Alternate ‘Plans’: Death Cab For Cutie Dusts Off Rarities In Spokane

Tonight, Death Cab for Cutie launches a three-city series of shows commemorating the 20th anniversary of their landmark 2005 album, Plans, with their first of two hometown performances in Seattle. The band fronted by Ben Gibbard got an early start on the celebration Wednesday by playing the record from front to back, including three songs they hadn’t performed in years, to begin their concert in Spokane, Washington.

The Spokane show closed out a run of six West Coast dates the group added to their tour schedule after announcing the Plans concerts. The quintet didn’t perform Plans in its entirety earlier this week at the first five stops.

A note on the Setlist.FM page for Death Cab’s Spokane concert may explain why the band changed [to] Plans: “Outdoor show start time was delayed and opening act was preempted due to threatening thunderstorms. This may have led to the band changing to the Plans setlist.”

Death Cab For Cutie kicked off their visit to the Spokane Pavilion with “Marching Bands Of Manhattan” and “Soul Meets Body.” Gibbard and his bandmates then performed “Summer Skin” for the first time since 2020 as they continued to progress through Plans in the same sequence found on the record.

After a run of “Different Names For The Same Thing,” “I Will Follow You Into The Dark” and “Your Heart Is An Empty Room,” the group broke out “Someday You Will Be Loved,” which they hadn’t played in over 20 years. “It’s without a doubt the cruelest song I’ve ever written, which is maybe why we haven’t played it,” Gibbard said before the first performance of “Someday You Will Be Loved” since April 12, 2006.

Death Cab proceeded to perform the rest of their major label debut leading to just the fifth documented performance of the record’s langid closing track, “Stable Song.” The LP’s finale was most recently performed live on October 26, 2006. “Thank you very much. That was Plans ladies and gentleman,” Gibbard said following “Stable Song.”

The Plans portion of the night was followed by seven more songs to form the main set. Death Cab focused the remainder of the set on post-Plans material including staples “I Will Possess Your Heart,” “You Are A Tourist” and “Cath…” For the encore, the band looked to their early days for “Your Bruise” and “A Movie Script Ending” before capping the concert with “Bixby Canyon Stairs” off Plans follow-up Narrow Stairs (2008).

Watch Death Cab For Cutie break out “Someday You Will Be Loved” and “Stable Song” along with other highlights from last night’s show in Spokane via fan-shot video below: