The last time Jesse Malin performed in New York, in March 2023, he jumped off the stage at Webster Hall, waded through the crowd, and ended up singing atop the bar at the rear of the venue in a punk-rock display of sweaty artist-fan communion. Malin’s sold-out performance Sunday night at the Beacon Theatre — his first public concert since suffering a paralyzing spinal stroke last year — looked a little different than past gigs but bristled with that same punk spirit and sense of community.
After wrapping up the night with an ebullient cover of the Clash’s “Rudie Can’t Fail,” Malin, using a walker, pushed his way to the lip of the stage to get close to the audience. Like the bulk of Malin’s two-hour comeback concert, which saw him alternating between singing in a chair and dramatically pulling himself up to his feet with the mic stand, it was at once precarious and affirming.
“Jesse just inspired me to stay in show business,” Elvis Costello told the crowd after watching Malin rise to his feet earlier in the night. Costello, along with Lucinda Williams, duetted on the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses” in tribute to Malin, one of many guest performances: Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz sang “A Long December” and Rickie Lee Jones offered “Cycles,” both at Malin’s request; Jakob Dylan and Butch Walker covered songs off Malin’s 2007 album Glitter in the Gutter; and Dinosaur Jr.’s J. Mascis rendered the songwriter’s acoustic outer-borough anthem “Brooklyn” as a fuzz-rock journey. (Many of those performers appear on Silver Patron Saints, a tribute album to Malin that Rolling Stone named one of its 100 Best Albums of 2024.)
All of those cameos underscored Malin’s beloved status on the New York music scene (he got his start as a teenager in the hardcore band Heart Attack). In a visible show of respect, anyone who performed alongside Malin, including his own band, also did so seated. When Little Steven Van Zandt emerged to lend guitar on a blistering “Turn Up the Mains,” he promptly pulled up a chair.
Jesse Malin pulls himself up to the mic stand during his comeback concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York on Sunday night. Photo: Vivian Wang
But Malin made a point to share any homages. He dedicated a solo performance of “Aftermath” to Jeremy Tepper, the SiriusXM program director who died in June, and shouted out the doctors, nurses, and physical therapists who helped make his return to the stage possible. In the new song “Argentina,” written about his six months of stem-cell treatments and rehab in Buenos Aires, he sang, “I hope you remember me/like I remember you.”
Fans gathered at the Beacon, some wearing T-shirts that read “Jesse Fucking Malin,” clearly didn’t forget the troubadour after nearly two years away. When the curtain rose to reveal Malin, following an introduction from The Sopranos actor and friend, Michael Imperioli, the ovation was thunderous. Malin struck his chest with his fist and bowed his head, his sunglasses barely hiding his emotion.
Still, the Beacon series — some tickets remain for a second all-star show on Monday night — wasn’t a maudlin affair or, worse, a farewell. Instead, it was proof that Malin was back and able to perform as long as he cares to. It was a night about both looking and moving forward, through any trial that may come. “Greener pastures always wait for you,” Malin sang at one point. “You can make it if you try.”
