Chasing the Light: Jesse Malin Announces His Return to the Stage
Resilient Singer-Songwriter Scheduled to Perform Again in December
We are beset by apparently unending barrages of bad news these days, from Washington, from Israel, from Ukraine, from the campaign hustings, and from the latest high school with a horrific shooting, to list just a few. This is a fact that underscores how important and inestimable good news is these days.
Yesterday, welcome news offset the daily barrage. Jesse Malin, one of the most artistically important singer-songwriters active today, announced his forthcoming return to the stage.
Jesse is an indefatigable artist and veteran of the New York music scene, best known for his punkish hard rock band D Generation and his minstrelsy (and sometimes punkish) two-decades-long solo career. Unfortunately, he suffered a rare spinal stroke last May, which paralyzed him. Then fifty-six, the irrepressible Malin related his misfortune with his characteristic “PMA” or positive mental attitude. Sanguine, he looked ahead to the possibility of performing again, thanking his friends, fans, and supporters and sharing links to his recovery fund (see it at the link). In the autumn, he told interviewers that he was undergoing experimental stem cell treatment and physical therapy in Buenos Aires. I wrote that if anyone could overcome such a setback, it was Jesse Malin.
Yesterday, he announced that he and his band will headline the Beacon
Theatre in New York on December 1. Billed guests include Lucinda Williams, Jakob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones, J Mascis, Butch Walker, Alejandro Escovedo, Mary Louise Parker, and Danny Clinch. The advertisement for the gig hints at additional “special guests”. A presale is occurring today and tomorrow (see Jesse’s Instagram page and link tree for additional details).
Jesse and his music are cultural treasures; his songs are artful and introspective tunes that span the gamut of mood, theme, and emotion while being generally human-centric and optimistic. Jesse is an heroic, benevolent tower of light in a culture of misanthropic darkness. Songs like “State of the Art”, “Grey Skies Look So Blue”, “Greener Pastures”, and “Don’t Let Them Take You Down” are some of the more recent of his tunes that try to see the good among so much bad. (Even darker songs like “All Bets Are Off” and “You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray” maintain a subtle undercurrent of hope.) His latest, Chasing the Light (Wicked Cool Records), is a live album that was recorded in New York in January 2022 and released last Friday. It continues his warmth and benevolence (down to its title). It is available on the streaming services, but a warm, organic, good-old-fashioned vinyl copy is a judicious investment.
And, for those who will be in the vicinity, a ticket to the Beacon Theatre on December 1 is a more judicious investment still.