While Seattle’s lovelorn indie veterans Death Cab For Cutie have their share of quiet, reflective songs, they still aren’t a band designed for sit-down venues. And although downtown’s Orpheum Theatre was a beautiful backdrop for the evening, fans abandoned their seated positions as soon as Death Cab took the stage on Thursday night. They opened with “St. Peter’s Cathedral” from 2011’s “Codes and Keys” and then straight into “New Year” with guitars a-blazin’. Though the band has slightly changed in lineup, including the addition of guitar-virtuoso Dave Depper and touring keyboardist Zac Rae, Death Cab For Cutie are just as whole as they’ve ever been. Frontman Ben Gibbard has noticeably transformed alongside his fans over the years and while their music has such a discernible sound, they’ve proved that their only “formula” is refined introspection. Still touring in support of their eighth album “Kintsugi” (released in March), Death Cab played new songs to polite response and older ones to much adulation. Gibbard sarcastically thanked the crowd for making it out in the “scary rain,” explaining that the notion of it being more dangerous to drive in the rain in L.A. is “just not fucking true.” “Crooked Teeth” from “Plans” and “I Will Possess Your Heart” from “Narrow Stairs” satiated their long-term hangers-on and cell phones shot up as soon as their closed their main set with requisite ba-ba-along “Soul Meets Body.” Gibbard and Rae returned for a piano version of “Your Heart Is An Empty Room,” and then the rest of the band joined for the long-winded swell of “Transatlanticism,” during which Gibbard and Depper flexed their hefty guitar textures. With the entire room singing along with every “come onnnnn,” they proved that their weighty oeuvre can still transport their fans back in time straight into the mind of the person they were at first listen.

Photos and writing be me for BUZZBANDS.LA