Ben Gibbard Covers “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys,” “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” & “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” At SF SketchFest

Photo Credit: Aldi Victoria

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie paid tribute to The Smiths and Morrissey with a trio of covers during a special SF SketchFest event in San Francisco, reaffirming a musical connection he’s been revisiting for much of his career. The performance took place at the Music Hall as part of a Smiths-centric night hosted by Thomas Lennon, who curated an evening devoted entirely to celebrating the band’s catalog.

Lennon fronted the event alongside guitarist duties and the long-running Smiths tribute band Sweet And Tender Hooligans. When Gibbard took the stage, that’s when the tribute was taken to another level. Gibbard revisited “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out,” a song he has returned to repeatedly over the years. His rendition leaned into the song’s romantic fatalism, really bringing the song to life. He followed that with “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.” He also stepped into Morrissey’s solo era with a cover of “The Last Of The Famous International Playboys,” the 1989 single that is full of sharp wit and tabloid paranoia.

According to Stereogum, Gibbard has a long history of engaging with Morrissey and The Smiths’ catalog, from Death Cab for Cutie including “This Charming Man” on the reissue of their early demo You Can Play These Songs With Chords, to an acoustic version of “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” recorded for a 2008 radio session. During the COVID lockdowns in 2020, he even performed Morrissey’s “Everyday Is Like Sunday” during one of his Live From Home broadcasts.