“These are very, very strange times.”
— Benjamin Gibbard, Death Cab For Cutie
Ben Gibbard at his home studio in Seattle.
All of us are doing our part to help in our own unique way to lessen the blow of this lockdown. For musicians, who can’t entertain you at a club, theatre or arena, it’s playing shows from their living rooms.
Whether it’s Chris Martin of Coldplay, or Keith Urban, or John Legend, or Neil Diamond, livestreams of intimate living room performances are the new reality. Last week, I made a mixtape and encouraged all of you to dance in your living room. Because music is my answer to everything. But the hardest working man in music during the lockdown has been Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie, who has been daily streaming his 45 minute gigs on Facebook and YouTube.
Death Cab For Cutie has been cranking out solid indie rock tunes since 1997. I might call their music neo-Romanticism. Death Cab is a quintet whose storytelling songs celebrate emotion and imagination. Gibbard’s tomes are introspective treasures of songwriting, from the slightly twisted ballad of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” to the tale of lost love that is “Title and Registration” to the somber idealism of “The New Year,” Gibbard’s songs are five-star, and always with a tinge of melancholy. His fingerpicking guitar style rivals the beauty of a harp.
It was St. Patrick’s Day and Gibbard was hunkered down in his Seattle home and feeling antsy. At the time, Washington State had been locked down just two days, but the cabin fever was already sinking in. Washington was the first state in which a governor imposed a shelter-in-place order. It was the initial hotspot of the coronavirus until New York quickly surpassed it.
But instead of tuning in to the third season premiere of Westworld on HBO that night, Benjamin tuned his guitar, inviting us into his home to hear some live music. Just him, a webcam, an acoustic guitar, and sometimes a piano.
For two weeks, every single day, Gibbard has opened up his musical heart to the masses, playing songs from the Death Cab catalog, his acclaimed side project The Postal Service, and quite thoughtful cover songs. Clad in pajama bottoms and the omnipresent music fan’s wardrobe of concert tees, he has dominated the internet.
He’s also been taking Q&A. And while he has stopped the daily concerts, Gibbard will resume tonight and every Thursday night going forward on Facebook Live and YouTube.
I learned something new the other day at one of Benjamin’s home concerts. Someone asked “Why don’t you drink?” And his answer was a blunt “Because I’m an alcoholic.” He went on to say that there is a certain number of drinks a person can have in a lifetime, and that he had already exceeded that limit. I can relate. And as a recovering alcoholic myself, writing about it in my memoir The Bipolar Addict, I have found a new kindred spirit.
“I think we’re all looking for distraction from the news and the craziness all around us,” Gibbard said on at one of his online shows. “But I think one of the ways we’re gonna get through this is that we are going to give ourselves respites and breaks from being pummeled with bad news. We need to find joy in the small things. And this is something that I’m enjoying because it makes me feel less alone.”
Hearing Gibbard’s takes on cover songs has been nothing short of big fun. He actually played a rendition of my favorite song of all time “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure. He’s also covered John Lennon, Radiohead, The Smiths, Elliot Smith, The Shins, New Order, R.E.M., and, yes, Def Leppard, all requests from his fans on YouTube and Facebook.
In a letter written prior to the first Ben Gibbard Live from Home, the singer-songwriter expressed gratitude.
“Be it with DCFC, Postal Service, or solo I have always been grateful for the honor you have bestowed upon us by choosing to congregate en masse around our music,” he said. “Some of you have traveled great distances and/or shelled out large sums of money to see us play and that has never been lost on me. So in this crazy unprecedented time, I’d like to return my favor by coming to you.”
If you wanna catch Ben in action from his Seattle home, tune in on Facebook Live or YouTube at 9PM EST tonight! (4/2/20)
