W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Jesse Malin at The Gramercy Theatre (2025-09-06)

It’s been well documented what Jesse Malin has been battling with since May of 2023 when he suffered a rare spinal stroke which left him paralyzed from the waste down. Can you imagine leaving your home of the past 20 years one day to go have a late lunch with friends to later find out that you will never see that home again? To face the idea that your life is all of a sudden turned upside down with nothing but uncertainty staring you in the face? That is exactly what happened when Jesse left his walk up apartment in the East Village 2 years ago to have a celebratory lunch with friends to honor his former band mate and best friend Howie Pyro who had passed one year prior from Covid related pneumonia (after having sufferd from liver disease for some years prior).

Since that fateful day in May ’23, Malin spent months in Mt. Sinai Hospital, moved to a hotel to convalesce since he could no longer live in his walk up apartment, then traveled to Buenos Aires, a place where he knew not a soul, and did not speak the language for 6 months to take part in a stem cell project (not available here in the States) which offered him a glimmer of hope that he might walk again someday.

Since his return to New York City from Argentina, Malin, largely due to his strong willed perseverence, his incredible drive and excrutiatingly hard and painful work, and a serious dose of PMA (possitive mental attitude for those not in the know) has returned to the performing stage, albeit in a limited capacity. First he was a guest at last year’s tribute to Patti Smith where he offered up a gut wrenching rendition of Patti’s “Free Money”. He would also do two shows at The Beacon Theatre along with a cavalcade of friends and fellow muscians, most of whom who’d helped out with 2024’s Silver Patron Saints album. There would also be similar shows in LA as well as London. But as triumphant and beautiful a story all of this is, it was clear to Jesse that touring in the pre-stroke sense of the word was not an option.

The idea of doing a residency here in New York was presented to “The Doctor”, and Jesse liked the idea but decided he didn’t want to just perform his songs straight up. He would actually joke during the Silver Manhattan show that doing that is OK for Billy Joel but not for him. Anyway, the residency format would eventually morph into a kind of one man theatrical performance piece (if that one man was backed by a 5 piece rock and roll band). Jesse, after all had already started working on a memoir prior to the stroke and anyone who has seen Jesse over the years knows his proclivity to spinning a yarn. Once it was learned that The Gramercy Theatre was available a night each month between September and January, the idea officially came to life. The Gramcercy, a single screen movie theatre built in 1937 which has been operating as a music venue since the early 2000’s was a perfect venue. With a seated capacity of just under 400, the theatre to top it all off is only minutes from Malin’s current apartment.

Making sure that no one should forgot that what they were experiencing was indeed theater, the band took the stage and 2 crew members dressed as hopital orderlies walked down the side aisle carrying Malin on a hospital gurney. Once upon stage Jesse would transfer himself from the stretcher to the wheelchair which was already front and center on the stage. Malin would then start the night with a monolog which would regularly switch back and forth between his ordeal while trying to recover and make sense of his new life since the stroke interspersed with touching yet oft-times amusing vignettes of his pre-stroke life. Stories of his cyclops pirate eyepatch school bus journies to school in Queens, a 13 year old Malin’s phone converstation to score an audition at CBGBs, and the tale of a young hard core kid attempting to meet the cool, non-poser girl with the black hair from The Bronx to name just a few. Mixed in between these stories of discovery and recovery was a wonderful smattering of songs from the anals of Malin’s career, from his first band, Heart Attack through D-Generation and of course from his solo career. Throughout the evening we’d get such classics as “Prisoners of Paradise”, “Oh Sheena”, “Brooklyn” and many more. And then to close the evening and perfomance off, Jesse would get up out of his chair and with the aid of only his walker and then an arm crutch, he managed to get himself down the stairs of the stage onto the floor of the pit area and proceeded with a rolicking and raucous sing along version of “You Know Its Dark When The Atheists Begin to Pray” complete with sax and trumpet marching down the aisle from the back of the theatre.

Jesse Malin’s story, while indeed a sad tale, is also one of inspiration and hope. This production which I’m sure will garner comparisons to the one man thing that Bruce Springsteen did on Broadway some years ago, certainly merits such a juxtaposition. However that being said, Silver Manhattan is much more than just a career retrospective. It’s a moving and emotional roller coaster, one which I honestly don’t know how Malin gets through without breaking down. It’s the heart breaking tale of the rise and fall and the slow phoenix-like recovery of a short skinny kid from Queens who had a vision and a dream and wasn’t afraid to reach for it, only to have fate rip it from his grasp. But even then, after all of this, there was no quitting, there was no surrender, no giving up from the kid from Queens who became the King of the East Village music scene.

Silver Manhattan is playing again in October, November, December and January at the Gramercy Theatre. There might be some tickets still available for a second show which was added in October so I highly suggest going to see this emotionally moving performance.

Thank you Jesse Malin, and all the best in your ever present recovery.