Until Wednesday night, I hadn’t been able to wrap my head around the Obama presidency, other than to say that the images of the new president and first lady saying goodbye to the old first couple on the helicopter tarmac — gently, with great kindness and love for thy neighbor and enemy — may be the single most healing scene to be broadcast to this country in my lifetime.

But then I went to Nye’s last night, and saw something I’ve never seen before: There, hanging behind the stage, was the American flag — the same one I’ve seen dozens of Wednesday nights over the past couple years. But last night, as Molly Maher and Erik Koskinen tore through their weekly back-flip of gutbucket rock-n-blues, it looked decidedly different. Last night, it was a kinder, gentler, stronger, and infinitely cooler flag, just as it is here, there and everywhere.