What’s a band touring in support of their least accessible and weirdest sounding album and playing to arena-sized rooms supposed to do?

For Death Cab For Cutie at the Assembly Hall Saturday, the answer was to crank up their prog-iest qualities, add some LED panels and let their excellent rhythm section fill the basketball stadium beautifully.

Death Cab kicked off their two-hour set with two of their biggest radio hits. First was 2008’s “I Will Posses Your Heart”, an eight-minute track with Kraut-rock rhythm over atmospheric guitar and sparse piano chords. After that it was emo-pop classic “Crooked Teeth”, perhaps the band’s most successful single. Death Cab might still be known for their sparse-yet-beautiful sounds and forlorn lyrics, but that band did not show up to Champaign Saturday.

Instead the band addressed familiar problems like isolation and heartbreak through raucous guitar parts and progressive and propulsive drums, supplied by drummer Jason McGerr, who can easily argue his case for being the best drummer in indie rock. Often throughout Saturday night’s show did the string section and Ben Gibbard’s lyrics become secondary to McGerr’s complex and irresistible drumming.

Does that formula sound vaguely familiar? Maybe because it is the same juxtaposition of bedroom-themes and anthemic sounds that made Grammy winners Arcade Fire indie’s first arena-status act.

Tracks from Death Cab’s latest release, 2011’s “Codes and Keys”, weren’t played until the fifth song, when the band tore through “Doors Unlocked And Open” with ringing guitar strings over glitchy drums. Even the claustrophobic “Some Boys” elicited rhythmic clapping from the crowd.

Wether it be chalked up to virtuoso playing or an excellent sound system, Assembly Hall’s textured, concrete ceiling reflected a sound as crisp as any local venue. The sound was equally adequate when frontman Gibbard went solo and acoustic for “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”, which gave the massive space a remarkably intimate moment.

When Gibbard wasn’t strumming an acoustic he could be spotted either thrashing at a piano or fronting with a guitar. By the time 2008’s “Cath” was played at full volume,

one could be be led to wonder if a more introspective arena act like Lynyrd Skynyrd (set to play Assembly Hall late October) showed up a few weeks early.

The crowd may have been rather stationary up until the three-song encore, but that should be blamed on a full day of tailgating or the wear and tear of a long Homecoming weekend, definitely not on the lack of raucous energy from Death Cab’s performance.