far and out one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. The composer Emile Mosseri (Last Black Man In San Francisco, Minari) performed his original stuff, called up guests and played a song of theirs, and the night ended with everyone singing two Christmas carols. luckily for you it was recorded and you can cut to my highlight of the night which is 33:15 when Meg Duffy of Hand Habits comes on stage 🎄💞
The energy palpably shifted as soon as Hamilton Leithauser started playing “A 1000 Times” last night. And what a thing it is, to share space with a bunch of people you don’t know being moved by the same perfect piece of music. The last time I heard this song live, I went alone to see him play in DC. It was 2017, I was very single, and feeling a bit despondent about the state of the world (living in DC during that period was just hard). What a wild form of time travel it is to see him so many years later in Chicago with my husband sitting next to me! Little lonesome heartbroken Sandy would have loved to know that everything was going to be okay. And that, my friends, is the magic of music. It transports us, unlocks portals, connects us to people we don’t know, moves us, tells stories, and creates a mood. If you’re looking for a good entry to Hamilton Leithauser, I highly recommend his album with Rostam Batmanglij titled “I Had A Dream That You Were Mine”. Not a single song is worth skipping.