Yeah Yeah Yeahs are turning a very special chapter of their 25th anniversary era into something fans can keep forever. The band has announced Hidden in Pieces, a new live album accompanied by a 22-minute black-and-white film, capturing the intimacy and vulnerability of their recent live performances.
And for Los Angeles fans, there’s an especially meaningful connection: the live performance session was recorded at the legendary Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A. at the end of the band’s recent 25th anniversary tour.
For someone who attended two of their Hidden in Pieces shows, I can confidently say this is going to be an album every Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan will want to own on physical media. It is a beloved piece of Yeah Yeah Yeahs history, and for those who weren’t able to attend this limited run of shows, owning this album and watching the short film might be the closest thing you’ll ever get to experiencing a Hidden in Pieces performance.
The announcement arrives as the band looks back on a period when live music felt especially necessary. For Karen O, Hidden in Pieces was born from a desire to reconnect with the band and its fans in 2025, following the election and during a moment when music once again became a place to find some depth, light and connection.
“We turn to live music when we need that specific quality of depth and light to see us through the times.,” Karen O says.
The project grew out of an ambitious recording session at Sonic Ranch in February 2025, where the band and string arranger Jherek Bischoff worked at a breakneck pace to reimagine nearly 24 Yeah Yeah Yeahs songs for quartet and acoustic instrumentation.
Those arrangements were then brought to the stage, with much of the live album recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall. It was the band’s first time playing the historic venue, and Karen O says the experience ultimately lived up to the immense anticipation surrounding it.
“The real alchemy happened when we played the hall, it clicked into place,” she says. “All the shows we performed on this small tour were extraordinarily vulnerable. We hope that translates.”
And apparently, some of that alchemy made its way back to Los Angeles.
The visual companion, also titled Hidden in Pieces, was directed by award-winning filmmaker Barnaby Clay, whose previous work includes the Mick Rock documentary Shot! and the horror film The Seeding. Shot in black and white, the 22-minute film aims to capture something beyond a straightforward concert film.
Clay describes it as “delicate and dream-like, like a precious memory, timeless, emotionally charged and shrouded in mystery.”
That feels particularly fitting for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a band whose music has always occupied that strange space between raw physical energy and something much more vulnerable. Hidden in Pieces seems designed to capture the latter — the quiet moments, the atmosphere, and the emotional weight that can get lost when a live show is reduced to a setlist and a handful of crowd videos. I can attest to crying a handful of times during the Orpheum Theatre LA shows. Especially during “Skeletons.”
“The pipe organ moment in ‘Skeletons’ was no less than immaculate vibrations,” said Karen O. “We felt the spirits of all legends past swirling around us. Nick remarked that he felt as though his fingers were guided on the guitar neck. The real alchemy happened when we played the hall, it clicked into place. All the shows we performed on this small tour were extraordinarily vulnerable. We hope that translates.“
The film also carries a personal tribute to David Lynch. Karen O says Lynch’s passing came just a month before the band began this journey, and the performance opens with an ode to his legacy.
“Thanks also to David Lynch for his everything,” Karen O says. “His passing came a month before we began this journey and the performance begins with an ode to his legacy.”
For those who caught Yeah Yeah Yeahs during their 25th anniversary tour, Hidden in Pieces offers another way back into those rooms, and another chance to experience the band in a setting that strips away some of the spectacle and lets the songs breathe.
But don’t worry, there’s still a bit of spectacle, especially in Karen O’s shoes.
The live album is out as part of the Hidden in Pieces project, while the 22-minute visual companion is now streaming on Criterion Channel.
The film will also receive a special double-feature theatrical release in select venues across the U.K., Australia, Japan and the U.S. Some screenings will be followed by a film selected by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Tickets go on sale September 3.
For a band that has spent 25 years making music that can feel both blissfully chaotic and deeply intimate, Hidden in Pieces sounds like a fitting document of where Yeah Yeah Yeahs are right now. As fans who have grown with this band, we’re looking backward with them, reckoning with the present, and finding our way forward through music.
And having witnessed the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in Los Angeles, there’s something particularly cool about knowing the Orpheum performance will live on beyond that night.
Hidden in Pieces double features:
9/21 – London, UK @ Rio Cinema Dalston (double feature with NIGHT OF THE HUNTER)
9/21 – Melbourne, AUS @ The Lido (double feature with Mulholland Drive)
9/21 – Sydney, AUS @ The Ritz (double feature with Mulholland Drive)
9/23 – New York City, NY @ The Roxy (double feature with Wings of Desire)
9/23 – Los Angeles, CA @ Vidiots (double feature with Eraserhead)
Hidden in Pieces screenings:
9/22 – Mexico City, MX @ Cine Tonalá
9/23 – Mexico City, MX @ Cine Tonalá
9/24 – Mexico City, MX @ Cine Tonalá
9/24 – Tokyo, JP @ Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho
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