Watch Julien Baker Play A Great Full-Band “Hardline” On Seth Meyers
This past Friday, Julien Baker released Little Oblivions, her third album. It fucking rules. After years of making hugely resonant music all on her own, Baker switched the game up, going for a vast, emotionally satisfying full-band sound. On the record, Baker still played most of the instruments herself. But in playing live — or, at least, in taping promotional-appearance live sets, which is all you can really do right now — Baker has put together a whole band. They sound awesome.
Last night, Baker was the musical guest on Late Night With Seth Meyers, and she played with a four-piece backing band. This isn’t the first time that the American television viewing audience has seen Baker and her band in action; they played Colbert back in January. But it’s still a chance to see Julien Baker play with musicians behind her, and that still feels new.
On Meyers, Baker performed “Hardline,” the crashing and powerful opening track from Little Oblivions. The song has the big, dramatic moments that some of us love, but those big moments don’t come from Baker howling out a huge note anymore. Instead, “Hardline” reaches its apex when the band comes thundering in behind her, and it’s cool as hell to see them doing that on TV. Baker and her band seemed to play on the same soundstage that they used for their Colbert appearance, but it looks like they didn’t tape the two performances on the same day. (If they did, everyone was nice enough to change clothes in between songs.) Watch that “Hardline” performance below.
Little Oblivions is out now on Matador. Read our feature on Julien Baker, where she talks about the stories behind every song from the new album, here.