This is night two of Howie Day at the City Winery. “I played all the good songs last night”, he jokes in a great example of his sense of humor. 

Late in the night, he plays “Bunnies”. This is one of his more experimental songs. It features a lot of loops and improvisations. Also, it stretches out to about 10 minutes. 

“I think I need to play ‘Longest Night’ or else she will have a nervous breakdown!”  So, he plays this song from 2009’s Sound The Alarm. “Is it dark where you are?
Can you count the stars where you are?” Technically, you can count the stars from anywhere. Sometimes, the count might be zero. 

Instead of the normal cheering for an encore, he requests that the audience be as quiet as possible and then he will return. The result is some quiet talking with others saying “Shhhhh”. The crowd erupts when he returns. 

Howie says that sometimes when he’s in a bad mood, he doesn’t play “Collide”. Luckily, this isn’t one of those nights and he does play his biggest hit, from the 2003 album, Stop All The World Now. “But it won’t be the last song,” he says. “Because that would be too cliche”. This song has over 480 million streams on Spotify.  “Even the best fall down sometimes / Even the wrong words seem to rhyme / Out of the doubt that fills your mind / You finally find / You and I collide”. 

To close out the night, he plays “Treetops” from his 2015 album, Lanterns. “Cause we’re dancing on the treetops tonight / We’re hiding from the people and the lights”. It’s a great joyful song to end on and it sends the audience out with smiles on their faces. 

Cost of a ticket: $54

PlaylistHQ Economic Rating: Worth It

Rating Scale: Exceptional Value > Worth It > Discounted > Go for Free > Don’t Bother

Quinn Delaney