Yo La Tengo band member Ira Kaplan has suffered what he describes as a “serious health scare”.
Formed in 1984, Yo La Tengo have come to build up a few traditions. Foremost amongst these are the band’s annual Hanukkah shows, which find the band celebrating the eight day Jewish festival.
A reminder that this time of year is sacred to religions beyond Christianity, the Hanukkah shows also act as a guarantee that no matter what fans will get at least one burst of gigs in a calendar year.
This year, though, the shows could be quite sedate. Writing to fans on the band’s official website (via Matablog) Yo La Tengo singer Ira Kaplan revealed that he is still recovering from a “serious health scare”.
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Hi everybody, especially those of you with tickets to next week’s shows,
We strive to make our Hanukkah shows unpredictable, and in one unfortunate regard we’ve outdone ourselves this year. I’m going to be a little vague here, but I had a pretty serious health scare earlier this month. I’m well on the way to recovery, but I’ve not yet been deemed ready to Rock. The good news is . . . well, the good news is I’m on the way to recovery . . . but vis-à-vis next week, the good news is that I’ve been deemed ready to sit in a chair and play the concerts that mean more to me, Georgia and James than most anything else we do together. Our sets will undoubtedly be tweaked accordingly. In other words, if you were hoping to be in attendance for our annual airing of “Mushroom Cloud of Hiss,” I’m afraid that is now zooming up the Unlikely chart with a bullet. But we’re confident that it’s going to be a great eight days. We’re looking forward to seeing you all, and to not answering any questions about what happened to me!
As long as I’ve got your attention, I’ll let you know about one other change this year. We’ve filled the walls of Maxwell’s front room with a bunch of posters and other ephemera from our various closets. Some of it will be for sale (all proceeds to charity) and all of it will hopefully be entertaining.
Hanukkahly yours, Ira
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