Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road with Death Cab for Cutie

This film, we're told, is not about the underground vs. the mainstream, or independent record labels vs. the majors; no, director Justin Mitchell's Drive Well, Sleep Carefully is merely “a story of a band on the road.” Just what we needed: another documentary about the sorry life of rock stars as they deal with the loneliness and isolation of touring, struggling to maintain their sanity as they drag themselves onstage to perform hit tunes before ecstatic, sold-out crowds. Actually, this one is considerably better than most. Seattle-based Death Cab for Cutie (guitarist-vocalist Ben Gibbard, bassist Nick Harmer, guitarist and sometimes organist Chris Walla, and drummer Jason McGerr) do talk about the difficulty of keeping things fresh while playing the same songs night after night (Walla wonders about the guy in the very last row: “Is he rockin' out?”), but there's little of the usual grousing about what a drag it all is. Of the 13 (mostly complete) live performances included here, the majority are drawn from the band's CDs Transatlanticism and The Photo Album, featuring solid indie rock, driven by Gibbard's melodic songwriting and appealing, almost gentle voice. The underpinnings of thick, distorted guitars give the music a dreamlike throb (Gibbard's lyrics, on the other hand, are nigh indiscernible), and the live sound, presented here in Dolby Digital stereo, has the kind of intimacy usually found in studio recordings. Overall, Drive Well, Sleep Carefully (with DVD extras including a brief live acoustic set, rehearsal footage, additional interviews, and more) is as unpretentious and likeable as the band itself. Recommended. Aud: P. (S. Graham)