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Annie DiRusso: Tiny Desk Concert

By Stephen Thompson
Published December 8, 2025 at 4:00 AM CST

For those of us who agonized over 2025's song-of-the-summer sweepstakes, Annie DiRusso provided a much-needed balm: Super Pedestrian, an album crammed full of funny, charismatic, bittersweet pop-rock songs about doomed Gen-Z romance and the joy of movies, sports and other distractions from… well, doomed Gen-Z romance. Whether or not 2025 ever gave you the exact song of the summer you craved, DiRusso gave some of us our album of the summer.

Now, she's back for a fresh victory lap. DiRusso recently released a deluxe edition of Super Pedestrian with some welcome bonus tracks, and now we can unveil her first-ever Tiny Desk concert. In a five-song pageant full of clever costuming, synchronized dance moves and even a few behind-the-back guitar riffs, DiRusso and her band replicate their killer stage show without sacrificing the intimacy that makes the Tiny Desk special.

Still, she had to modify her stage patter, at least a little bit.

"Usually, when I play shows, I do this whole bit where I tell the plot of School of Rock like it's my life," DiRusso says, "and then I introduce every member of the band as 'Annie DiRusso.' But when I tried that [in rehearsal], just talking, I just seemed like the biggest a****** ever."

If you haven't yet dug into her vibrant, infectious music, may this be your first step toward a triumphant summer of 2026, complete with a killer Annie DiRusso soundtrack.

SET LIST

  • "Back in Town"
  • "Hybrid"
  • "Legs"
  • "Coming Soon"
  • "It's Good to Be Hot in the Summer"

MUSICIANS

  • Annie DiRusso: vocals, guitar
  • James Eichman: guitar, banjo, background vocals
  • book NOT brooke: keys, bass, cello, background vocals
  • Eden Joel: bass, guitar, background vocals
  • Levi Bennett: drums

TINY DESK TEAM

  • Producer: Robin Hilton
  • Director: Maia Stern
  • Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
  • Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
  • Video Editor: Kara Frame 
  • Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame
  • Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
  • Production Assistants: Dora Levite, Dhanika Pineda
  • Photographer: Alanté Serene
  • Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
  • Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
  • Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
  • Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2025 NPR
NPR Music
Stephen Thompson
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)
See stories by Stephen Thompson