SEATTLE — Two years ago, Death Cab for Cutie embarked on one of the most anticipated indie rock tours in recent memory. The group's coheadlining run with frontman Ben Gibbard’s one-off synth-pop band, The Postal Service, marking the 20th anniversaries of their era-defining albums “Transatlanticism” and “Give Up,” respectively, was a runaway smash.

As the shows sold out, more and more dates and tour legs were added until it eventually wrapped up last fall. After all the hoopla around The Postal Service reunion and Death Cab playing what’s widely considered its masterpiece album in full each night, going too big for the 20th anniversary ofthe band's2005 follow-up, “Plans,” seemed like overkill.

“By the end of that tour, we were very pleased and our hearts were full from the response,” Gibbard said. “But we felt that to do any more of that might be tipping a little bit too far into celebrating our own nostalgia.”

Besides, the Seattle indie rock titans had already earmarked much of 2025 to work on their next record, a follow-up to 2022’s “Asphalt Meadows.” Still, Death Cab couldn’t let the “Plans” milestone pass without “tipping our cap” to the band’s major-label debut — an album Gibbard calls “our big coming out party.”

On July 31 and Aug. 2, Death Cab opens a limited run of “Plans” anniversary shows with an arena-sized bang, playing the album in its entirety during two hometown dates at Climate Pledge Arena. After the Seattle blowout, Gibbard and company will settle in for longer runs at smaller theaters in Chicago and Brooklyn, mixing in a one-off non-“Plans” date supporting My Chemical Romance at MetLife Stadium. (The pop-punk juggernauts recently began a blockbuster album tour of their own, celebrating their seminal “The Black Parade” with a devilishly over-the-top Seattle kickoff.)

The album anniversary tours have become an increasingly common trend, a move that stirs excitement among die-hards and casual fans alike. As much as it is fan service, it’s also savvy marketing amid a saturated post-pandemic touring landscape, as the Death Cab-Postal Service team-up proved.

But on a personal level, revisiting Death Cab's seminal albums offers bassist and co-founder Nick Harmer a chance to “reflect on how far we’ve come,” filling him with gratitude for the band’s longevity.

“It's as close to getting into a time machine as I'll ever get into in my life,” Harmer said. “I'm finding these emotionally and spiritually fulfilling endeavors.”

If “Transatlanticism” was Death Cab’s breakthrough album and most critically revered work, “Plans” pushed the Bellingham-formed band further into the mainstream consciousness amid a national indie rock boom. The piano-heavy collection, which also saw thegroupplaying with electronic elements and more production techniques, spawned some of their biggest songs — including set list staples “Soul Meets Body” and tender acoustic hit “I Will Follow You into the Dark.” It took them to “Saturday Night Live” and led to their first Grammy nomination in 2006.

Conceived on a condensed timeline after the heaviest touring Death Cab had done at that point,Planswas a pivotal, whirlwind time for the band, rounded out by drummer Jason McGerr and producer/guitarist Chris Walla, who left the group in 2014. Ahead of the “Plans” shows in Seattle, we caught up with Gibbard and Harmer separately to discuss that transformative period of Death Cab for Cutie, unglamorous Grammys moments and revisiting the band’s past while keeping their eyes on the road ahead. These conversations have been edited for length and clarity.

As a band, how do you try to balance honoring your past without becoming mired in it?

Ben Gibbard: There are a lot of bands that have been very good at finding that balance. The Cure has been that band for me.

We are first and foremost music fans. One of the litmus tests we always give ourselves when planning anything as a band is, what would we want from our favorite bands? The Cure is a very (good) example, like if it's the 30th anniversary of “Disintegration” going by and you're like, “Man, what would I want The Cure to do?” I want him to go play “Disintegration,” you know? But I also want to hear a new record.

When we think about our favorite bands and what if we could pull the levers on their decision making, what would we do as fans? We try to apply a level of that to our own decision making.

Nick Harmer: I feel like we’ve found a nice spot. For us, it's kind of exciting to just play a handful of shows and play this album in a few places that are meaningful and kind of leave it at that.

What do you enjoy about playing these full-album shows?

