Stephen Merritt - photo by Marco Krasilcic
“What are you hoping to hear?”
“…Anything from 69 Love Songs would be great, I guess.”
“That’s tied up with an old relationship for me.”
“Yeah. I think we all have a little bit of that.”
First set
1. Kiss Me like You Mean It – 69 Love Songs, vol. 2
2. You Must Be out of Your Mind – Realism
3. Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side – 69 Love Songs, vol. 1 (Stephin Merritt did hold out the big high note at the end)
4. We Are Having a Hootenanny – Realism
5. Shipwrecked – Gothic Archies’ Lemony Snicket soundtrack
6. Walk a Lonely Road – Realism
7. When Will You Love Me Again? – Realism (iTunes bonus track) (also one of the night’s most heartbreaking songs)
8. All I Want to Know – Pieces of April soundtrack
9. Suddenly a Tidal Wave – The Wayward Bus
10. I Have the Moon – The Charm of the Highway Strip
11. Looking for Love (In the Hall of Mirrors) – The 6ths’ Wasps’ Nest
Second set
1. Xylophone – 69 Love Songs, vol. 3
2. Interlude – Realism
3. The Nun’s Litany – Distortion
4. I’m Sorry I Love You – 69 Love Songs, vol. 3
5. The Little Hebrew Girl – Stephin Merritt, Showtunes (Notable for sending me and the gentlemen next to me into fits of laughter for rhyming “Calvinists” with “Jesus exists!”)
6. The Flowers She Sent and the Flowers She Said She Sent – Holiday
7. You You You You You – The 6ths’ Hyacinths and Thistles
8. Always Already Gone – Realism
9. Fear of Trains – The Charm of the Highway Strip
10. The Dolls’ Tea Party – Realism
11. 100,000 Fireflies – The Wayward Bus (Merritt: “Some of you…weren’t even alive when this was written.” [1990])
Encores
1. I Die – i (I may be wrong, but I believe this is the world’s shortest hyperlink)
2. From a Sinking Boat – Realism