Don’t hate us for that headline: This past Friday, Death Cab were the special, unannounced guests at the Seeds Of Compassion Conference. The concert took place at Seattle’s KeyArena, where Dave Matthews was the listed draw. He did double time, performing a lengthy set with right hand man Tim Reynolds and interviewing the Dalai Lama with Anne Curry (during which, the key word was “compassion,” kids). Doors opened at 4PM and Rolling Stone was there. They write:

The evening kicked off with an hour-long dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Matthews, clearly nervous, asked the Dalai Lama how he felt music applied to compassion: “The message of love through music may be stronger in depth,” the Dalai Lama said in part. Later, Matthews noted that as part of a gang of his schoolmates, he’d fought kids from a different school, only for those rivals to have since become his best friends.

We have some video of the exchange with the Tibetan Buddhist leader.

Then, there was an hour’s intermission, where you could contemplate all of the Lama’s goodness, after which Death Cab played six songs, including a newbie, “Talking Bird.” Rolling Stone quotes Gibbard as saying he planned to “take a lesson from the Dalai Lama” and “try and transcend my hatred for this mic stand.” We have no proof of that, but we do have some “Talking Bird”…

On top of “Talking Bird,” they played “405,” “Photobooth,” “Title And Registration,” “Brothers On A Hotel Bed,” and “Soul Meets Body.” We have partial videos of a pair.

“Title And Registration”

“Brothers In A Hotel Bed”

Post-Death Cab, DM did his 18-song, hour and forty-five minute set that included a cover of Daniel Lanois’ “The Maker,” and these two tracks.

“Eh Hee”

“Stay Or Leave”

“Stay Or Leave” really is Dave’s best, right? Or is that #41? It’s also in a new Virginia tourism commercial we can’t find on YouTube. Wait, VA, are you telling us you don’t care if we come or go?