Seattle-based indie pop band Death Cab for Cutie will headline A&O’s fall show at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre Oct. 10, A&O Productions officials announced Monday. St. Louis dance-rock band So Many Dynamos will open the show.
Tickets go on sale Monday and cost $15 for undergraduates and $20 for grad students, faculty and staff. Each person can buy up to four tickets per WildCARD, with a limit of one WildCARD per person. Free transportation will be provided.
“Death Cab for Cutie is a name that’s come up for a long time,” said Forrest Wickman, director of concerts. “There’s hardly been a year we haven’t inquired about them. This year they just happened to be available to play.”
A&O’s first priority is “to bring whoever we think will please students the most,” the Weinberg senior said. Although it is difficult to generalize the music tastes of NU students, polls, surveys and Facebook searches have aided the group in choosing acts to bring to campus, he added.
Booking acts is about “sticking our feelers out,” said Syd Cohen, A&O chairwoman.
“It’s whatever our friends tell us students are listening to, what we hear most in the dorms,” Cohen said.
Death Cab released its sixth full-length album, Narrow Stairs, on Atlantic Records in May. The record became the band’s first number-one album on the Billboard 200 chart.
The band is currently touring throughout North America and Europe; this will be their only performance in Chicago.
“This is the only chance to see them here now,” Cohen said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of people in the area who will be jealous that they can’t go.”
Although some students said they were not particularly excited, others expressed enthusiasm over the choice.
“I’m thrilled,” said Monica Guzman, a Weinberg sophomore. “Over the past couple of years I’ve been listening to Death Cab and realized it was my kind of genre. Their latest album was pretty quality music.”
Opening act So Many Dynamos is currently unsigned. But the group has been gaining media attention over the past few years and has played shows with Ted Leo, who performed at last May’s Dillo Day, and The Postal Service.
“Death Cab wanted So Many Dynamos to play with them,” Wickman said. “We don’t expect them to be a huge draw for the show, but we’ve heard good things about them.”
A&O chose Counting Crows to headline its last show at the Riviera, 4746 N. Racine Ave., in April. The Top 40 band did not sell out the 2,300-seat auditorium. Other A&O acts from last year included OK Go, Ben Kweller and Flight of the Conchords.
Multiple students called Death Cab a strong addition to that list of acts.
“They do a really good job of bringing in interesting bands,” said Lisa Felberg, a McCormick sophomore.
Elena Aleksandrova, who attended A&O’s OK Go show at Patten Gym last year, said she was excited Death Cab would be performing at a theatre and not on campus.
“The energy wasn’t very good (at the OK Go show),” the Weinberg sophomore said. “People were just standing around and not really getting into it.”
Typically, A&O holds their fall show at Welsh-Ryan Arena or Patten instead of the Riviera, Wickman said.
The fall show hasn’t been at the Riviera in years, he added.
“We wanted to be able to reach as many students as possible,” he said, calling the location a good opportunity for new students to attend a concert in Chicago. “It’s also a more intimate atmosphere.”
