Magnetic Fields
Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields

2nd 'This American Life' BAM show added (Stephin Merritt included) ++ Merge25 Fest updates (Duke University shows)

Stephin Merritt

The five-day RadioLoveFest is coming to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in June, featuring various live radio shows with a variety of performers including Andrew Bird, Hamilton Leithauser of the Walkmen, They Might Be Giants, and Jonathan Coulton. On June 7th, Ira Glass will host an episode of This American Life live from BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, and though it is being billed as “one night only”, it is now two shows in that one night. This is the updated description:

This American Life uses this evening at BAM as a chance to try something it’s never attempted before: true stories staged as radio dramas. One of the stories will be an original mini-musical by Broadway composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of In the Heights and Bring It On. In another, The Monica Bill Barnes Dance Company will perform while Glass narrates. Stephin Merritt (The Magnetic Fields) is writing and performing a mini-musical of his own, built around a real story from This American Life, and Mike Birbiglia will narrate another true story in his inimitable comedic form.

This American Life is a public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations to 2.2 million listeners each week. Another million people listen each week by podcast. It’s produced by WBEZ Chicago.

Tickets at BAM’s website.

Stephin Merritt, who has a book of Scrabble-based poetry coming out in the fall, also has a show coming up in North Carolina as part of Merge Records’ continuing 25th anniversary celebration. His Merge25 performance, not part of the actual Merge25 fest, is instead part of a special Merge parternship with the ‘Duke Performances Concert Series‘, as part of Duke’s ‘Music in the Gardens’ series on the Duke University campus. All shows in that series are listed below:


Duke

Tuesday, June 3, at 7pm (buy tickets here)
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham, NC
King Khan & the Shrines

Wednesday, June 18, at 7pm (buy tickets here)
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham, NC
Spider Bags

Wednesday, June 25, at 7pm (buy tickets here)
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham, NC
The Rosebuds

Wednesday, July 9, at 7pm (buy tickets here)
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham, NC
Richard Buckner

Wednesday, July 16, at 7pm (buy tickets here)
Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham, NC
Portastatic

Wednesday, July 23, at 7:30pm (buy tickets here)
Baldwin Auditorium, Durham, NC
Lambchop performs Nixon
Mount Moriah
William Tyler

Wednesday, July 30, at 7:30pm (buy tickets here)
Baldwin Auditorium, Durham, NC
Stephin Merritt
Mark Eitzel

More on Merge25 Fest HERE.