A321
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Workload
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Procedure
At gate in DEN briefed Runway 34R departure; Plains 4 McCook Transition. After pushback [we were] issued Runway 8; taxied CS to Spot 6E. Contacted Ground and told 'Taxi to Runway 8 via Mike.' There was one other regional aircraft on Taxiway L. Somewhere on Mike the First Officer silently switched over to Tower frequency 124.3. Unfortunately 124.3 was NOTAMed as OTS starting on the 3rd of the month. I later found this NOTAM located 59' down in the flight paperwork; however it did not say that this was the Runway 8 frequency only that it was OTS. Likewise the ATIS had the remark about the frequency; but did not relate it as the Runway 8 Tower frequency.At some point while we were monitoring the dead Tower frequency (I assumed we were still on Ground) the Controller was trying to contact us to let the RJ go in front. We had the RJ in sight at all times and there was no danger; but after going back to Ground after no response on 124.3 we were scolded for switching over too soon. We had followed our original taxi instructions to Runway 8 and were subsequently cleared for takeoff.This was a case of where the information that we need to know was buried in the minutia of the weather packet and ATIS. In the weather packet if the NOTAM associated the frequency as being the Runway 8 Tower frequency there is a better chance it would have caught our attention. Same for the ATIS; also; if the First Officer would have shared the fact that he was switching Number 1 VHF to Tower we might have trapped the premature switch over. Information overload; airport SID charts now contain an exhaustive list of obstacles - some as small as bushes and stop signs hundreds of feet from the runway. With every insignificant piece of information added the chances of missing something of value goes up. On the ATIS it is common to list when the grass is being cut. I think you get my point.
Air carrier Captain missed the fact Tower frequency had been changed by NOTAM; noted that the item was 59 inches down the page.