Pitchfork

The traveling Revenge of the Book Eaters benefit came to Chicago's Park West venue yesterday evening, bringing Ben Gibbard, John Roderick of the Long Winters, and author Dave Eggers in tow.

The night's all-acoustic sets got off to an awkward start with the third-rate Belle and Sebastian stylings of locals the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, whose near-complete lack of energy made the arrival of short story writer ZZ Packer more than welcome.

Following Packer was John Roderick. One of the most engaging performers of the night, Roderick's four-song set proved too short. The man kept his banter between songs sharp and endearing, which was even more impressive considering that he had just arrived at the venue moments before he appeared on stage.

After a short intermission came the real highlights of the night. Host Ira Glass delivered a piece fit for his "This American Life" radio show about a former truck driver who learned to read at the age of 45. Then came Eggers, who read excerpts from his forthcoming fictionalized autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese "lost boy" who sat next to Eggers and answered sporadic questions from him as part of a live reading/interview format the pair had never attempted before. Glass later praised their natural, genuinely funny, and even heartwarming interplay, though he also admitted some of his rapture may have been alcohol-induced.

Ben Gibbard closed out the night, but not before comedian/musician Fred Armisen made a surprise appearance as the Death Cab for Cutie frontman himself. Armisen's intentional false starts included lines like, "This song is about how much I hate the Death Cab fans. They're so overweight and...shitty," and, "Chicago's a really great town for pussy for me." Gibbard then appeared to applause and quickly sucked out the feeling with a mix of Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie songs. While on piano, he accurately remarked that with his long hair and sideburns he was starting to resemble Stephen Stills, before playing covers of Teenage Fanclub's "Slow Fade" (a "newer song" by "my favorite band ever") and the Band's "It Makes No Difference", which his thin, breathy tenor made particularly painful.

At the end of the evening, Glass announced that the money the audience had donated during the show had just surpassed the $5,000 goal. The audience's reward? Gibbard and Roderick returned to the stage with Scotland Yard's Elia Einhorn to play "the worst song in the world and a Neil Diamond song" (à la the David Byrne/Sufjan collaboration in New York the night before). Gibbard informed us that both titles belonged to the same song, and then the trio launched into a cover of Neil Diamond's "Porcupine Pie". It was a fittingly absurd end to a benefit for a children's creative writing center.