Rocking for a very small crowd on election night 2026. Photo by Kat.
Hello readers.
As I've certainly written about before, when you perform on the first Tuesday of every month as a regular scheduled live music gig, you're going to be the person who's playing on Election Day. Any election day. Actually, far worse: election night, when everyone is huddled around their TV screens and streaming news and phones, refreshing anxiously to see who's winning.
And once again, that was the case at Hotel Chelsea during the 2026 midterm elections, a crucial turning point in the history of America and the entire world, I suppose. But unless I am physically unable to perform music, I simply do not cancel shows, and I'm certainly not going to do that on a day when maybe getting a little break from the stress of an election could be a good thing for someone.
I even promoted the show as such... kind of a combo event where we could chill, do some tunes, and maybe give reports on any breaking news from the election.
I knew it wouldn't be easy to draw a crowd on election night, and I knew I'd want to keep an eye on the elections as I played. But trying to do a combo show tends not to attract either of the audience types you're pitching it to.
Did It Work?
No, and that was okay. I had maybe 6-7 people in the audience, and that included my manager and the venue staff. Look, my shows in Second Life are fun and I know people do get something ut of them... relaxation, discovery of artists they hadn't heard before, and general relaxing good-ass time. But are they important? Perhaps in some sense, but compared to the importance of the 2026 midterms?
For the past year and a half, Kat and I have worked our asses off being active in supporting the resistance effort against the Trump regime and all that comes with it. We were in the streets for every Hands off and No Kings event. We were active online, building coalitions and lines of communication and coordination, all focused only on the midterms. No offense to any apolitical folks reading this, but that stuff is way more important than a random livestream music show, whether it's by me or any artist/band in history.
Honestly, even I was distracted from my show, which — I should note — otherwise went great. Photo by Kat.
After the Show: Blue Tsunami Time
Kat is one of those people who gets so deeply invested in the outcome of important elections, she can't possibly sleep while they're ongoing. I'm invested as well, but I refuse to allow myself to get that stressed over shit that's — by then — out of my control. Regardless, she'd already taken the day after the election off work, planning to stay up as late as it took to try and determine the overall direction of the midterms.
I'd given her my standard spiel, which was that it was unlikely she'd quickly know whether or not the Democrats had taken the majority in one or both of the chambers of Congress, and that it wasn't worth staying up late. But she was intent on her plan, and I never try to dissuade her from anything she really wants to do.
By the time I finished my show at 6pm PST, the polls in the east were already closed/closing, and we quickly got some races being called. Virginia. Georgia. Delaware, Illinois, and New Jersey. Things were quickly picking up with a series of Democratic wins. And then, some shockers. At 7:39, they called it for South Carolina. At 8:03 for Texas. 8:10 for Ohio. 8:24 for Kansas. And a few minutes later after calling the race for Iowa, the Associated press officially called the Democratic majority in the Senate at 8:36pm PST.
So much for Kat having to stay up all night. A short while later, the Democrats had surpassed the 218 threshold for majority in the House as well. It was shocking that I was able to go to bed that night knowing the most important aspects of the outcome of the election. And, of course, it was a euphoric high that I got to ride for many days after the Blue Tsunami of 2026.
We had the important results that night, but nine days later, the near-complete picture of the 2026 midterm elections is coming together better than even my highest expectations.
Hotel Chelsea set list...
Heart of Gold (Neil Young)
America (Simon & Garfunkel)
Boys in the Trees (Carly Simon)
It's Easy Like Walking (The Sadies w/Kurt Vile)
Nowhere Man (The Beatles)
Say Goodbye (Beck)
*Phantom Limb (Queens of the Stone Age)
Help Me (Joni Mitchell)
All Lives, You Say? (Wilco)
Perfect Day (Lou Reed)
Thank U (Alanis Morissette)
All You Fascists (Woody Guthrie)
*Indicates the first time I've performed this song in SL.
Thanks to my small but mighty crowd on election night!
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