Death Cab For Cutie’s 1998 studio debut, Something About Airplanes, reissued last fall for its 10th anniversary, introduced yet another charming little Pacific Northwest infinitely indebted to Built to Spill’s wobbly, heartsick guitar-pop. With its nasally cries, clumsy guitars and careening stabs of cello, the album seldom deviated from There’s Nothing Wrong With Love’s reliable playbook, but on future releases this once-modest little band would begin to distinguish themselves from their regional peers, crafting a tightly woven, achingly romantic strain of indie-rock that’s made them the darlings of both college- and alternative-radio stations. This beguiling bill pairs the band with Cold War Kids, a California piano-rock quartet that draws unusual inspiration from old blues music and Fiona Apple, and New York chamber-pop charmers Ra Ra Riot.
Death Cab for Cutie w/ Cold War Kids
Tonight @ Carroll University, 8 p.m.