Best KEXP Live Performances to Watch When You Feel Like Ass, Part 1
Live music is the best balm for feeling like ass.
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We love Tiny Desk, obviously. Live on KEXP is a different beast in the same forest of in-studio performances filmed and disseminated on YouTube for the music-hungry masses. While Tiny Desk feels like you are in someone’s living room, Live on KEXP feels like you are in someone’s basement at a house show that will become a local legend.
For nigh-on 30 years, the Seattle radio station has been dutifully introducing musicians the world over, and the result is a vault of thousands of live performances for you to enjoy.
While Tiny Desk is light and airy, musicians pared down to their essence, KEXP is guttural and loud, with musicians pouring their fucking lungs out against the studio’s signature glittering backdrop.
Here are the best KEXP live performances to lift you up when you feel like ass.
Dakha Brakha
Dakha Brakha is a Ukrainian quartet that, at first glance, looks like they would play some lovely, gentle folk music that might lull you peacefully to sleep. Barrely a minute into their performance, you will see how totally wrong you were. Dhaka Brakha is a hypnotic cacophony of powerful harmonies, with cellos, accordions, goblet drums, harmonica, digeridoo, and more.
Instead of lulling you to sleep, Dakha Brakha will awaken something deep inside of you.
HAM
Music that comes out of Iceland is SO Iceland. Think Björk, Sigur Rós, Mum, Aurora — they all sound like fairies that gestated in the Earth’s core before sprouting through volcanic soil. HAM is no different. If Icelandic metal isn’t your thing, it might be after this. These guys have been ripping since 1988, and their sound is reminiscent of medieval dungeons, in the best way.
HAM’s KEXP set was filmed at Iceland Airwaves music festival, and it kicks off with a warning of what is to come, with lead singer Óttarr Proppé declaring to the crowd: “We are HAM, and we are going to play a few songs about friendship and love and hate!”
Sylvan Esso
Electropop duo Sylvan Esso casts a spell that we want to be under at all times.
Amelia Meath’s delicate, soothing vocals are fortified by Nick Sanborn’s synthesizer. The pair perform songs from their self-titled debut album, a synthy lullaby that makes us feel like we are being rocked to sleep in a dreamy soundwave.
Charles Bradley
Charles Bradley’s voice will reach into your chest, grab your heart, and give it a squeeze that will fill your body with both chills and the warm fuzzies. The funk and soul legend is backed by The Extraordinaires for his 2016 KEXP Live performance. The performance is typical of Bradley, who is armed with a voice that could awaken long-sleeping gods, change geography, summon the rain, and knock your fucking socks off.
People who were fortunate enough to see Bradley live before his death in 2017 describe it as a transcendent experience, and this one is no exception.
IDLES
IDLES holds a spot on our best Tiny Desk list, too. The lead singer’s energy will blast you in the face, reach around the back of your head, and get that thang banging. The band fills the space with a chaotic energy that pushes against the ceiling and walls, straining to contain them. Lead singer Joseph Talbot growls and pushes his vocals through gritted teeth, each word coming out like a sharp bullet as the band berates your ears by ripping on their instruments like nobody’s business.
Stay tuned for part two.