Ben Gibbard Brought His Quarantine Ballad To Colbert And It Remained Charming As Hell
Ben Gibbard has been one of the bright lights of our new livestreamed global music scene. The Death Cab For Cutie singer-guitarist was an early adopter, launching a daily concert webcast just as COVID-19 first forced most of us to stay at home. That daily gig has since become a weekly engagement, but it continues to yield treasures like last week’s all-Beatles set. It has honestly turned me into a bigger Death Cab fan than ever. Today at 4PM PT he’ll be back with a collection of album openers and closers, which hopefully will include “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” one of those tracks that has taken on new resonance in this historical moment. But we already got a little extra Gibbard this week.
Last night Gibbard — that’s Benjamin Gibbard to you — was the musical guest on Stephen Colbert’s remote Late Show. From the home studio his livestream viewers have become so familiar with, he performed “Life In Quarantine,” the new charity single he released this spring. “Inside the Safeway it’s like the Eastern Bloc,” Gibbard sang tenderly. “People have a way of getting crazy when they think they’ll be dead in a month.” It continues to be a charming tune, one that somehow transcends the cutesy, on-the-nose qualities you’d expect from an artist’s requisite song about lockdown. The refrain grows more bittersweet by the day: “No one is going anywhere soon.”
Watch Gibbard’s performance below.