August 11, 20265:00 AM ET

Death Cab for Cutie has always had a gift for making the ordinary feel breathtaking, bringing clarity to complicated feelings in plainspoken and universal ways, with a sound that is singularly its own. For this performance, the band's second at the Tiny Desk, the members recreate that sound almost entirely on acoustic instruments, including a nearly 100-year old zither.

The band opens with "Pep Talk" and "Stone Over Water" from Death Cab's latest album, I Built You a Tower, both stirring reflections on aging and surviving regret, before turning to two older cuts: "Title and Registration" from the 2003 album Transatlanticism and "Soul Meets Body" from 2005's Plans. "A lot of [our songs] are becoming oldies now," Gibbard tells the crowd. "I'm starting to realize that some of our earlier records came out a similar distance away from, like, the Beatles records when I was a kid." Guitarist Dave Depper jokes that Gibbard needs to "stop it now." But, as Gibbard notes, "That's how time works, Dave."

When Death Cab visited the Tiny Desk in 2015, Gibbard was recovering from a broken wrist and, unable to play guitar, crooned at the mic accompanied only by Zac Rae's piano, with Nick Harmer on bass. But the full band sits in for this concert, with the addition of Depper, and Jason McGerr on drums.

SET LIST

• "Pep Talk"
• "Stone Over Water"
• "Title and Registration"
• "Soul Meets Body"

MUSICIANS

• Ben Gibbard: vocals, guitar
• Dave Depper: guitar, background vocals
• Zac Rae: piano, zither 
• Nick Harmer: bass
• Jason McGerr: drums

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Robin Hilton
• Director/Editor: Maia Stern
• Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Nickolai Hammar
• Audio Engineer: Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez
• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Vanessa Castillo
• Tiny Desk Team: Joshua Bryant, Felix Contreras
• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton