Tunde Adebimpe | photo by Ellen Miller
Tunde Adebimpe, Margo Price, Maren Morris Headline Day 2 of NON-COMM 2025
Tune in for regular updates, set-by-set highlights, and behind-the-scenes insights.
Day two of NON-COMMvention 2025 picked right up where Tuesday left off. On Wednesday, May 7, WXPN’s annual Triple-A showcase opened with an intimate noon set and rolled straight into a full slate of evening performances — each one streamed live on XPN.org.
Starting at 12 p.m. ET, listeners tuned in for non-stop music, real-time updates, and set-by-set coverage as both familiar favorites and emerging artists took the stage. Through May 9, public radio’s best voices and newest discoveries will keep the live-music energy flowing.
Palmyra
Crossing the bridge between folk and modern rock, Shenandoah Valley band Palmyra got the second day of NON-COMM under way in the Music Hall of World Cafe Live with an upbeat, uplifting set. With a relentless stomping pulse and fervently-strummed guitar lines, the band’s album Restless recalls the early 2010’s wave of post-Mumford / post-Lumineers music. Many of the songs they performed are named for cities and places (“Arizona,” “Hudson”), making it ideal music for the open road. (If you tuned in while driving, the experience was probably optimal.) The band previously played a Free At Noon concert in February, warming up for the release of Restless in late March. Acknowledging the broadcast professionals in the crowd, Palmyra said “It’s been such an amazing month since this record came out. And a large part of that is thanks to radio stations like y’all.”
Margo Price
An appearance from Margo Price is always cause for excitement in the WXPN community. That goes doubly so for the country-rock singer-songwriter’s NON-COMM performance, which was made up almost entirely of new material. “I’m not supposed to talk about this new album yet,” she explained. “But it’s really hard.” As voices in the crowd beckoned “Talk about it!,” Price gave the most cursory of details; the opener “Don’t Let The Bastards Get Your Down” was recorded with Texas rocker Rodney Crowell. The slow and somber barroom waltz “Love Me Like You Used To” is a forthcoming single, and it was joined later on by Price’s first new release of the year, the Billy Strings collab “Too Stoned To Cry.” Like Michigander did on opening night, Price expressed solidarity amid funding uncertainty: “We stand by public radio through everything that’s going on right now.” And she closed out the set with her first song that broke on public radio: “Hurtin’ (On The Bottle)” from Midwest Farmer’s Daughter.
Sunny War
Singer-songwriter Sunny War has appeared on XPN stages many times as a solo folk-punk troubadour, but for NON-COMM 2025, she kicked off night two showcasing her record Armageddon In A Summer Dress with a stirring backing band. The record, released in February on New West Records, makes the personal political and vice versa; the powerful “Walking Contradiction” interrogates power structures in society, paints a picture of the point where war becomes something much worse, and the impact it has on those who bear witness to it. Heavy stuff, but musically dynamic, full of simmering roots rock beauty.
Maren Morris
This Friday, country singer-songwriter Maren Morris releases her fourth studio LP Dreamsicle, and she gave a packed and attentive crowd at the NPR Music Stage of NON-COMM a taste of the record’s new songs — including “Too Good” and “Bed No Breakfast.” She also shared stories about some of her biggest hits (deep dives moreso than stories, and Morris joked “I know I’m long-winded between songs”). She described the way “The Bones” experienced a slow build to a massive hit during the pandemic, and the emotional rush of playing it live for the first time post-lockdown. And for the closing “My Church” from her 2016 debut Hero, she broke down the creative process of Nashville songwriting, and the moment when she and her collaborator realized the bridge was actually the hook — and it had the crowd singing along by the end of her set.
Craig Finn
The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn released his sixth solo album, Always Been, and the indie troubadour’s NON-COMM set on the PRX stage fully showcased his latest body of work. Opening the way the album opens — the triptych of “Bethany” into “People of Substance” into “Crumbs” — the performance delivered earnest, honest storytelling from the charismatic Finn, who closed with the six-minute epic “Shamrock.”
Tunde Adebimpe
After over two decades as the lead vocalist and frontperson of revered New York City art rockers TV On The Radio, singer-songwriter and actor Tunde Adebimpe released his solo debut, Thee Black Boltz, this spring via Sub Pop. The record finds him stretching for a broader sonic palette than his main band — it’s got those experimental rock grooves, yes, but also dashes of subtle Beatles-esque psychedelia, Giorgio Moroder style dance energy, and tender songs about love. Adebimpe brought all of this to the NON-COMM stage, performing electronic duo style and delivering a set that was surreal (“Ate The Moon”) and sublime (“Somebody New”). Short of a set this August at Carnation, Washington’s THING festival, Adebimpe is keeping his touring activity this year centered on TVOTR, making this set (as WXPN’s Kristen Kurtis pointed out in her intro) a rare and special thing.
Wishy
When smoke starts wafting out of an amplifier mid-concert, something is either very wrong or very right. For Indianapolis’ Wishy, whose fire scare on the PRX stage at NON-COMM was contained quickly thanks to the production crew, it was an indicator of their heavy stage volume, but also their generally hard-driving energy. Wishy’s latest EP, Planet Popstar, came out in late April on Winspear Records, and on the project (and onstage) they proved to be kindred spirits of Momma and other rising 90s revivalists, making liberal use of effects pedals and dreamy pop/rock riffs to craft songs that are heavy but also heartwarming.
Sparks
WXPN’s Eric Schuman was bursting with excitement as he welcomed the band Sparks onstage to close out night two of NON-COMM, and with good reason. The prolific synthpop icons have released albums in six distinct decades; their latest, Mad!, is their 28th record. The band’s core duo of brothers Ron and Russell Mael played World Cafe Live with a robust array of backing musicians juggling guitar, bass, and keyboards. They hit the new record’s highlights, like “Do Things My Own Way” and “Lord Have Mercy.” But as the room filled up, Sparks dug into their vast catalog for selections they deemed “ancient” (1977’s “Goofing Off,” the closing punch of “No. 1 In Heaven” and “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us”) that got the crowd going. That energy was reciprocal, too, as a spry Russell leapt and dance, and worked the fans and new faces lining the front row.
