King Princess recently stopped by the NPR office to check off a major bucket list item: playing a Tiny Desk Concert. The singer-songwriter offered acoustic performances of three cuts from her latest album Hold On Baby.
After a soulful performance of her song “Cursed,” King Princess took a moment to share her gratitude for being invited to the Tiny Desk: “I’ve seen so many of these,” she told the crowd with an ear-to-ear grin. “I really wanted to do one. And now I get to. That is fucking cool, man.”
Before going into her jazzy next song “Winter Is Hopeful,” King Princess also told a funny backstory behind the track’s title. “This next song that we’re gonna play was originally called ‘Quinn,’ but then my girlfriend Quinn was like, ‘No. Please stop doing things like that. It’s obnoxious.’”
Lastly, King Princess and her band gave an emphatic rendition of Hold On Baby closing track “Let Us Die”: “If you’re feeling saucy today, you can join in with the band,” she told the audience, who you can hear softly providing their own backing vocals along with the musicians. Watch King Princess’ full Tiny Desk Concert below.
Speaking of “Let Us Die,” the studio version of the track was actually one of Taylor Hawkins’ final recorded performances before the Foo Fighters drummer suddenly died in March. King Princess honored him during her August appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she played “Let Us Die” in angel wings with a drum kit reading “Taylor” behind her. King Princess also recently chatted with Consequence about the making of Hold On Baby.