2005-10-03 - 10:37 a.m. I will miss McHales, site of many nice sisterly confabs with Maggie, including her impromptu bachelorette party. And speaking of sisters from NJ, while the rest of Brooklyn was doing the sensible thing and staying close to home for their musical needs, I chose to follow my heart to Long Island yesterday to see Maggie & Suzzy Roche. Joined by the awesome Bay Ridge contingent (Liza, Ian, and Andy), we headed up early, enjoying the beautiful Indian Summer day, and then were rewarded for our LIE-traipsing with one of the best sets of music I've seen all year. Fueled by an excellent, pulpy Bloody Mary, their set inspired singing along, laughing at their still-hilarious lyrics and stage banter, and weeping like a Beatles fan at everything else. Their new songs--many from their Zero Church project--are almost all about finding faith and grace in this unpredictable and sometimes randomly cruel world, and the very fact of their beautiful, pure tones is testament to their being able to do so. And the old songs made me cry because they are just lovely and sad, and because it is autumn, and because we have traveled so far together, the Roches and I, and because I love music and I love the people at my table, and this sad world is not so bad if you can sing a pretty, funny song about it and keep on doing. thoughts? (8 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact