“There’s a lot of love here, it’s not as hard as everybody says,” said Jesse Malin of his city whilst sitting center stage at Beacon Theatre, a venue he never played in his hometown of New York City up until the previous day. There for the second show in a two-night run at the Beacon on Monday, December 2, Malin closed a pair of shows, benefit concerts for his medical costs and continued treatment after suffering a rare spinal stroke in 2022 that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Night one, December 1, featured a cast of musical characters from Malin’s life, from Elvis Costello and Rickie Lee Jones, Lucinda Williams, Steven Van Zandt, and more, including some who returned for both shows, each filled with songs pulled from Malin’s catalog and others that impacted his life.
Co-hosted by emcees Jim Jarmusch and Matt Dillon, comedian Fred Armisen was also on hand for introductions. Butch Walker returned for the second night and opened the night with “Aftermath” from Malin’s Glitter in the Gutter before Low Cut Connie’s Adam Weiner brought back a more nostalgic “When You’re Young.”
Rickie Lee Jones was joined by longtime Malin collaborator Don DiLego for her cover of Gayle Caldwell’s “Cycles” before Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz and violinist Sergey Ryabtsev delivered two songs from Malin’s “hardcore past” including their cover of Agnostic Front’s “Victim of Pain.”
Once the audience was warmed up, Jarmusch introduced Malin and his band who appeared behind the red curtain and jumped straight into “Room 13,” a Sunset Kids song he’d written with Williams, and “Oh Sheena.”
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“I don’t know what to say, two nights they let me play here,” joked Malin, who said he never performed at the Beacon until the benefit shows, despite starting to play around the city with his first band Heart Attack in 1980 when he was 12.
Malin then jumped into some vivid memories of the Pogues, from seeing the band at the long-defunct nightclub Danceteria and fleeing their rowdy Irish crowd to seeing them play years later at Beacon with The Clash’s Joe Strummer. At the show, Malin said he couldn’t understand why the audience was chanting for Shane MacGowan with Strummer up there until he dove deeper into the band’s music, and fast-forwarded to years later when he performed with the late Pogues singer, who was “drinking bourbon out of a Pringles can, talking like a pirate.”
This night, “If I Should Fall From Grace with God” was the perfect communal toast for Malin, one MacGowan surely would have raised a glass (or potato chip container) to. “This song has helped me through a lot of hard times,” shared Malin.
The Beacon run was signature Malin, packed with memories, stories, and humor, something it was evident he hadn’t lost despite his more than two-year ordeal, and struggle to walk again. After being treated briefly in New York City, Malin relocated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and underwent six months of stem cell treatments.
[RELATED: The Ballad to the Country That Helped Jesse Malin Get Back on His Feet]
“Argentina” was a song he wrote while receiving treatment and dedicated to the physical therapists and doctors who helped him in the country, before moving into something more punk, “Turn Up the Mains.”
After a few moments, the crowd rose along with Malin, and cheered as he stood from his seat, a feat he called a “magic trick,” and one was practicing every day leading up to the Beacon shows by using a mic in his living room. “I was in Argentina for six months and when I came back to New York, I thought I was home,” said Malin. “But now, I’m f–king home.”
Still standing, Malin performed “She Don’t Love Me Now,” covered by Bruce Springsteen on Silver Patron Saints, the 2024 tribute album to Malin, and “The Way We Used to Roll” before taking a seat again.
“I’m not going to be doing backflips, but I might stand up again,” joked Malin before returning to Sunset Kids with a solo acoustic performance of “Revelations” and backed by the band again for “State of the Art,” from his 2021 album Sad and Beautiful World, and New York Before the War (2015) track “She’s So Dangerous.”
During the 31-song set, Malin shared some dedications and requests, settling into a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sway,” his own “Shining Down,” along with his “Silver Manhattan,” the latter dedicated to musician, SiriusXM host, and label executive Jeremy Tepper, who died in June of 2024.
Malin’s “Black-Haired Girl,” covered by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong on Silver Patron Saints, and “Meet Me at the End of the World Again” closed out his set before the evening moved into some of the other special guests Dinosaur Jr.‘s J. Mascis, Tommy Stinson, and Willie Nile, who pulled out “All the Way From Moscow,” a song he co-wrote with Malin for Love It to Life.
“It’s a joy for me to play one of his songs,” said Jakob Dylan before heading into Malin’s “Don’t Let Them Take You Down,” while Adam Duritz dedicated the Counting Crows hit “A Long December,” by request, for a second night in a row.
When Jarmusch returned it was to introduce Williams, who revisited another song she wrote with Malin, “New York Comeback.” The title could have been plastered all throughout the Beacon, along with its words—Let me have the final say … One final song to sing / You wouldn’t want to miss my New York comeback—because the shows marked the beginning of Malin’s comeback.
As the night wound down, rock photographer Danny Clinch popped out for “Almost Green,” Walker returned with “Modern World,” and Dillon, who had introduced Mascis earlier in the night, stepped out once again to introduce Malin and his finale, which he opened on “Greener Pastures,” a duet with Diane Gentile, who sat beside him.
Malin stood one last time as the three-hour set came to a close, and along with Hütz and the band plowed through “You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray” and called out everyone for the finale.
“We miss you, Joey Ramone,” Malin said before the stage filled around him and even Santa Claus sang through the Ramones‘ “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?”
With two nights at the Beacon complete, Malin had one hell of a New York comeback.
Setlist: Jesse Malin at Beacon Theatre, December 2, 2024
- “Aftermath” – Butch Walker
- “When You’re Young” – Adam Weiner
- “Cycles” – Rickie Lee Jones with Don DiLego
- “Here’s the Situation” – Eugene Hütz
- “Room 13” – Jesse Malin
- “Oh Sheena – Jesse Malin
- “If I Should Fall from Grace with God” (The Pogues cover) – Jesse Malin
- “Argentina” – Jesse Malin
- “Turn up the Mains” – Jesse Malin
- “She Don’t Love Me Now” – Jesse Malin
- “The Way We Used to Roll” – Jesse Malin
- “Revelations” – Jesse Malin
- “State of the Art” – Jesse Malin
- “She’s So Dangerous” – Jesse Malin
- “Shining Down’ – Jesse Malin
- “Sway” (The Rolling Stones cover) – Jesse Malin
- “Silver Manhattan” – Jesse Malin
- “Black Haired Girl’ – Jesse Malin
- “Meet Me at the End of the World’ – Jesse Malin
- “Brooklyn” – J. Mascis
- “All the Way From Moscow” – Willie Nile
- “Riding on the Subway” – Tommy Stinson
- “Don’t Let Them Take You Down” – Jakob Dylan
- “A Long December” – Adam Duritz
- “New York Comeback” – Lucinda Williams
- “Death Star” The Hold Steady
- “Almost Green” – Danny Clinch
- “In the Modern World” – Butch Walker
- “Greener Pastures” – Jesse Malin
- “You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray” – Jesse Malin with Eugene Hütz
- “Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?” (The Ramones cover) – Jesse Malin and special guests
Photo: Beacon Theatre marquee, New York City (Photo: Tina Benitez-Eves)
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