february 15, 2020
Lovelorn, Lovesworn, love torn
the love hangover
The Love Hangover, an international music tradition for 21 years.
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Find a sympathetic soul during this evening of duets about love.
The Love Hangover, now in its twenty-first year (and its tenth city and second country), is an annual event held on February 15th. On this day-after evening, the world-weary and the true believers alike huddle in pairs, playing songs to heal broken hearts and break whole ones.
Local luminaries of the music scene come two by two and each duo performs love songs to hold forth on love in all of its many guises: the joy, the pain, the humor, the frustration, the ecstatic trials and dented triumphs.
By the Numbers
21 years
10 cities
74 shows
600+ performers
The Concept
The Love Hangover is an annual multi-city, multi-artist musical event that explores romantic love in all its many guises. Held each year on February 15th, this post-Valentine's showcase features a line-up of duets singing songs of the lovelorn, love sworn and love torn.
History
The Love Hangover was first staged in Raleigh, NC in 2000, and in 2005 expanded to New York City. In 2008, the showcase moved west to include Kansas City, MO. Ann Arbor, MI followed in 2009, and 2010 marked The Love Hangover's debut in Chicago, IL. In 2015 The Love Hangover became an international event with its first show in Toronto, Canada. Providence, RI became the seventh city to host a Love Hangover in 2017. In 2019, The Love Hangover turned 20 and added two new cities: Philadelphia and Detroit. This year Cincinnati reaches double digits as the tenth Love Hangover city.
Benefit for Sounds of Savings
In 2019 and 2020 many chapters of The Love Hangover shows have become benefits for Sounds of Saving, a nonprofit which seeks to use the connective and inspirational powers of music to alleviate depression, prevent suicide and reduce the stigma around these struggles.
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Alumni
Past performers include members of Guided by Voices, American Music Club, The Magnetic Fields, Whiskeytown, Luna, Okkervil River, Versus, Tsunami, Clem Snide, 11th Dream Day, Cat Power, Nada Surf, Loser's Lounge, Freakwater, Poi Dog Pondering, Mascott, Megafaun, Portastatic, The dBs, The Blue Man Group-Chicago, The Connells, KaiserCartel, Cobra Verde, Dish, Gramercy Arms, The Winter Drinks and Shark Quest, as well as solo performers Mark Eitzel, Tift Merritt, Freedy Johnston, Caitlin Cary, Doug Gillard, Michael Cerveris, Tracy Bonham, Anders Parker, Teddy Thompson, Jolie Holland, Rick Moody, David Nagler, Chip Robinson and Garrison Starr.
Past venues and performances:
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footage from previous love hangovers
