David Wax Museum: Tiny Desk Concert

I first saw the fun and frenetic David Wax Museum at the Newport Folk Festival this past summer — the band had won a contest that got it to Newport. Its blend of American and Mexican folk music was infectious, and by the show's end I was already a fan. But when the festival was over, and the Newport crew and musicians had gathered on a nearby roof to share some smiles and beer, there they were again: David Wax with his pint-sized Mexican jarocha guitar and Suz Slezak with her percussive donkey jawbone, making pure, irresistible joy.

Wax and Slezak recently came to the Tiny Desk with friends Sam D'Agostino on saxophone and percussion and Mike Roberts on guitar and upright bass. (That popping sound around a minute into "Yes, Marie, Yes" is the sound of his bass bridge collapsing.) Not since Gogol Bordello's visit has it been so hard to keep a band in frame, on mic and within the roughly six-square-foot area that functions as our performance space.

David Wax Museum's album Everything Is Saved comes out on Feb. 8, and when the band returns to D.C., I'll definitely see it again. This kind of acoustic exuberance doesn't happen often enough.