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May 14, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Benjamin Gibbard

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie was the musical guest on last night’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He performed his recent single, “Life In Quarantine,” doing it solo acoustic from home. Gibbard first premiered the song in March during one of his Live From Home live streamed concerts and then a week later released the studio version of the song. Watch his performance below.

In response to the COVID-19 Gibbard has been live streaming solo concerts from his home studio since March. Gibbard was previously performing daily concerts, but is now doing weekly concerts every Thursday. With each concert Gibbard asks fans to donate to a particular charity.

Previously Gibbard also shared a video where he performed the new song “Life In Quarantine,” which is inspired by what we’re all going through with COVID-19, and then he shared the studio version of the song (which is still solo acoustic), which was one of our Songs of the Week.

Gibbard previously announced that he’s taking requests. Previously during his live stream concerts Gibbard covered Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees,” New Order’s “Ceremony,” and other songs. He previously did an all-covers set with covers of songs by Phoebe Bridgers, Elliott Smith, Rilo Kiley, The Shins, The Flaming Lips, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Big Star, and Def Leppard.

Gibbard then did another all-covers set where he covered R.E.M.’s “Half a World Away,” The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday,” Hall & Oates’ “Out of Touch,” The Magnetic Fields’ “Strange Powers,” Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge’s “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy In New York,” and Spiritualized’s “Hold On.”

Gibbard also covered Fountains of Wayne’s “Barbara H.” in tribute to the band’s Adam Schlesinger, who died recently due to COVID-19. Gibbard also performed a set where he did all of Death Cab for Cutie’s 2000-released album We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

During one of his concerts Gibbard performed a new song, “Proxima B,” and covered Nirvana’s “All Apologies” in what was an all-piano set. He also did an all-Beatles covers set.

Death Cab for Cutie released a new EP, The Blue EP, last year via Atlantic. Death Cab for Cutie’s last album, Thank You For Today, came out in 2018 via Atlantic.

Read our 2018 interview with Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard on Thank You For Today.

Also read our 2018 The End interview with Gibbard about endings and death.

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