Gibbard: I love them because people know what's coming. I'm sure we've all had this experience: You go to see a band that you're really excited about and you're like, “Oh man, I hope they play that song from that one record. Oh, they didn't play it tonight.” There is a guessing game and anticipation about what the band is going to play that night. But the full-album performance is really fun for us because you can sense that the audience knows what's coming next and you can feel that anticipation and excitement building — especially if we're building toward a song that is a cornerstone on the record.

Any deeper cuts off “Plans” you’re excited to dust off?

Harmer: There are a few songs I don't think we played live much, even when “Plans” came out. I have always loved the album closer, “Stable Song.” It's not the most anthemic, electric, big thing like (frequent set closer) “Transatlanticism” or something. But I love the sentiment of it. It's one that we probably wouldn't fold into a set in any other capacity.

Gibbard: On every record, there are songs that I absolutely adore and songs that I have come to be ambivalent of. And then there's a couple songs I kind of hate now. I'm not going to tell you which ones those are on “Plans,” of course, but I will say that there are a couple of songs that I really dislike and I'm very curious to see how they go over live.

After the success of “Transatlanticism,” you signed with Atlantic Records and presumably the stakes and expectations were higher. What was your head space like when you started working on “Plans?”

Gibbard: At the time, I was really trying to sell the narrative that this is just another record and yeah, we're on Atlantic, but whatever, we're just making a record and it's still Death Cab. And all that was true.

But the time that I had to write for that record became really crunched. I was really burning the midnight oil, so to speak, trying to write songs for “Plans” and I was feeling pretty shaky going into that record. I felt like we had the “hit” we needed in “Soul Meets Body.” When I wrote that one, I think I told somebody at the label rather gregariously, and maybe a little egotistically, “I got the hit.” But turns out I did. I also thought “Crooked Teeth” would be kind of a hit and it wasn’t.

Harmer: There was definitely this momentum that had its own energy. And a lot of that was just us buckling up and riding that momentum and going with the flow of what seemed to be happening organically with the trajectory of our band at that time. We didn't talk about the future very much back then. We were never really like a goal-oriented band that sat down and were like, “This is what we want to accomplish.” And we still aren't in that sense.

What do you remember about your first Grammys experience?

Gibbard: They give away like 95% of the Grammys in like a conference center before the actual TV show, so our award was during that. We were in Sweden on tour, and we flew back for the Grammys. The label is like, “It's really important you guys be there.” We had suits made.

We were really excited, even though the Grammys were never something that any of us ever (expletive) cared about. We got there and we're like, “Oh my God, there's no food. We're starving.” The Arcade Fire dudes were like “We're (expletive) starving, too!” Somebody went and got us pizzas, and we were sitting on the floor together of this (convention center), both up for the same award, which we lost to White Stripes for “Get Behind Me Satan” — which I don’t mind losing to White Stripes.

But the image I remember, these two bands of, like, indie people sitting on the floor being like, “What in God's name is this thing? This is not where we come from.”

What was it like adjusting to being in the public eye?

Gibbard: We worked so hard promoting that record. When we signed to Atlantic, we (decided) we're not going to be one of those bands signed to a major label and decide that we feel more comfortable in our little indie world doing our little indie things. We want to do all the press, the TV, the radio stuff. And it worked out for us.

But also, all that work and all that coping, I chose to cope with alcohol — coping with just the sheer amount of work, trying to come down or trying to get up or whatever. At the time, Seattle started to feel like it was closing in on me a little bit. I started to feel a little self-conscious everywhere I went because I didn't feel like a famous person, but at times I was treated like one.

There are, of course, nice things that happen to you when you are treated like a famous person and also some not-so-nice things. And I found myself really being pulled down by the negative things more than I was lifted up by the positive ones.

What got you over the hump?

Gibbard: Quitting drinking was certainly No. 1 (laughs). When “Plans” came out, I was 29, and I was insecure in a way that when all the spotlights get shined on you, it doesn't necessarily build you up. It makes you feel even more self-conscious and insecure.

But over the years, I've of course learned to understand that this is just part of the deal. We were all fortunate to have each other. We all got through it together, and it really strengthened the bond that we had together, even in the difficult times. Even though Chris hasn’t been in the band since 2014, we still talk and everybody's cool. It was a crazy time in our lives, and I'm really glad we have an opportunity to revisit it with the people who were there with us or who maybe never got to see it in the first place.

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