Death Cab for Cutie ready for second go at Life is Beautiful

The last time that they played Life is Beautiful, a beautiful life was born.

Dave Depper won’t soon forget that day.

It was 2015, and the Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and his bandmates were on the road in support of the zeppelin-hearted indie rockers’ eighth album, “Kintsugi.”

Also around that time, bassist Nick Harmer and his wife were expecting their first child. So for the first time in Death Cab’s career, the band brought along an understudy.

“Our good friend Dave Bazan, who fronts Pedro the Lion, traveled with us for a couple of weeks, learned a set’s worth of songs, and was ready to go at a moment’s notice if Nick got the call,” Depper recalls.

On the morning that Death Cab was set to perform as one of the top-billed acts at Life is Beautiful, that call came in.

“Not only was it a stressful situation because of that, but it’s a festival, so you don’t get soundchecks (to the extent a band normally does),” Depper says of working Bazan into the show on the fly. “Nick flew home, and we were kind of like, ‘All right, buddy, here’s your time.’ And he killed it. It was really fun. I think it was a very unique — and somewhat hair-raising experience — for everyone on board.”

When Death Cab returns to Life is Beautiful on Friday, the group will be experiencing another first: giving songs from its recently released new album, “Thank You for Today” their Vegas debut.

Like pretty much everything that Death Cab has released, “Today” is a deeply felt record, with frontman, founder and main songwriter Ben Gibbard often managing somehow to sound wounded and reassuring at once. His voice soft and his luck hard, Gibbard delivers heart-in-a-vise songs freighted with an almost unbearable longing (“Summer Years,” “You Moved Away,” “Gold Rush”), whether they’re addressing the sting of imagining a former lover’s life without you, grappling with the loss of a friend who’s left town or the dislocating effect of gentrification.

But “Today” also pulses with an infusion of fresh blood: Along with keyboardist Zac Rae, the album marks Depper’s recorded debut with the band after first serving as a touring member in 2015.

“It was very intimidating at first, even though I had been playing with the band for three years and had gotten very comfortable with being the guitar guy in the band and we’re all best friends and all that,” Depper acknowledges. “It instantly kind of set things back to zero. I think we all went in not really knowing how it would go. What exactly is my role? Am I allowed to criticize a song of Ben’s if I don’t like it? What kind of discretion do I need to use here?

“I was sort of shocked, pretty much from day one, how much input I was given and how my ideas were welcomed,” he continues. “It was kind of like an anything-goes attitude. It took a minute to get used to the fact that I was an equal member and I could tell Nick if I didn’t like his bass part or tell Jason (McGerr) to change his drum part and they would listen to me. It felt pretty cool, to be honest.”

Now it’s time to take those songs to the stage.

“Creating a song in the studio, getting it ready for the stage and then playing it are all extremely different,” Depper says. “Things that might have seemed like slam dunks in the studio, and your memories associated with creating that song are so fun, you bring it out live, and you’re just playing it for some open, bored mouths, maybe. Maybe some songs that were a total slog to record instantly connect with people.

“It’s different every time,” he adds, “but I will say the reaction to the few songs that we’ve played so far has been pretty overwhelmingly great. I think we’ve played four or five of them at this point, and they’re super fun. Now we get to play all of them.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @JasonBracelin on Twitter.