Tag: Performance

Bobby Carter | February 20, 2025 On the morning of Leon Thomas’ Tiny Desk concert, many NPR staffers assumed the show was postponed due to a snowstorm in the D.C. area. Not only did he proactively schedule his coast-to-coast flight but he was also 30 minutes early to the office. With his sophomore album, MUTT, Thomas has planted his flag as the most exciting artist in R&B music today. The Tiny Desk had to happen now; nothing would get in the way of divine timing. Thomas was destined to be an entertainer — he’s been doing it for most of [See More…]

Lars Gotrich | February 18, 2025 Density is built into the music of Bartees Strange — he packs his tracks with lyrical insight and sonic gestures that, upon closer listen, reveal interwoven layers of story and sound. But the dude’s also an incredibly thoughtful and powerful live performer. At the Tiny Desk, he’s got the range, with crunching rock riffs, spitting bars and bringing us to the brink of tears. Every song in this set comes from Horror, his third in a series of genre-agnostic albums that increasingly just sound like Bartees Strange and only Bartees Strange. His band gives [See More…]

Robin Hilton | February 11, 2025 Artists who play the Tiny Desk aren’t always sure what they’re getting into. “I wasn’t expecting it to be in a big building,” girl in red’s Marie Ulven tells the NPR crowd. “I thought I was going to go into a little house or something.” Any confusion aside, Ulven and her band deliver a set suitable for the kind of cozy space she imagined, one of genuine charm, good humor and unbridled joy — a vibe that girl in red has always cultivated through music. She can find cause for celebration even in life’s [See More…]

Elle Mannion | January 31, 2025 If you want it, Faye Webster’s Tiny Desk can offer an escape. Featuring her longtime band and a string quartet, Webster guides us through a swooning and sweeping set culled from her quickly growing catalog. Webster’s Underdressed at the Symphony was inspired by just that: Buying last-minute tickets to the symphony orchestra in her hometown of Atlanta and finding the experience otherworldly. She performs “But Not Kiss” and the title track from that album. Webster is a gentle but captivating performer in this space, at times grooving with her locked-in band. But she also [See More…]

Elle Mannion | January 29, 2025 MJ Lenderman’s music is a little sad, sometimes funny and almost always comforting. He’s already played the Tiny Desk with the indie rock band Wednesday, but after a stellar 2024 — a memorable feature on Waxahatchee’s “Right Back To It” and his own solo album, Manning Fireworks — it was time to bring him in for his own set. His band, normally called MJ Lenderman and The Wind, told us that when they play their songs stripped back like this, they refer to themselves as MJ Lenderman and The Breeze. The fiddle-forward “Rip Torn” [See More…]

Ann Powers | January 17, 2025 The Red Clay Strays is a big band with a future that keeps expanding. In the past few years the Mobile, Ala.-born five-piece has rocketed from club gigs to major stages like Colorado’s Red Rocks and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on the strength of its joyful interplay and soaring Southern rock sound. It wasn’t a given that the Strays could rein in the grandeur that its fanbase relishes to fit the modest Tiny Desk. But this easy rolling set shows what’s made these longtime road dogs one of the fastest-rising ensembles in any genre right [See More…]

Nikki Birch | January 13, 2025 The first law of soca music, according to Machel Montano, is: “it’s dancing time all the time.” And in his Tiny Desk Concert, the “King of Soca” provides irrefutable evidence to support that statement. Montano’s performance is the first to bring soca, the high energy dance music of the Caribbean, to the Tiny Desk. The genre was born in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970s when calypso artist Lord Shorty (who later chose the name Ras Shorty I) added traditional Indian percussion instruments and rhythms to calypso music — itself a fusion that [See More…]

Ashley Pointer | December 20, 2024 When I greeted Sabrina Carpenter at NPR HQ for her Tiny Desk debut, her charm was immediately disarming. Bubbling with excitement, she extended her hand, introduced herself and complimented my outfit with genuine warmth. You’d think this was one of her first “big time” gigs, not a regular performance for a pop veteran, having sold out arenas across the country touring her now six time Grammy-nominated sixth album, Short n’ Sweet. That humility made me love her even more. But Carpenter delivers far more than just charm in this performance. Backed by her band, [See More…]

Ashley Pointer | December 6, 2024 Doechii, known as the “Swamp Princess,” arrived at NPR HQ radiating confidence. She moved with purpose, knowing exactly what she wanted and how to achieve it. Her declarative statement, “I’m everything,” from “BOOM BAP” off her Grammy-nominated mixtape, ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL, was on full display in her Tiny Desk debut. Backed by a full band, horns and two background singers, Doechii’s performance was a masterclass in creativity. Sporting vintage academia looks, complete with matching cornrows and beads, Doechii delivers a freshly rearranged medley of cuts from ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL, tailored specifically for [See More…]