the love hangover

The Love Hangover, an international music tradition for 25 years.

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Find a sympathetic soul during this evening of duets about love.
The Love Hangover, now in its twenty-second 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
25 years

10 cities

90 shows

850+ 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.  Cincinnati pushed to double digits in 2020 as the tenth Love Hangover city.
While 2021 saw us entirely floating in our tin cans, individually sealed for our protection, 2022 had a bit of a hybrid to it.  On February 15th there was both a return to live performances onstage at recordBar, Kansas City and a still on the wires version broadcasting from everywhere as well.  Then came The Summer of Love...Hangover, a live show in June in Brooklyn at Mama Tried.  In 2023, The Love Hangover returned to stages in five cities.  And in 2024, the festival of love and loss turned 25. 

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Benefit for Sounds of Savings
Starting in 2019 with the 20th Anniversary shows, many chapters of The Love Hangover 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 live and video performers include:

Lloyd Cole, Mark Eitzel, Steve Wynn & Linda Pitmon, Shilpa Ray, Bridget St John, Wesley Stace, Laura Cantrell, Tift Merritt, Teddy Thompson, Michael Cerveris, Boo Hewerdine, Freedy Johnston, Caitlin Cary, Doug Gillard, Anders Parker, Jolie Holland, Deerfrance, Rick Moody, Tracy Bonham, David Nagler, Stacey Roca, Edward Rogers, Chip Robinson, Felice Rosser, Don Piper, Dave Derby
and members of Luna, Guided by Voices, American Music Club, The Magnetic Fields, Whiskeytown, Okkervil River, Versus, Tsunami, Clem Snide, 11th Dream Day, Gramercy Arms, Cat Power, Elk City, Nada Surf, Loser's Lounge, Dish, Freakwater, Poi Dog Pondering, Mascott, Megafaun, The dBs, Portastatic, KaiserCartel, Cobra Verde, Nøthing Painted Blue, The Winter Drinks, Shark Quest, Murderer's Row, The Connells and The Blue Man Group-Chicago.

 

Past venues and performances: 

2019 [20th Anniversary]

2021 [A World in a Wire]

2024 [25th Anniversary]