After the pandemic disrupted their in-house performances, NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series pivoted to at-home sets. Instead of bringing musicians to their Washington, DC office, bands were asked to recorded music from the comfort and safety of their own homes. The at-home tiny desk concerts allow for artistic freedom with just one requirement: A tiny desk needs to be somewhere in sight.
Dinosaur Jr. is the latest band to bring their music to the at-home concert series, and they were creative when it came to the required tiny desk. Recording the performance at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, Dinosaur Jr. placed a child-size desk and chair at center stage. They filled the remainder of the area with various props from past album cycles like dinosaur balloons, action figures, stuffed animals, and fake plastic food.
The 20-minute on-stage set went off without a hitch and brief pauses between each track allowed for playful on-stage banter. Bassist Lou Barlow noted after delivering their performance-opening track “I Ain’t” that the song’s backup vocals were courtesy of Kurt Vile, who produced their recent Sweep It Into Space LP. The band then moved into a rendition of their song “Garden” before throwing it back with their hit 1994 song “Feel The Pain.”
Watch Dinosaur Jr.’s Tiny Desk concert above.
Sweep It Into Space is out now via Jagjaguwar. Get it here.
