Stephan Jenkins and company also dust off early tracks as well as their hit “Jumper” during five-song performance
Third Eye Blind played a set of early tracks and debuted a new song at the Y2K rockers’ Tiny Desk concert.
The five-song performance kicked off with stripped-down rendition of “Slow Motion” and “Motorcycle Drive By” — non-singles off the band’s 1999 sophomore LP Blue and 1997 self-titled debut, respectively — before 3EB played “Dust Storm,” which Stephan Jenkins (recovering from the flu himself) said was among the band’s Covid-era tracks.
The fourth song was the debut performance of “Like a Lullaby,” the band’s new single out today. “My songs are emotional reactions to the times I am in,” Jenkins added of the song in a statement. “Mostly, they are driven by the subconscious—a dream of the times, if you will. In these days I am concerned with impermanence, legacy, death and what lives on. I wonder where we go when the very idea of empathy is under threat. This is my retort. But it doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what happens to you when you listen. I hope this song inhabits you with a feeling that feeds you.”
Third Eye Blind closed out their NPR set with a rendition of their hit “Jumper.” “All of us in 3eb are regular watchers of Tiny Desk, and for me, it is a source of music discovery and music rediscovery,” Jenkins added of Tiny Desk.
“We were delighted to be asked to play. Of course, I got swamped with a nasty case of the flu, but I think I got through it based on adrenaline and enthusiasm. I think our performance was enhanced by our new friends at NPR, noticing I was under the weather and helping me to sing along. Institutions like NPR are under threat and it was even more special for us to lend our voice. I will be watching with my friends.”
