Magnetic Fields Setlist (Nov 1, 2025)

— Set 1 —

Absolutely Cuckoo
I Don’t Believe in the Sun
All My Little Words
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
Reno Dakota
I Don’t Want to Get Over You
Come Back From San Francisco
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits
The Cactus Where Your Heart Should Be
I Think I Need a New Heart
The Book of Love
Fido, Your Leash Is Too Long
How Fucking Romantic
The One You Really Love
Punk Love
Parades Go By
— Set 2 —
Boa Constrictor
A Pretty Girl Is Like…
My Sentimental Melody
Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing
Sweet-Lovin’ Man
The Things We Did and Didn’t Do
Roses
Love Is Like Jazz
When My Boy Walks Down the Street
Time Enough for Rocking When We’re Old
Very Funny
Grand Canyon
No One Will Ever Love You
If You Don’t Cry
You’re My Only Home
(Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy
My Only Friend
Promises of Eternity

Magnetic Fields Setlist (Nov 2, 2025)

— Set 3 —

World Love
Washington, D.C.
Long-Forgotten Fairytale
Kiss Me Like You Mean It
Papa Was a Rodeo
Epitaph for My Heart
Asleep and Dreaming
The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing
The Way You Say Good-Night
Abigail, Belle of Kilronan
I Shatter
Underwear
It’s a Crime
Busby Berkeley Dreams
I’m Sorry I Love You
Acoustic Guitar
The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure
— Set 4 —
Love in the Shadows
Bitter Tears
Wi’ Nae Wee Bairn Ye’ll Me Beget
Yeah! Oh, Yeah!
Experimental Music Love
Meaningless
Love Is Like a Bottle of Gin
Queen of the Savages
Blue You
I Can’t Touch You Anymore
Two Kinds of People
How to Say Goodbye
The Night You Can’t Remember
For We Are the King of the Boudoir
Strange Eyes
Xylophone Track
Zebra

Well, I guess it’s true, all good things eventually come to an end, and the 69 Love Songs tour is no different. As I write this, I can’t help but think of the song that closes the first night, “Promises of Eternity”, which asks “What if the show didn’t go on? What if we all got jobs and got to bed before dawn? What if old Joe had to retire? What if all the stagehands were let go or fired?” It feels like old Joe is going to have to retire. Maybe he’s ready, though. You know who I’m most concerned for? The stagehands. Yeah, it’s not going to be easy for them to find jobs in today’s economy. They may finally have to go work at their dad’s accounting firm…

On November first and second, The Knight Concert Hall, a 1900-seat theater that is part of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and a very lovely venue, played host to the Magnetic Fields for the final shows of their 25th Anniversary 69 Love Songs tour. A tour that began 588 days ago at the Roadrunner in Boston on the 24^th of March 2024 and saw them play fifty pairs of show across twelve countries, an unknowable number of cities, and across two US Presidencies. The crowd was on the smaller side but made up for it with a space-filling presence. There was an excitement and energy that was a bit more “rock ‘n roll” compared to the St. Paul and London shows I had the pleasure of seeing. Those shows, particularly the Union Chapel one (maybe because it was held in a church), felt intense but reverential; the crowd reaction was loud, enthusiastic but contained to the “appropriate” times. In contrast, the crowd in Miami was just excited and boisterous both between and during songs; it was a lot of fun to be a part of. I wonder how the band felt about the small but adoring audience for its last performance. Maybe the enthusiasm and love made up for the smaller size? I hope so.

As you know, constant reader, this is the fourth time I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this show. They’ve all had their subtle quirks woven in with the same material. I think of it as being invited over to someone’s apartment a few times, and while the rooms and furnishings are constant, the accent pieces and decorations change. “Is that a new throw pillow? Did you move the Monet? No, it’s always been there? Oh, it’s the Degas that’s switched spots with the Imogen. Bold choice”. You get the idea. The audience also follows this analogy. Beyond what I described above, my conversations with fellow Magnetic Fields fans before, during intermission, and after the show have had similar themes – love of the music and band, excitement and joy at being able to see this show, and an earnestness about how they spoke of the band. The conversations have also had unique little eccentricities: bumping into a co-worker that I didn’t really know at the show in St. Paul; in London, playing my wife’s favorite game “how does Matt know that person?” with a pretty well established actress’s sister (to be clear I recognized the actress but couldn’t figure out if she was from my life – kid’s school, neighborhood, etc – or if she was famous. Turns out she’s famous, and her sister graciously let me guess and provided me with clues so I could figure out who she was while the famous actress was off buying a t-shirt. Turns out she’s Morfydd Clark); the second night in London I talked to Rick whose wife couldn’t go either nights, so he turned her tickets back into the venue a couple of hours before the show, which is what allowed me to get off the waiting list and into the show for the first night. He’s also a professor at Cambridge who went to college in St. Paul (I live in Minneapolis) and lived blocks from me in Brooklyn (although years after me); and finally in Miami I sat behind two wonderful artists who graciously let me take pictures of their drawings of the show to share with this review, thanks Pauline (Paureynaldo.art on Insta) and Sibel (sibel_doodles on Insta).

OK then, onto the show. Once again (and for the final time) over the course of two evenings, MF played all 69 Love Songs in order from “Absolutely Cuckoo” to “Zebra”. See the setlist over there to the right. Momentary aside, take a look at their stats on setlist.fm, kind of cool, IMO. As has been the case at every previous show, Shirley Simms set up stage right, with Chris Ewen slightly behind her and to stage left, Sam Davol on cello center stage front, Tony (yes, I call him Tony now) Kaczynski behind and stage right of Stephin Merritt at his station stage left (see pictures/drawings below). Once again, I’m going to call out the differences among the shows. But first, in the interest of journalistic integrity (yes, that IS a nod to James L Knight (shout out to my NPR listeners!)), I will share with you that I was ~30 minutes late for the first night because the James L Knight Concert Hall is NOT the James L Knight Center (you couldn’t have been just a little bit less generous, James?). It might also have something to do with my not checking things more carefully but for now I’m still blaming the similar naming convention.

Night One

We (yeah, my daughter came with me) arrived as one of my favorites, “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side”, was playing, which means I was able to record it and therefore get the precious timing on Tony’s duration performance (~13.5 seconds this time). However, this also means I missed what Stephin said with respect to animals and, maybe cities. He did mention before the band played, “The Book of Love”, that “a journalist one time asked him why there are so many songs about dancing on 69LS?”, his tone and delivery indicated the implied OBVIOUS response – …because it’s about love? He also let us know before “Sweet-Lovin’ Man” that on this tour, the band had decided that this song is from the point of view of a cat, and therefore this is an animal song. Stephin also offered some investing advice, independent of roses, which is that “…as long as there is live music there will be Ricola, do with that what you will”. In a nod to this being the last show, before playing (Crazy for You But) Not That Crazy”, Stephin acknowledged that when playing live that you make mistakes, such as hitting the keyboard wrong with your broken finger, but with this show “when you make a mistake you’ll never make it again”. “My Only Friend” and “Promises of Eternity” close out the first night and they are both such beautiful songs to which to send the audience home. Prior to the final song, Stephin, as is customary, let us know that there would be a twenty-two-hour intermission.

Night two

“Where were we?” Stephin asked to start the performance. Prior to the second song, “Washington, D.C.” Stephin wondered aloud “if we could just skip this one, and go back to playing ‘The Day the Politicians Died’”? The audience refused to allow that, so the band played their low-energy version. I’m not sure but I think there may have been a political message there? No discernable difference between the other shows, but they play “Papa Was a Rodeo”, which I think is one of the most moving songs on the albums. Being at the show with my daughter made me hear “Asleep and Dreaming” in a new light – the love of a parent for a child. I’m not sure why Stephin told us this, as he did in London as well, but he let the audience know that “…in Spain people know the words to all the songs but in Mexico City every single audience member knows every single word to every single song. I’m not kidding ‘Experimental Music Love’, EVERYTHING, so… people are different”. They then played “Acoustic Guitar”. “The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure” closed out the first set and prior to playing it Stephin, let us know that there would be a twenty-minute poster-buying intermission and then encouraged us to set up a poster-buying marketplace in the lobby to take advantage of their increasing value. During the second set, Stephin let us know that sometimes when playing live music “Mistakes are made when you work on stage, and what we do in Italy [when this happens] is we tell Catholic jokes. Now might be a good time for a Catholic joke.” I’m not sure what the mistake was but it allowed for Shirley to tell her “Christ on the cross joke” (see variation here; Shirley’s version is more emotive). Finally, before “Zebra”, the final song of the evening, show, and tour… Stephin let us know that “After this song, there will be a twenty-five-minute intermission during which you can buy a lot of posters”.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more in touch with my emotions, and being present for the final (two) performances of the 69 Love Songs tour certainly plucked on those emotions as the show came to a close. As I said before, the audience was small, but the appreciation was massive. I’m proud to say (I think) we showed them the love they deserved for their efforts. I can only imagine how tired they are after over nineteen months on the road. Godspeed sweet minstrels, enjoy your rest.