death Cab for Cutie’s section.

Gibbard dedicated the track We Looked Like Giants to Oregon-based band The Decemberists, who played the same stage earlier in the day, reflecting on the festival’s line up by saying it felt like a north-western USA “family reunion” backstage.

After a 45-minute set, which closed out with an acoustic version of A Lack of Color, The Postal Service took to the stage, launching into their set with the electronic-tinged The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.

Gibbard returned with the rest of The Postal Service dressed in all white, and fans sang and danced along to Give Up’s opening track.

The second half of the headline slot brought more upbeat, electronic-influenced tracks, with an engaged crowd dancing throughout as Gibbard proved his skills as a frontman.

“Ladies and gentlemen, hes, shes and theys,” he said. “This is The Postal Service and we are proud to present to you our album Give Up”.

Vocalist Jenny Lewis, wearing a flowing white dress, is note perfect and her bandmate Gibbard labels her a “queen”. He performed on the drum kit for several tracks to the crowd’s delight.

The frontman recalled first playing London in 2003, at a venue he described as “some dump – don’t even remember what its name was”.

“We are so unbelievably f****** grateful to all of you,” he said to the crowd, who lapped up the final tracks into the encore, before the band huddled together in thanks before fans headed home.

Festival goers on the final day of 2024’s All Points East also enjoyed sets from American indie rock favourites Gossip, fronted by Beth Ditto, playing hits from their indie- and dance-infused rock back catalogue.

The Decemberists brought folk fun to the main East Stage, while French synth-pop group Phoenix made the West Stage into a dance party in the early evening.

Sleater-Kinney, Everything Everything, The Lemon Twigs and LANY also played throughout the day, which was blessed with sunshine as the East London festival drew to a close.

The August bank holiday weekend has seen the second weekend of the East London festival, where electronic rock band LCD Soundsystem headlined on Friday and Justice topped the bill on Saturday at Field Day, the electronic-focused festival day.

The previous weekend saw headline sets from Haitian-Canadian rapper Kaytranada, hip hop Londoner Loyle Carner and American singer-songwriter Mitski.