{"id":393492,"date":"2026-01-27T17:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T17:20:08","slug":"watch-death-cab-for-cuties-ben-gibbard-cover-morrissey-with-the-smiths-tribute-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/393492\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard cover Morrissey with The Smiths tribute band"},"content":{"rendered":"

Death Cab For Cutie<\/a>\u2018s Ben Gibbard<\/a> has covered some of Morrissey<\/a>\u2019s songs when taking to the stage with a Smiths<\/a> tribute band. Check out footage below.<\/p>\n

The event took place as part of the 2026 edition of San Francisco comedy festival, SF Sketch Fest, which saw the \u201890s MTV comedy group The State hold multiple live performances to celebrate their Wet Hot American Summer cult film turning 25 this year.<\/p>\n

Performances kicked off at San Francisco\u2019s Great American Music Hall last week, with an opening night from the cover band, The Middle Aged Dad Jam Band. The line-up included Shudder To Think\u2019s Craig Wedren \u2013 who also wrote music for the MTV show and the cult film \u2013 as well as other cast members including Janeane Garofalo, and Marguerite Moreau, Michael Ian Black, and Joe Lo Truglio.<\/p>\n

The next night the band took to the stage again, but this time focused on Billy Joel<\/a> covers and introduced State\u2019s Thomas Lennon as a special guest.<\/p>\n

Then, the night after, Lennon held an event of his own with Smiths tribute band called the Sweet And Tender Hooligans. Joining them at the Music Hall was Death Cab For Cutie\u2019s Ben Gibbard, who took to the stage for multiple renditions of songs.<\/p>\n

Among those was a cover of the classic Smiths song \u2018The Boy With The Thorn In His Side\u2019, as well as the fan-favourite \u2018There Is A Light That Never Goes Out\u2019. interestingly, this wasn\u2019t the first time that we have seen Gibbard cover the latter, as he and his Death Cab bandmates also performed an acoustic version of it for Radio 104.5 back in 2008.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere at the show in San Francisco, Gibbard also played a solo track from Morrissey called \u2018The Last Of The Famous International Playboys\u2019 alongside the Smiths cover band.<\/p>\n

Other guest performers joining Gibbard on the night included the Go-Go\u2019s Jane Wiedlin, and comedians Natasha Leggero, Ana Gasteyer and Tony Hale. Check out more footage of the night below.<\/p>\n

As highlighted by Stereogum<\/a>, it is no secret that Ben Gibbard and his Death Cab For Cutie bandmates are big Smiths fans. Previously, they had \u2018This Charming Man\u2019 featured on the reissue of their 1997 demo \u2018You Can Play These Songs With Chords\u2019, and they also performed a cover of Morrissey\u2019s song \u2018Everyday Is Like Sunday\u2019 during the COVID lockdown in 2020.<\/p>\n

The appearance at the San Francisco event comes just days after the band announced their signing to ANTI- and shared news of a 2026 North American tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The move to the label \u2013 which has other artists including Fleet Foxes<\/a>, MJ Lenderman<\/a>, and Waxahatchee<\/a> \u2013 sees them return to their independent roots, and the tour will kick off in Minneapolis on July 10. Those headline dates will see them joined by Japanese Breakfast<\/a>, Nation of Language<\/a>, and Jay Som<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Tickets go on sale this Friday (January 30) and you can buy tickets here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The upcoming shows come on the heels of Death Cab embarking on a series of shows to mark the 20th anniversary of their 2005 album \u2018Plans\u2019 last year<\/a>. The record marked their major label debut, went platinum and also earned the band their first Grammy nominations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Death Cab For Cutie\u2018s Ben Gibbard has covered some of Morrissey\u2019s songs when taking to the stage with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,3583,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-393492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}