Yo La Tengo‘s annual celebration of Hanukkah via performances at the New Jersey venue Maxwell’s has faced necessary alterations due to frontman Ira Kaplan’s health concerns.  Although he has refused to publicly specify these ailments, Ira has reported that they will force him to sit down on stage for their eight-day stint at Maxwell’s.

Ira Kaplan won’t get any more specific with fans than report that he has recently encountered a “pretty serious health scare”.  Fortunately for fans of Yo La Tengo and musical celebrations of Hanukkah, this health scare will impede but not prevent Yo La Tengo’s performances at Maxwell’s.  He has forewarned fans that they will not get an explanation about what he has been going through.

What is important, is that it seems Ira Kaplan is on the road to recovery.  He will be forced to sit down at Maxwell’s which will undoubtably subdue Yo La Tengo’s performance, but there very fact that he will be performing signals progress in his health.

Included below is Ira Kaplan’s statement regarding his health and the Hanukkah shows:

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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