Soul Glo: Tiny Desk Concert

Lars Gotrich | March 29, 2024 We have hosted rap legends, Broadway musicals, pop stars, world-renowned classical musicians, indie rockers and folkies — there’s a universe of music at the Tiny Desk that keeps expanding. But we have never featured a hardcore punk band at the NPR Music office ... until Soul Glo. Hardcore and punk are vital not only in how I understand the world but also challenge myself; it’s music that feels first, then screams. Soul Glo crystalizes its anger and anxiety — about trauma, anti-Blackness, mortality, survival — with a pummeling prism of classic hardcore speed, psychedelic noise, sludgy riffs and a spitfire vocalist with exasperated-but-exhilarating run-ons, who finds moments to step back and bounce like an emcee would. But punk can also be unpredictable because, at its heart, punk does not want to be contained. Soul Glo’s set features tracks from 2022’s still thrilling Diaspora Problems, plus a loosie from last year. Halfway through “Driponomic