Neutral Milk Hotel at the Boston Orpheum, Jan. 17 2014
1. The King of Carrot Flowers, Part One
2. The King of Carrot Flowers, Parts Two & Three
3. Holland, 1945
4. A Baby for Pree / Glow Into You
5. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
6. Everything Is
7. Two-Headed Boy
8. The Fool
9. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
10. Naomi
11. Ferris Wheel on Fire
12. Oh Comely
13. Song Against Sex
14. Ruby Bulbs
14. Snow Song, Part One
Encore:
1. Ghost
2. [untitled]
3. Two-Headed Boy, Part Two
4. Engine
Beautiful rococo theatre - all gilt and flutey moldings and pale blue and murals having something to do with suitors wooing their ladies by way of music en plein air. (A lute abandoned in the grass?) Very narrow rows, red velvet seats. I was on the left in the second set of balcony seats, rather closer to the stage than I would have been had I been even in the middleish of the orchestra.
This was the exact view we had of Jeff Mangum all night long - except once, when he raised his face fully to the light, pressing his hands to his chest, one on top of the other, in thanks. He repeated the gesture several times throughout the night. Oh Jeff Mangum, I hope your armor serves you well enough to carry you on another solo tour, because goddamn would I love to see him solo.
Hearing "The King of Carrot Flowers" and "Aeroplane" live - the first heartbreakingly familiar guitar strums, the gradual explosion of warmly raucous brass - stand out as Significant Life Experiences. The prickly red velvet seats and brass-colored gilt and embracing oval structure of the rather small theatre all perfect for it.
Spillane looked like Santa in a thick red flannel shirt, making himself constantly even redder as he screamed (mic-lessly) along with the lyrics. Julian Koster looked like a demented teen elf, bouncing and spinning and spinning and spinning in blue track pants, yellow logo'd shirt, and blue knit earflap hat with a floppy crest and only one earflap ???? Mangum was wearing terracotta-colored pants and I can't remember what shirt. I'm not sure why it seemed important to me to try to remember what he was wearing, but it does still seem so.
"Communist's Daughter" was a notable exclusion from the setlist, and prowling through setlists from other nights of the tour, it seems like a consistent exclusion. I wonder ... I compared impressions with Adam on Friday when he stopped by our lab to steal EDTA, and he was particularly bereft at not getting to hear about the semen staining the mountaintops, which is, he declared - and I could have guessed this - his favorite line on the album. Contender for me: "I wish't I could save her in some sort of time machine"
Undignified observations:
The audience was very middle-young (nobody younger than 18 or older than 35, except a teen daughter/enthusiastic mom pair whom I saw while waiting to exit) and white.
Occasional bellows of "JEFF FUCKING MANGUM." Four arty bros who started a chant of "ONE-MORE-TIME" several minutes after lights had gone up and the exodus had begun.
"His voice is like being stabbed with a brass sword" - arty bro who had obviously been nurturing the simile for the entirety of the concert
2. The King of Carrot Flowers, Parts Two & Three
3. Holland, 1945
4. A Baby for Pree / Glow Into You
5. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
6. Everything Is
7. Two-Headed Boy
8. The Fool
9. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
10. Naomi
11. Ferris Wheel on Fire
12. Oh Comely
13. Song Against Sex
14. Ruby Bulbs
14. Snow Song, Part One
Encore:
1. Ghost
2. [untitled]
3. Two-Headed Boy, Part Two
4. Engine
Beautiful rococo theatre - all gilt and flutey moldings and pale blue and murals having something to do with suitors wooing their ladies by way of music en plein air. (A lute abandoned in the grass?) Very narrow rows, red velvet seats. I was on the left in the second set of balcony seats, rather closer to the stage than I would have been had I been even in the middleish of the orchestra.
This was the exact view we had of Jeff Mangum all night long - except once, when he raised his face fully to the light, pressing his hands to his chest, one on top of the other, in thanks. He repeated the gesture several times throughout the night. Oh Jeff Mangum, I hope your armor serves you well enough to carry you on another solo tour, because goddamn would I love to see him solo.
Hearing "The King of Carrot Flowers" and "Aeroplane" live - the first heartbreakingly familiar guitar strums, the gradual explosion of warmly raucous brass - stand out as Significant Life Experiences. The prickly red velvet seats and brass-colored gilt and embracing oval structure of the rather small theatre all perfect for it.
Spillane looked like Santa in a thick red flannel shirt, making himself constantly even redder as he screamed (mic-lessly) along with the lyrics. Julian Koster looked like a demented teen elf, bouncing and spinning and spinning and spinning in blue track pants, yellow logo'd shirt, and blue knit earflap hat with a floppy crest and only one earflap ???? Mangum was wearing terracotta-colored pants and I can't remember what shirt. I'm not sure why it seemed important to me to try to remember what he was wearing, but it does still seem so.
"Communist's Daughter" was a notable exclusion from the setlist, and prowling through setlists from other nights of the tour, it seems like a consistent exclusion. I wonder ... I compared impressions with Adam on Friday when he stopped by our lab to steal EDTA, and he was particularly bereft at not getting to hear about the semen staining the mountaintops, which is, he declared - and I could have guessed this - his favorite line on the album. Contender for me: "I wish't I could save her in some sort of time machine"
Undignified observations:
The audience was very middle-young (nobody younger than 18 or older than 35, except a teen daughter/enthusiastic mom pair whom I saw while waiting to exit) and white.
Occasional bellows of "JEFF FUCKING MANGUM." Four arty bros who started a chant of "ONE-MORE-TIME" several minutes after lights had gone up and the exodus had begun.
"His voice is like being stabbed with a brass sword" - arty bro who had obviously been nurturing the simile for the entirety of the concert