The Last Schmaltz
Joe's Pub425 Lafayette Street, New York 10003
The Last Schmaltz brings The Jewbadours’ annual holiday farewell show to Joe’s Pub. It is framed as an alternative celebration of pop music’s guilty pleasures through the lens of the New York Jewish experience. For this edition, The Jewbadours are backed by The Full Minyan Band, a group described by the venue as NYC’s finest semitic sidemen. The evening is built around that particular holiday send-off, with familiar pop material recast through the group’s comic and cultural point of view.
The available information places The Jewbadours in a New York Jewish context, though it does not specify where the group is from, their instrumentation, or the members’ individual roles. Their backing players bring substantial New York session and touring experience: members of The Full Minyan Band have played with Joe Jackson, Christopher Cross, Suzanne Vega, Judy Collins, Rod Stewart, Rob Thomas, and The Lords of 52nd Street, among others. No reviews are provided for The Jewbadours or The Last Schmaltz, so there is no critical verdict to attach to the show. What is clear is the scale of the band’s collective résumé and the event’s focus on pop songs, Jewish experience, and an annual holiday farewell.
The stage is set in a converted library space with a striped bar and photos of legends like Leonard Cohen and Amy Winehouse lining the walls. You'll find yourself seated on velvet couches or at candle-lit tables, close enough to hear every note from the back. The sound, engineered by technicians who've worked with John Legend and The Notorious B.I.G., is consistently ranked among the best in New York. Three shows a day, dinner and drinks served throughout, and a menu ranging from Italian small plates to craft cocktails; it's a place where music and conversation flow together, and where both rising stars and legends have made their U.S. debuts.