Emily Hegarty

I went to see The Proclaimers on Saturday night. They were fantastic, as always: pure and joyful. Their set was lengthy and included lots of songs from their new album. I hadn’t even realized they had a new album, which I am now adding to my Apple Music playlists. Last time I saw them (at The Bell House), they were mostly acoustic. This time they had a magnificent full band: Stevie Christie on keyboards, Garry John Kane on bass, Zac Ware on guitar, and Clive Jenner on drums (with drum solo finale!). Terrific show.

They played at the Gramercy Theatre on 23rd Street, and on the way in I thought the security was a little much: bag searching and wanding and wrist banding a crowd of mostly middle-aged people. (The Reid brothers are in their mid-50s.) Afterwards, the security precautions seemed prescient given the bomb that went off a few blocks away. I thought I heard a big boom shortly before the band went on, but no one else seemed to be reacting so I assumed it was an equipment setup sound from backstage, or something connecting to the sound system. Leaving the theatre, the street was blocked off heading west, with lots of police and sirens racing that way, but I assumed it was political motorcades. I didn’t hear about the actual bomb until fellow commuters clued me in on why there were so many subway reroutings. I didn’t even have enough information to be frightened until I was well out of harm’s way. I feel lucky and grateful, both for the music and for my blissful ignorance of the evening’s scary events.