Hey everybody,
Dateline: Hoboken. It’s official. For the fifth time in the last seven years, Yo La Tengo will lift their collective voices in song to commemorate the eight days of Hanukkah. The concerts will once again take place at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, beginning December 4 and concluding on December 11.
As in the past, each show will begin with an opening band, followed by some comedy, and then a Yo La Tengo set. And perhaps more. That’s all we’re going to tell you, so don’t ask who’s playing. We can guarantee that it’ll be great, and that no matter what night you’re there, you’ll wish you had come another night instead. That’s just the way you are; there’s nothing we can do about that.
Doors will open at 8 pm each night, with the show starting promptly at 8:30, except for Friday and Saturday December 7-8, which will be 8:30 doors, 9:00 show.
Tickets will be $30 each, and will go on sale this United Nations Day at noon, eastern time. (That’s Wednesday, October 24 for all you U.N. bashers out there.) The shows will be benefits, for charities to be named later, to borrow a phrase from the sports section. To purchase tickets online, go to ticketweb.com. If that doesn’t work, go the Maxwell’s site and follow the instructions there. Advance tickets will also be sold at Tunes in Hoboken and Other Music in New York.
If you’re looking for a place to stay, we can’t help you, but that won’t stop us from trying. A couple of hotels a little off the beaten track are the Palace Hotel in North Bergen, NJ and the Red Roof Inn in Secaucus, NJ.
We’ve never stayed at either of them, so cannot vouch for them, but we can tell you that they are less expensive than most of your New York City and Jersey City options. (Hoboken, though boasting three—that’s right, three—Dunkin’ Donuts, has no hotels.)
Hope to see you there!
— Georgia, Ira and James