Is Big Thief the best band in the world right now? It’s very possible. On their new album, Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, Adrianne Lenker has cemented herself as one of the best modern American songwriters. The double album offers up 20 tracks that show a band who continue to re-establish the levels of their creative peak. With “Simulation Swarm,” they’ve finally released a song that had previously popped up in their live shows and last night, they performed it for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The livestreamed performance saw the band coming from a Bohemian basement studio. Sinking into the clip, it provides an opportunity to focus on each impeccable element that this tight unit is putting down. Lenker’s locked in vocals keep building as the song wears on, before her inventive guitar solo melds in symbiotically. James Krivchenia is perfect on the drums, while Buck Meek’s rhythm section is selflessly sublime. Lyrically, it might the most beautiful and complex song on the album. Lenker sings, “You believe, I believe too, that you are the river of light. Who I love, that I cling to, in the belly of the empty night,” and it’s pure bliss.
Along with Big Thief’s spring US tour dates that begin next month, they’ll also be playing a global livestream on March 17th from a snowy Northeastern US locale. Tickets are available here.
Watch Big Thief perform “Simulation Swarm” on Colbert above.