Ben Gibbard covers Radiohead 'Fake Plastic Trees'

Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard was scheduled to undertake a solo tour next month but was forced to cancel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Gibbard is using the Internet to bring the gift of live music to fans in self-isolation. Earlier this week, Gibbard announced his Live from Home series — which will take place daily a 7 pm on YouTube and Facebook.

Yesterday saw the first instalment of Live from Home. Gibbard played a 10-song acoustic set, plucking from his expansive Death Cab and The Postal Service catalogue. He also delivered a cover of Radiohead’s The Bends classic ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ — a record that celebrated its 25th anniversary a few days ago.

Before launching into the “Thomas Aquinas Yorke”-penned track, Gibbard shared a story about how he and his wife recently took a trip to the Washington Peninsula. “It was a really necessary trip,” he said. “Necessary to… get to a place where our phones didn’t work for a bit and kind of just bask in the beauty of the natural world for a bit. We listened to a lot of our favourite records on that trip, and this song kind of came along came across on the car stereo. So I thought I’d do a version of it”.

You can check out the entire Live from Home set below. If you’re just interested in watching Gibbard’s performance of ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ skip to the 33-minute mark.

Watch: Ben Gibbard: Live From Home

Gibbard is one of many musicians who have taken self-isolation as a time to host mini-concerts and live-streamed performances with fans who are also social distancing amid COVID-19. This past week we’ve seen intimate, at-home performances by Neil Young, Robbie Williams, Chris Martin and more.