Philly’s Sheer Mag, with bagpipes, on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk

Philly acts are taking over the Tiny Desk as special guests.

Earlier this year, rapper and singer Tierra Whack performed on the Tiny Desk Concert ‘stage’ — that is, the corner of the National Public Radio newsroom in Washington. D.C. where the internet music show’s founder Bob Boilen used to keep his desk — and brought along the Phillie Phanatic.

Now, Sheer Mag, the Philly hard rock band fronted by singer Tina Halladay, has taken over the NPR Desk, with a bagpipe player. The band — which along with Halladay includes Kyle Seely on guitar, Hart Seely on bass, Matt Palmer on guitar, and Evan Palmer on drums — was joined by D.C. area bagpiper player Tim Carey, on their five-song set.

The 18-minute set begins with the funereal sounds of Carey’s instrument as he marches down a hallway to join Sheer Mag, already thumping their way into “Steel Sharpens Steel,” a typically emphatic and determined song of personal protest from the group’s 2019 album A Distant Call. “I’ve been beaten and defeated,” Halliday sings. “But I’m fighting for a better day.”

» READ MORE: Philly rockers Sheer Mag return with the personal and powerful ‘A Distant Call’

The band, which played a sold-out headlining show last month at the Philly Music Fest at Johny Brenda’s, reached back to their mid-2010s beginnings with “Fan The Flames” and “Nobody’s Baby,” with Halladay noting that the newsroom was a little too bright for the band: “We’re used to playing in the dark.”

They pulled “Don’t Come Lookin’,” off their 2024 album Playing Favorites, which is released on Jack Whites’ Third Man Records, and also included a blistering take on “Need To Feel Your Love,” the title track to their 2017 full length debut album.