Neutral Milk Hotel with Elf Power at First Ave, Minneapolis, 2/10/14

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In the Aeroplane Over the Sea cover art.
In the summer of 2004, I was at summer camp in Lawrence, Kansas, when my roommate turned to me and said, "Listen to this song, and tell me what you think it means." It was "Two-Headed Boy" and I thought it was the most beautiful and incomprehensible thing. Fast-forward ten years. On Monday night, I went to see Neutral Milk Hotel, who came out of hiding for a reunion tour. I wasn't sure what to expect. Their frontman, Jeff Mangum, has been on solo tours the last few years, but never anywhere I could get a ticket. They were doing a two-night stand at First Ave in Minneapolis, and tickets sold out in minutes, six months before the show. I bought one at a ridiculous markup on StubHub, and I hoped it would be worth it. Well, it was pretty spectacular.

The show started really early (doors at 5:30, show at 7) on a Monday night, so I headed to the venue as soon as my classes were over, worried I wasn't going to be there early enough to secure a good spot. I waited in the -10F weather for about a half hour, which was about a half hour longer than I would have liked to. I was rewarded with a second-row spot. The band requested no photos or videos, which was a real shame, because the only people in front of me were three really short girls.

Elf Power opened. I had never heard them before, but enjoyed their set. Their vocals were impossible to understand, so I want to go back and listen to a recording before I pass judgment on the band as a whole. They're a four piece band (two guitars, a keyboard, and a drumset).

I have never seen a band play a show on so cluttered a stage -- such was the preponderance of instruments to be played. At any given time, there were between one and seven musicians on the stage. Often, there were four -- I gather that there are really four members of the band, plus some touring help. One of the members of Elf Power seemed to be helping out with various instruments -- the bands both come from Athens, Georgia, and have a history of collaboration.

The instruments I saw played were:
Guitars
Basses
Drumset
Banjo (both plucked and bowed)
Musical saws (x3, both bowed and struck with the tip of the bow)
Trumpets
Trombone
French horn
Baritone
MIDI wind controller (a sort of electric, plastic saxophone-looking instrument)
Accordions (two of them)
Keyboards
Synthesizers
Percussion (shakers, etc.)
Electric bagpipe

I think I'm probably leaving a few out. It was an impressive sound, presented largely without comment (though they were gracious, and the multi-instrumentalist with the saws, Julian, did make a point of thanking the people who waited in line in the very very cold to get a spot in the front).

The crowd seemed to feel largely like I do -- that In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is basically the best record ever. The band played lots of things from that record, usually in chunks interspersed with other songs. There was a lot less singing and carrying on during the pieces from On Avery Island and other things. The setlist is below.

"Two-Headed Boy" was a highlight for me (and, apparently, the girl next to me, who had gotten a "two-headed boy" tattoo earlier that day), and it was a good way to start, with Mangum on stage alone. He was then joined by the full, seven-piece band for "The Fool". Really, every song from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was a highlight for me. They bookended the show nicely by playing "Two-Headed Boy Part 2" at the end, and closed out the encore with "Engine", evidently a rare B-side from the "Holland, 1945" 7".

It was one of the best shows I've been to, so if you can catch them on this reunion tour, you should. It's worth the exorbitant ticket prices, and even the insufferable hipsters you will inevitably be surrounded by -- my neighbors wouldn't stop biting each other, and practically everyone showed up in matching horn-rimmed glasses, sporting dumb mustaches. But go anyway - you won't believe how strange it is to be anything at all.

Setlist:
  1. Two-Headed Boy
  2. The Fool 
  3. Holland 1945 
  4. A Baby for Pree / Glow Into You 
  5. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone 
  6. Everything Is 
  7. The King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1 
  8. The King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 2 & 3 
  9. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 
  10. Naomi 
  11. Ferris Wheel on Fire 
  12. Oh Comely 
  13. Song Against Sex 
  14. Ruby Bulbs 
  15. Snow Song Pt. 1Encore:
  16. Ghost 
  17. [untitled] (from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea)
  18. Two Headed Boy Part 2 
  19. Engine 

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