Philly hardcore band Soul Glo makes NPR debut — and opens up the first Tiny Desk Concert mosh pit

Philadelphia-based band Soul Glo was NPR’s first hardcore punk band to get a Tiny Desk Concert — and the first to open up a Tiny Desk mosh pit.

The band’s four-song set, which was filmed at the public radio organization’s D.C. headquarters, premiered Friday on NPR’s website and social media pages. Tiny Desk Concerts — the live video series that launched in 2008 and has been likened to a new generation’s version of MTV Unplugged — notably hasn’t featured many heavy acts before (in 2022, the series invited Turnstile, but the set didn’t take place in the office because of COVID-19).

“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,” said Tiny Desk producer Lars Gotrich. “But we have never featured a hardcore punk band at the NPR Music office … until Soul Glo.”

And, if the comments section is any indication, it’s being received well.

“Please bring more stuff like this to the desk, I love the ‘pop singer does a soulful acoustic set’ thing but this is infinitely better,” one comment said. “Never in a million years did I expect to see Soul Glo here,” said another.

Soul Glo, which formed in West Philly in 2014 and signed to Epitaph Records in 2021, is comprised of Pierce Jordan on vocals, GG Guerra on guitar and vocals, Allen Nunez on bass, and TJ Stevenson on drums. For the Tiny Desk set, the band played songs mostly off its 2022′s album, Diaspora Problems, spotlighting racism, trauma, and mental-health issues in America.

Last year, Rolling Stone magazine called Soul Glo “trailblazers who play a nuanced, unpredictable hybrid of hardcore punk, metal, and hip-hop” and “one of the most ambitious bands in the world.”

The band previously supported fellow Philly band Sheer Mag on an East Coast tour and is about to embark on a tour accompanying another Philly headliner and Epitaph labelmate, Mannequin Pussy.

“Preparing for the performance and playing in that office was a challenge that we are grateful to accept considering how many legends have and continue to grace the room,” the band said in a statement.

The band went on to call the performance “unforgettable,” thanking friends, its label, NPR, and even Telfar — the trendy Black-owned luxury brand named in the band’s song “Driponomics.”

About halfway through the band’s Tiny Desk set, vocalist Pierce Jordan crouched atop the desk with a smiling crowd in front of him.

“I can’t say thank you enough,” Jordan said. “This is very, very special. Very surreal.”

Soul Glo closed with its single “Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)” and a joyous and laughter-filled mosh pit broke out within the office. It was a first, according to Tiny Desk producer Gotrich — “I’m still smiling about it.”