Dijon and Mk.gee perform as wedding band, covering Big Star, Wings and Cat Stevens

Dijon and Mk.gee traded the concert stage for the dance floor, performing together as the live band at the wedding of Jack Karaszewski and Danica Kleinknecht, Pitchfork reported on 14 October.

It was a working wedding set, not a cameo. The two musicians stayed up front for the night and played the songs a wedding band is hired to play: familiar tunes, timed to the room, with the couple’s key moments built in.

The biggest of those moments came first. Dijon and Mk.gee played Big Star’s “Thirteen” for the couple’s first dance, the opening slow dance that signals the start of the party. They stayed with well-known guitar songs after that, covering Wings’ “Let Me Roll It” and Cat Stevens’ “Trouble” during the celebration.

They did not do it as a duo. Paul Dally, Henry Kwapis, Parker Mulherin and Marshall Mulherin were on stage with them as part of the lineup. Singer Katie Pearlman also joined in, singing vocals on a few songs across the set.

The performance was first detailed by Stereogum on 13 October, in a report by Chris DeVille on the Wings, Big Star and Cat Stevens covers. The later Pitchfork account named the couple as Karaszewski and Kleinknecht and listed the full group of players around Dijon and Mk.gee.

What makes this stand out is the choice of material. A first dance is usually a personal pick, one song the couple will always link to the day. “Thirteen” is a quiet, tender song from the early 1970s, written for teenage years and remembered long after. Played live, with two voices and a band behind it, it would have landed very differently from a recording played through speakers.

For fans, this means a glimpse of both acts in an unusual setting. There were no tickets, no support slot and no setlist posted in advance. Just two artists learning other people’s songs, standing with a larger band and keeping a wedding moving from the first dance onward.