Image: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
MASS MoCA has announced a live performance of 'Hug', the trio collaboration of Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson, for Friday, October 9, 2026, at 8 pm in the Hunter Center. The concert is billed as a chance to see the group’s “deeply intuitive creative partnership” onstage, with tickets scheduled to go on sale July 10.
The museum’s event listing places the performance within its performing arts program and identifies it as a concert. The page gives ticket prices of $46 in advance, $56 week-of and $76 for preferred seating. The event appears as a one-night engagement at the Hunter Center in North Adams, Massachusetts.
According to MASS MoCA’s announcement, the three musicians who wrote and recorded 'Hug' are not related by blood, but have developed a close artistic rapport through their shared work. The museum describes the record as “more than the sum of its parts,” noting that the players’ banter is as important as the music itself. It also says the project can at first seem like a guitar trio, while ultimately sounding distinct from the individual artists’ separate bodies of work.
The source material provides a brief background on the trio members’ musical histories. Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson grew up together in Nevada City, California, where they bonded over classical guitar before moving into careers that spanned experimental, folk and contemporary music. Devendra Banhart, the announcement says, later proved a natural creative counterpart because of a similarly unconventional upbringing and an early devotion to music.
MASS MoCA says 'Hug' was written and recorded organically over three weeks. The album draws together folk, ambient and experimental traditions, while also incorporating field recordings, spiritual references and what the museum calls a sense of childlike play. The announcement points to Sanskrit chants alongside unexpected lyrics and to musical ideas first conceived decades earlier.
The museum frames the performance as a presentation of that album’s collaborative spirit rather than a broad retrospective or a separate staged work. No additional repertoire is listed on the event page, and the only confirmed date is October 9, 2026. Tickets are to become available beginning July 10, 2026.
