watch Ben Gibbard cover Neil Young, The Cure, Simon & Garfunkel, Spiritualized & more
Death Cab For Cutie and Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard wrapped up his two week run of daily solo acoustic livestreams tonight (Sunday, 3/29), and like last Sunday, Ben played all covers. The covers were requests but Ben suggested he may have been biased and picked a lot of the requested songs that he already loves, which in this case included Spiritualized‘s “Hold On,” Neil Young‘s “Harvest Moon,” The Cure‘s “Just Like Heaven,” Simon & Garfunkel“s “The Only Living Boy In New York,” R.E.M.‘s “Half A World Away,” The Magnetic Fields‘ “Strange Powers,” Hall & Oates” “Out of Touch,” Kris Kristofferson‘s “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends,” and Morrissey‘s “Everyday Is Like Sunday.” Before playing the Morrissey song, Ben said that he does love the song but clarified that playing the song wasn’t an endorsement of Morrissey’s recent politics “or some of the terrible things [he has] said.”
As he usually does during these livestreams, Ben also did a Q&A with fans during the performance, during which someone asked Ben to name an artist he likes that people would be surprised he likes, and he said Post Malone. “I reject the notion of guilty pleasures,” he added. “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures, I believe that you like what you like.” He also answered a questions about how he learns cover songs, working with the Foo Fighters, what he thinks of Pearl Jam‘s new album (“I think it’s great, I think it’s the best thing they’ve done in a while”), and more.
This was the last daily livestream (Ben said he needs to get back to writing music for the next record), but good news: Starting this Thursday (4/2), he’s gonna do weekly shows starting at 9 PM ET “every week into the foreseeable future as long as people are quarantined.”
During each livestream, Ben promotes a charity that he’d like fans to donate to, and Sunday’s was Aurora Commons. Ben’s also selling ‘Live From Home’ posters and proceeds from those sales will go to Aurora Commons. Proceeds from Ben’s recent single “Life In Quarantine” also go to that same organization.
Watch the full set below…
Setlist
Half a World Away (R.E.M. cover)
Just Like Heaven (The Cure cover)
Everyday Is Like Sunday (Morrissey cover)
Out of Touch (Hall & Oates cover)
Strange Powers (The Magnetic Fields cover)
Harvest Moon (Neil Young cover)
Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends (Kris Kristofferson cover)
Hold On (Spiritualized cover)