Neutral Milk Hotel Live 4-18-14

In an Airplane Over the Sea is this generation's Sergeant Pepper's, just as tights are this decade's pants.  Furthermore, we understand that to deny tights are pants is misogynistic slut-shaming, just as to deny anyone the joy of listening to In an Airplane is pretentious snobbery. 

Neutral Milk Hotel has two LP's and two EP's, all of which span from 1992 to 1998.  Karat and I weren't exposed to In an Airplane until 2000.  So we recognize that there are some of you out there more hip to the NMH scene than us.  This also means that we had to wait until 2013 before we got our chance to see a live version of this music.

In March of 2013, we got the opportunity to see Jeff Mangum perform NMH songs as a solo act.  He sat on a chair in the middle of the stage with his long beard and belted songs to a crowd of fist pumping beef cakes, douche bags, brody chops and buff chucks.  We loved the experience, but we were puzzled at the crowd, almost scared at times.  However, it went well and everyone ate it up.

This year we got the opportunity to see the whole band.  The crowd this time contained incessant screaming ladies and testicle popping skinny jeans.  And it was a better experience than the solo show, once we moved to the back of the room.

The combined experience of the Mangum set and the NMH set were something unique and unforgettable.  This year's show started with Mangum on stage alone and the song "Two-Headed Boy."  It was as if we were right back at the solo show from the previous year.  I even looked at Karat and whispered, "deja vuski."  Then the rest of the band took the stage as the song bridged towards "The Fool," and the horn section lit up in the most hair raising moments of live entertainment we have ever seen.  It was as if this year's full band setup was the encore to the solo act of last year's Mangum set.

The combination of both shows is a bit like watching someone jump on Anne Frank's preserved bed in Amsterdam while "Holland, 1945" is playing on full blast.  NMH's cult following is kind of a shame, and a lot of fans weren't even old enough to fingerbang when we came to love these albums.  But who fucking cares?  Let them crowd around and scream.  We'll just move to the back of the room.  We needed to cool down anyway from that horn session.

chop