Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats were the featured musical guest on Tuesday night’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. This appearance saw the band perform “Survivor” and “Baby I Got Your Number” for Jimmy Fallon and his audience, two songs from the recently released album, The Future, out via Stax Records.
Rateliff dons his Fender guitar for the boisterous romp through “Survivor”, which appears as the second track on The Future, and saw a music video release back in August. Replete with punchy, distorted guitar and compliments from the horn section, the song builds to an impressive apogee that hears the frontman belting its titular refrain, “You think that I’m just/ Some great survivor”, triggering a roar of applause from viewers in the studio.
The slower, more sensual “Baby I Got Your Number”, conversely, sees Rateliff sans guitar and with a microphone in hand. Carrying a more jazzy feel, the song trades distorted guitar for swaying clean tones. Throughout this performance, Rateliff moves around the stage quite a bit thanks to the freedom of not having a stationary microphone stand. Staying true to the album version of the song, his voice turns into an instrument in its own right, adding some percussive “do-do’s” in lockstep with the bassline.
Both renditions highlight themes displayed across the album: the tension between hope for the future and the unbridled malaise affecting the present. While “Baby I Got Your Number” carries the hope for future love, “Survivor” is an all-out, vigorous unmasking of the struggles faced by Rateliff.
“I look at the album overall as a big question,” Rateliff said in a press release when the album was initially announced. “When I was writing the record we were in the middle of a pandemic and our future looked pretty bleak. I just continue to try to write from a place of hope. Then my own neurosis, and maybe being a libra gets in the way, and I can’t make up my mind. There is this constant back and forth battle in me personally and I am sure that comes out in my writing.”
Watch Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats perform “Survivor” and “Baby I Got Your Number” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon below.
The band has several currently scheduled tour dates in November and December. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats will head to New Orleans, LA on November 13th for a stop at Tipitina’s, before hitting Vail, CO on December 3rd, and Mission Ballroom in Denver on the 16th. Head here for additional ticket and tour information.
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – “Survivor” – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – “Baby I Got Your Number” – The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon