8 Days For A Daydream: Yo La Tengo Confirms 2023 Hanukkah Run At Bowery Ballroom

Yo La Tengo’s annual eight-show run coinciding with the eight nights of Hanukkah will once again take place at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. The 2023 residency will commence on December 7 and continue nightly through December 14.

Tickets to Yo La Tengo’s 2023 Hanukkah run will go on sale on Friday, June 23. Purchase Yo La Tengo Hanukkah 2023 tickets through Ticketmaster.

Yo La Tengo held their Hanukkah run in 2001 at Maxwell’s in the band’s home of Hoboken, New Jersey. The annual traditional run of Hanukkah concerts continued through 2012 but went on a five-year hiatus after Maxwell’s closed. In 2017, YLT resurrected the annual run at its new home at the Bowery. Yo La Tengo Hanukkah shows typically feature an unannounced opening act, comedian, guests sitting in with the band, and covers of songs written by Jewish songwriters, among other festivities.

Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan posted the below message regarding the upcoming Hanukkah run:

8 Days for a Daydream

Hi everybody, I don’t think it will surprise anybody out there to learn that we in Yo La Tengo are traditionalists. We like to celebrate the onset of summer the same way you do: with ballgames, cookouts, and announcing our Hanukkah shows in December. That’s right, it’s beginning to look a lot like Hanukkah, and we’re going to be back at the Bowery Ballroom this year to play all eight nights.

As I’m running to the store to buy charcoal, allow me to cut and paste from last year’s message: If you’ve celebrated the holiday with us before, you already know that we’ll duct tape the electric menorah to the bass amp, and every night Yo La Tengo will play a set (if history repeats itself, no song will be repeated during the run). There’ll be a comic and an opening band that will be unannounced until doors open each night. And if we can convince anyone else to join in, they’ll be there too. The proceeds will be go to charity. If you haven’t celebrated the holiday with us before, maybe it’s time that you did.

Hanukkah starts on Thursday, December 7 and continues through Thursday, December 14. Tickets are $50 each and will go on sale on Friday, June 23 at 10 am EDT. At that time, the links below will become active. Speaking as I was of tradition, these tickets have been known to sell quickly, so the answer to the musical question Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind? is yes. If you’re getting this message later than you’d prefer, my apologies.

-see you “soon,” Ira