We arrived around 2:00PM, were taken to our 6th floor dressing rooms and were greeted by fruit trays and an assortment of cookies; there were black and white photos on the walls of past Ed Sullivan shows and comfy couches across from your standard round-bulb-flickered mirrors.  These things always involved a lot of waiting around: we waited for the band to begin rehearsals, waited for their make-up, waited while watching Mr. John McCain crack jokes, waited for our cue ... We've done two of these now, both have been quit surreal to say the least: all the big lights, and people running around with headsets and clipboards, yelling at each other and making what we all know as "show biz" happen, right then and there. During rehearsals, we we're harped at for not having the song shaved to three-minutes, forty-seconds, like we said we would, hence the elimination of the begining guitar intro; it worked out in the end, and the band performed the song flawlessly.

After the performance, Paul Shaffer, the Letterman band leader, decked out in his technicolor sport coat and hip shades, came backstage to congratulate the band and compliment them on their performance!

Overall, the band and crew left happy. The performance was great and the the audience and Letterman staff were all pleased.

It was raining hard out on the street as we exited the studio. We all piled out onto the sidewalk one by one. There were barricades set-up on either side of the stage door, and on the right stood three fans behind one of the barricades, soaked and smiling, waiting for Justin to appear to sign their clutched records and merchandise. Though the numbers were modest, it was encouraging, and most definitly odd to see fans waiting for autographs like that.

This year has been a crazy one.

“Happy Election Day.”

Thats the text message I’ve got from more than a few friends this morning. 

I just want to share my own joy and pride to be alive and to be a part of this country on this day. 

This is our time. We are entering our Golden Age. 

When we look back at this when we are old, we will know it as the time when America got its transfusion; with the red blood of the fore fathers of this young country and true patriots running through us again.

Cheers to hope.  … and to not think of us as prospering until those hopes are realized. Untill people are treated as people, and the dream of this America can actually put its shoes on and walk out of door its been behind for too long and smell the morning. 

Happy Election Day.

Eau Bama.

love from Bon Iver headquarters,

It's here. This is why we live here.

Its been announced: we are playing our final show of this crazy year, in the only place we could: Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

I don't know when tickets go on sale or anything, but soon … We are playing the State Theatre downtown on Dec. 22nd.

I can't wait to be there and share the show with anyone of you that can make it.

Can't wait.

In the meantime, I am working on a remix of Lykee Li's "Dance Dance Dance" and I have to say, its been really exciting to work on. I don't know when it'll be out, but I am, for now, dubbing it the 'Hoosiers mix'.

And in the other meantime, we are having bon fires in the backyard.

We are home. And you may or may not know how incredible it is to say.

Sean gets married this weekend.

We are drinking coffee at Racy's.

We are drinking beer at the Joynt.

We are eating at Egg Rolls Plus.

We are driving in the sun, the sumac red trees and golden mazes.

We are home.

Wanted to add to the "year end thanks" list previously talked about:

My friend Beth Urdang, who runs her own music supervision company in new york called Agoraphone, heard the album almost before anyone in the world did, and she believed in it and helped us, in no small way, believe in it.  Thanks, Beth.

We had just met all of these guys a few minutes before this was filmed. A great song – Dance, Dance, Dance – by Lykke Li. Filmed in a park in Los Angeles, CA on August 25th, 2008.