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“L’chaim,” toasted Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli during the encore of his sold-out solo show at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue on Saturday night. It was slightly surreal to see Dulli sing his songs of love, sex, bitterness, and yearning in a house of worship, but if anyone knows how to lift a congregation up and sway in the aisles, it’s him. Bringing along a new bassist, Whigs’ string instrumentalist, Rick G. Nelson, and Whigs’ guitarist, Dave Rosser, the four-piece covered Björk and Leonard Cohen, and pulled heavily from the catalog of Dulli’s other band, The Twilight Singers (see set list here). Dulli’s voice was a tad raspy, but that only added to the emotional aspects of songs like “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” and his keening-yell on “Can Rova.” From the start of the show to his mic-drop at the end, Dulli made attending shul downright amazing.
See more photos from the show in the gallery.