Everybody's Live, John Mulaney's weekly live Netflix talk show, is a fun experiment for all kinds of reasons. The show is clearly made with absolutely no care for slickness or even sustainability. It's just a bunch of weirdos throwing a bunch of ideas at the wall every week. For instance, Mulaney has claimed that he will fight three 14-year-old boys on the show's season finale, and he's currently revealing the identities of the kids that he'll fight, one at a time, on episodes of the show. Last night's show was devoted to the question of what's going on with Real ID cards, and it featured input from guests Andy Samberg, Ramy Youssef, AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz, and a vaping and madly riffing Robby Hoffman. It's weird shit! That weirdness blessedly extends to the show's musical programming.
John Mulaney must just book all these acts because he personally likes them, right? That's the only explanation that I can offer for the cool, unpredictable musical moments that Everybody's Live routinely showcases. It feels less like a late-night talk show, more like the Road House performances on Twin Peaks: The Return. Last week, for instance, Mulaney had Phish dressed up as the Seinfeld cast, as well as John Cale and Maggie Rogers -- not just performing but also discussing their dental maladies. Wednesday night's episode, meanwhile, had a one-off collaboration from Destroyer and Jessica Pratt, two artists who don't generally get booked on TV and who, as far as I can tell, had never collaborated before.
On a stage made up to look like an old-timey cabaret nightclub, Destroyer performed "Travel Light," the closing track from their new album Dan's Boogie. Dan Bejar gave off the twitchy vibe that he's always had onstage, but it feels weird to watch him do that on what's ostensibly supposed to be a television show. Jessica Pratt sat next to Bejar and held her guitar, but I don't think she actually did anything on "Travel Light." That song gave way to Jessica Pratt singing her 2024 song "World On A String" -- solo-acoustic at first, and then with Dan Bejar's Destroyer backing band joining in. Pratt was on Colbert last year, so she makes a little more sense on TV, but she came off as a true enigma, too. Bejar didn't do anything on that one. The two tracks share a certain loose, sprawling '70s singer-songwriter aesthetic, so the combination worked. Still, if I wasn't familiar with those two artists, I would've assumed that the performance was a conceptual joke that went above my head. Watch below.
To watch the full episode, pull up the Everybody's Live episode on Netflix. Destroyer's Dan's Boogie is out now on Merge; check out our recent feature here. Jessica Pratt's Here In The Pitch is out now on Mexican Summer; check out our 2024 feature on her here.
