The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie top an alt-rock dream bill for All Points East’s final day

The target audience today is exactly the kind that The Onion were joking about when, in 2002, they ran a story headlined ‘37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster’. Apt, then, that the Hoboken legends should play an early set entirely befitting their 40-year legacy as indie mainstays on the East Stage; Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew all take turns on lead vocals for ‘Fallout’, ‘Aselestine’ and ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ respectively, before the latter half of the set is turned into a maelstrom of noise with a scintillating fifteen-minute take on ‘Pass the Hatchet, I think I’m Goodkind’.

Portland natives Sleater-Kinney offer scant hope to those assembled who might be hoping for a reunion with drummer Janet Weiss any time soon; Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker are now very much growing into their own skin as a duo, with an East Stage set here based largely around January’s superb return to form, 'Little Rope'. There’s still time, though, for Brownstein - an irresistible ball of kinetic energy as a guitarist - to rip through the classic likes of ‘Jumpers’ and ‘Entertain’, while ‘The Fox’ is a searing reminder that Tucker might possess the most powerful voice in indie rock.

Afterwards, their Portland neighbours The Decemberists take to the East Stage for what is a one-off UK appearance. They’ll surely be back next year in support of 'As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again', a wonderfully idiosyncratic comeback of their own after the disaster that was 'I’ll Be Your Girl'. Meloy is a fabulously coy frontman, teasing the audience into singalongs for tracks old (‘The Sporting Life’) and new (‘Burial Ground’), but perhaps the biggest surprise is how well they wear their noisier side live - ‘Severed’ and ‘Make You Better’ are both scored through with real drama. They close by segueing straight from ‘O Valencia!’ into ‘Dracula’s Daughter’, having offered up a flavour of what to expect next time they’re here.

At the opposite end of the Victoria Park site, Phoenix arrive in buoyant mood, having played a triumphant set at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in their native Paris. Still to play a proper UK tour in support of 2022’s 'Alpha Zulu', they rip through a career-spanning set that sees frontman Thomas Mars leaping into the crowd on a host of occasions and that ends with the band bringing their families on stage as they wrap up this particular European tour. You suspect they’ll be back sooner than later, especially after their Olympic show brought them to their biggest global audience since the glory days of 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix'.

The evening’s main event, meanwhile, involves a genuine coup; the East Stage hosts the only English show on the genuinely unique 'Transatlanticism'/'Give Up' anniversary tour, which has seen Ben Gibbard pull double duty to celebrate the albums that would go on to define him both reaching their twentieth birthdays last year.

It is, on paper, on odd mix, but it works. Death Cab for Cutie are up first, and their career-high, 'Transatlanticism', is presented in stately, handsome form, and gives diehards a rare chance to hear the seldom-aired ‘Lightness’ and ‘Death of an Interior Decorator’. For the casual contingent, an epic, extended take on ‘We Look Like Giants’ will have captured the imagination (especially when Gibbard took to a second drum kit for an instrumental breakdown), whilst the album’s title track remains a yearning, cinematic epic.

The other side of the coin is The Postal Service; "we’ll see you in fifteen minutes, we’re going to 'Give Up',” says Gibbard as Death Cab close their show. He returns on time with his other band’s guitarist, Dave Depper, but flanked also by The Postal Service’s electronic genius, Jimmy Tamborello, and the band’s secret weapon, indie legend Jenny Lewis. She helps make the set what it is; there is real poetry to the fact that an album made by two musicians in isolation from each other can pulse with such joyous communion when presented live.

The screwball wit of Gibbard-Lewis duet ‘Nothing Better’ is a highlight, as is an anthemic presentation of ‘Brand New Colony’ that sees the night’s biggest audience roar back “everything will change”. The biggest reaction of the night is reserved for ‘Clark Gable’, a whimsical tale of London-set imaginary romance, while a two-song encore comprises an acoustic take on ‘Such Great Heights’ in the style of Iron & Wine, and a Death Cab-Postal Service crossover for a cover of Depeche Mode’s classic ‘Enjoy the Silence’. Gibbard claims he’ll disappear for a while after these shows, feeling the world has had its fill of him on this bumper tour. On this evidence, though, he remains the high priest of indie rock. 

Tags: Death Cab for Cutie, Phoenix, Sleater-Kinney, The Decemberists, The Postal Service, Yo La Tengo, All Points East, Festivals, Reviews, Live Reviews