Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Local musicians team up to embrace the shorter days

By Ross Boissoneau | Oct. 25, 2025

The dark is a scary place. That’s where all the bad stuff happens, from horror movies to monsters under the bed to long winters.

But maybe the dark can be warm and inviting, too. That was the hope when local musicians Andrew Dost, A.S. Lutes, and Jack M. Senff first decided to embrace the shorter days and longer nights with their annual “Hello Darkness” concert, a takeoff on the opening line of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence.”

This year, their show will take place Nov. 1 at the City Opera House in Traverse City.

The Season

Dost says the event grew out of the friends’ visits with one another where they would sit around and play music together. He says it became similar to a songwriters in the round session, which was the impetus to put on an official performance.

“Four years ago, the three of us played a show,” says Dost. “It’s just a fun excuse to get together.”

“We celebrate [the season] rather than brace for impact,” adds Lutes. “It’s a cool sentiment: slow down, add layers, bundle up. Create more space for what we need.”

Dost says the change in seasons tends to ignite a need for more community and a need to push himself creatively.

“I think it tends to remind me of mortality, which some years has been depressing, and some years acts as an engine and propels me forward,” he explains. “I was outside a lot this summer, and as the weather turns, I’m inside more during my free time, which means writing music and recording becomes more than my day job. It becomes my social life, a reason to get together, a reason to call a friend in Maine who can record something remotely. Music has always been about connection for me, and that becomes vital when it’s cold.”

Celebrating the solstices or the equinoxes is a tradition dating back thousands of years. But actually embracing the loss of daylight? Dost, Lutes, and Senff said sure, why not. Given that people turn their clocks back an hour the following night (Nov. 2—mark your calendar!), resulting in the sun seemingly setting in the early afternoon, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

“Fall can be warm and sunny, the last gasp of summer. November can be much colder,” Dost says. “We can look out for each other, check in on our neighbors. It’s a good time to get together.”

The Show

Their various ensembles—Dost’s Metal Bubble Trio, A.S. Lutes, and Jack M. Senff and the Heartland Mission—will perform an evening of music to usher in the shorter days. It will likely touch on a variety of styles and genres: Americana, indie, pop, acoustic, electric, folk, funk and bossa nova.

Each of the artists will have a turn in the spotlight, around 30 to 45 minutes each. Senff says the bands will likely be working on their set lists right up until the curtain rises. He certainly will. “It’s what feels right,” he says.

Will they guest with one another? Will there be a final song or encore where they all team up? Those are questions yet to be answered.

All we know is that Senff promises that this year’s version will go beyond previous years. “This year the lineup expanded. We’ve got a couple extra members,” says Senff.

An expanding band is nothing new to Dost. Despite the name, his Metal Bubble Trio has never been relegated to three members. More a collective than a band with a set membership, he says the Hello Darkness concert will include at least four members in his band, but no more than 10 or 11.

His set will also be based around the band’s upcoming album, which he says is less focused on a bossa nova sound and is instead somewhere between jazz and ’90s indie-pop. “It’s a pivot from the first. Bossa nova was fun to explore but [it’s] not another album of bossa indie-rock.”

Senff says each of the three have their own audience, and by having a triple bill featuring all three artists, they gain more exposure than they would otherwise. “It’s not just the usual suspects,” he says of the audience.

With three different bands playing, plus rumored special guests, the performers say it’s important to make the transitions as smooth as possible.

“The focus is to share equipment, try to make it smooth and seamless, but have some space between [acts],” says Lutes. He says having brief breaks between the artists gives the audience time to get up, stretch their legs, and reset their expectations.

Hello Darkness previously took place at other venues around the area, but last year’s show at the City Opera House prompted the artists to return. “The success at the City Opera House—we want to repeat that,” says Lutes.

“We sold a lot of tickets last year,” says Senff. “I don’t usually care but … what it meant was we had a wide range of people.”

The concert begins at 7pm, with the doors opening promptly at 6:31pm: sunset, of course. For tickets and more information, go to cityoperahouse.org.

The Autumn Vibes

Many people tend to cozy up as fall weather arrives. Here are the cold-weather rituals each musician swears by:

Dost: “Every morning, before looking at my phone, I stretch, then take a walk with my dog while my kettle heats up. Then I drink tea and read,” he says. “This is especially important as fall turns to winter, and the world seems a little less forgiving and abundant.”

Dost says there are a lot of records that hit him as autumnal. “This year, though, I’ve been listening to a lot of Mastodon and Metallica. Also Deftones and Chemical Brothers,” he says.

Lutes: Lutes says he enjoys the fact that at this time of year, the pace slows down from summer’s hurry-up-and-enjoy feeling.

“It’s super-busy, almost overwhelming as you try to capture everything,” he says of summertime. In contrast, fall gives him a chance to draw in and reflect on life, which leads to more songwriting. “I shift to a moodier space. I listen to a lot of singer/songwriters like Phoebe Bridgers, Boy Genius, Simon and Garfunkel.

“It’s the same for creating music,” Lutes continues. “I write songs as a tool to process the world. Andrew [Dost] and Jack are prolific songwriters. I’ve got to have lived experiences, encounter barriers, and use songwriting to process it. It [fall/winter] is a great time for me as a songwriter.”

Senff: “Longer walks, more coffee,” he says. He turns to Phil Cook’s piano records and James Taylor for listening, while he says the season helps him clear his head and think more clearly. “That translates to my playing and songwriting as I take stock of the year I’ve had and the slow winter ahead.”