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The date was March 22, 2023. Bill Callahan strode onto the stage at Chicago’s Thalia Hall, flanked by Matt Kinsey on guitar, Dustin Laurenzi on tenor sax and Jim White on the kit. They all were feeling good, and it seemed like the crowd was also. But that wasn’t all. They had some special surprises planned. . .take it away, Bill. . .

“This is a live album that was taken from the tour for YTI⅃AƎЯ. Songs tend to mutate after they’ve been recorded. These songs were mutat- ing faster than usual. Like whatever happened to Bruce Banner in the lab—I knew these songs were about to get superpowers. As far as I was concerned, this change needed to be documented.

The best thing about documenting something is that it gives the creator permission to move on should they wish to move on. I usually prefer to move on. These songs were recorded in Chicago, America’s heart. And at one of the best clubs in the country—I try to only work with venues that are not entangled with LiveNation/Ticketmaster. Thalia Hall, baby. Stay free. The date was mid-point in the tour, so I knew we’d be as hot as we were going to get. Not too green, not too brown.

There was the thought, “let’s take this op to make it something special.” So we took advantage of Chicago’s easily accessible players—we got Nick Mazzarella to add alto sax to one song, and from the opening band, Pascal Kerong’A to sing on a song, and Nathaniel Ballinger on piano on one song—and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to invite Joshua Abrams and Lisa Alvarado to play on “Natural Information.”

The hardest part of making the record was cutting songs out of it. Could have been a triple album. But I don’t know, maybe the show should have been this short?”

—Bill Callahan

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