Neutral Milk Hotel, 1/18/14, L'Olympia, Montreal, QC

[radiowilco]

I had seen Jeff Mangum's first solo show back after his long hiatus at the First Unitarian Church in Burlington, VT.  It was a fantastic show - partly because of his long hiatus and folks were simply jonesin' see the guy play.  I remember listening to him that August evening and imaging what more the band would bring to these songs in a live setting.  I finally got the chance to do this last night and NMH did not disappoint.  They sounded fresh and were clearly breathing new life into their songs that they had not played together in many years.  The crowd was on fire from the first note of the show and the band members response to their energy was palpable.  Elf Power opened the show with an excellent set and members of the band joined NMH on stage for several songs throughout the evening.  A really enjoyable night of music - catch them if you can in a city near you.  Here's the setlist as played:

 

Two Headed Boy (Mangum Solo)

The Fool

Holland, 1945

A Baby for Pree

Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone

Everything Is

King of Carrot Flowers Part 1

King of Carrot Flowers Part 2 and 3

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Namoi

Ferris Wheel on Fire

Oh Comely (Mangum Solo - First Half of Song)

Song Against Sex

Ruby Bulbs

Snow Song Part 1

 

Encore:

Ghost

(untitled)

Two Headed Boy Part 2

Engine

 

[Raskolnikov]

Fully agreed.  My wife and I traveled from SLC to see him in Toronto in 2011 thinking that might be the only string of dates he would do... while we were wrong (he came to SLC a year later) the Toronto shows - in an old church - were top three shows of my life material.  Just amazing stuff.  Then when I saw that the whole band was coming, I knew they had a tall order.

While the NMH show a few weeks back probably was techincally "better" across the board - totally took me by surprise, just blew me away - the Mangum show due to the factors (vacation, traveling to a different country, etc) all made it take the cake.

That said, was one of those shows where I was kind of floating the next day, even.  Just so, so solid.