watch Foxing's stunning NPR Tiny Desk Concert

When we invited Foxing to NPR HQ, we wondered how the band’s big sound would translate to such a (forgive us) tiny space. Would Foxing bring a bagpiper to recreate the shrill accent it snuck onto its latest album, 2018’s Nearer My God, or try to replicate the cathartic energy of its live shows over the hum of computers and fluorescent lights?

Not quite. Instead, the St. Louis-based group brought the same sense of purpose to its Tiny Desk arrangement that’s impressed us across its three full-length releases. [NPR]

Foxing stopped by NPR’s Tiny Desk recently, and as the NPR quote above points out, they took the intimate space’s opportunity to re-arrange their songs and focus on the quieter side of their sound. And as you’d expect from a highly ambitious band like Foxing, they clearly put a lot of thought into this performance and hearing the songs performed this way is a real treat. They didn’t try to replicate their larger-than-life live shows, but they did still cram a ton of people into a small space, just like they used to do when they were starting out and regularly playing tiny venues. Their band had even more members at this performance, including additional string and horn players, and with the new arrangements, Foxing turned “Slapstick,” “Nearer My God,” and “Grand Paradise” off last year’s great Nearer My God into chamber pop bliss. Watch below.

Foxing are heading out on a Europe/UK tour later this month, but first singer Conor Murphy’s solo project Smidley is playing some US shows with Fog Lake this week. All dates are listed below.