Stephen Thompson | July 24, 2024
There’s always been a disconnect between Leslie Feist’s music — soothing, thoughtful, deliberately crafted — and her warm, wryly funny personality. We got to witness both in her longawaited Tiny Desk debut, which finds her showcasing new and old material amid selfeffacing commentary on the pandemic, public speaking and her strange moment of realityTV fame.

“The great joke that will always remain about [her song ‘Hiding Out in the Open’] is that we ended up singing it to contestants on The Bachelor — where true love rules all, of course,” Feist said between songs. “So singing truisms about eternal love to youth on a game show changed the context forever.”

Performing two songs from last year’s wonderful Multitudes (“In Lightning” and “Hiding Out in the Open”) and two songs from 2011’s Metals (“Caught a Long Wind” and “The Bad in Each Other”), Feist was joined by a group of players and singers who’ve each performed notable work in their own right: Keyboardist Rose Droll is a terrific solo singersongwriter, drummer Andrew Barr plays in The Slip and The Barr Brothers, bassist Todd Dahlhoff often plays and records with Devendra Banhart and Meshell Ndegeocello, and multiinstrumentalist Amir Yaghmai is a member of The Voidz. Together, though, they sound like one impeccable organism, with Feist herself as its bold, unfailingly kind beating heart.

SET LIST
“In Lightning”
“Caught a Long Wind”
“Hiding Out in the Open”
“The Bad in Each Other”

MUSICIANS
Leslie Feist: lead vocals, guitar
Amir Yaghmai: violin, guitar, vocals
Todd Dahlhoff: bass, vocals, musical direction
Andrew Barr: drums
Rose Droll: keys, piano, vocals

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Stephen Thompson
Director: Joshua Bryant
Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault
Editor: Kara Frame
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Zayrha Rodriguez
Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Michael Zamora
Tiny Desk Team: Hazel Cills, Maia Stern
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins