So I went to see Neutral Milk Hotel the other night...

[Swish]

...and to my delight, Elf Pee () was the opening band. I'd go to see if they were the featured artist, and the packed house at the Union Transfer was just as enthusiastic.

NMH was outstanding, plain and simple. In fact, I'm going to, hopefully, score some tickets this morning (going on sale at 10 AM) to see them again on July 25th and the opener will be Circulatory System. Color me giddy.

Here's a great review of the show since I'm a busy guy this morning...

By Dan DeLuca, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: February 02, 2014

Neutral Milk Hotel has hit upon a winning career strategy.
Make a great, heartbreakingly beautiful, ultimately unknowable album - in this case, 1998's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
Go away for a while - for as long as 15 years, if necessary. Give the people a little time to ponder your compellingly mysterious music, and for a new generation to discover its rare virtues via this thing called the Internet, which had barely gotten rolling when you put down your guitar.
Then step back onstage with talent intact - and behold the cult audience that has grown up with your music and is so eager to see their musical heroes in the flesh that your shows this week at the Tower Theater and Union Transfer were immediate sellouts.


Such is the scenario for Jeff Mangum, the Neutral Milk front man who took his spot at the right side of the stage of Union Transfer before an enthusiastically reverential crowd on Thursday.
After several songs performed by Mangum and a rotating cast of as many as six other instrument-switching musicians - including Julian Koster, who played guitar, bowed banjo, Moog synthesizer, and musical saw, among other instruments - the dude behind me spoke for the audience as a whole in shouting out a simple request: "Play it again!"
Of course, Mangum didn't plan any of this. Now 43, the guitarist and songwriter got burned out on touring behind In the Aeroplane. He reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown and led a reclusive existence during the '00s. In 2011, he set hearts aflutter by going on a solo tour, and got NMH back together late last year.
For a guy with a reputation as a troubled soul, Mangum seemed quite comfortable in his own skin at UT on Thursday - or at least, comfortable in his woolly sweater, railroad cap, and prodigious beard. The band is camera-shy, though: The only extant promo photos date back a decade and a half, and the audience was asked to respect a no-photography-or-recording request, which pretty much everybody did.
NMH's songs are built around Mangum's rough acoustic guitar and powerful, declamatory voice, which echoes in indie-folkies that have followed him, such as Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. The singer sang some solo, like the opening "King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. One" and "Two Headed Boy, Pt. 2."
But many songs, such as the distorted "Holland, 1945" and the galloping "Ghost," were delivered with enough punky, garage-rock energy to get a mosh pit going. The band shape-shifted giddily, drawing from Aeroplane and its 1996 predecessor, Avery Island, and playing no new material. One moment, a conventional-looking indie band was up on stage; the next, it was a nutty and (thankfully) never-too-polished ensemble with three horns and two accordions.
Mangum's allusive songs are quite serious. Back when he gave interviews, he talked about the influence of The Diary of Anne Frank on the often-fantastical Aeroplane. But the appeal of these tunes is built on more than just mystery and musicality. They impart a sense of wonder at the strangeness and beauty of everyday life.
In Aeroplane's title song, the centerpiece of Thursday's highly entertaining 80-minute show, Mangum summed it up this way, offering musical advice to an audience that sang it right back to him: "One day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea/ But for now we are young, let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see."

---

[noddin0ff]

That, good Sir, was a very read. thanks

[jonnyhambone]

Will be seeing them tomorrow. Can't wait! ^ that's a great review...I only hope it's not a huge audience sing-along the whole time.

[Swish]

Will be seeing them tomorrow. Can't wait! ^ that's a great review...I only hope it's not a huge audience sing-along the whole time.

Two things; be prepared for an invasion of hipsters in skinny jeans, and there will be a huge audience sing-along. Happens at nearly every show I've been to of late.

The exception to that was a most excellent Andrew Bird when I was hosting Canadian friends Audio Bill and Forever Autumn and her husband.

[Jack in Wilmington]

Sing Along, ugh. Sounds like a Jimmy Buffett concert. Once was enough.

[Swish]

So why can't I edit my OP? There is no option to do so and I want to fix a typo (Elp Pee instead of Elf Pee ... Elf Power)? The option appears on my reply to jonnyhambone but not the OP. What the heck?!

[ForeverAutumn]

I don't know why you can't edit, but I fixed it for you.

[Swish]

I don't know why you can't edit, but I fixed it for you.

Thanks, but I'm still wondering why 'Edit Post' doesn't appear at the bottom in that gray section as it does in my reply to jonnyhambone and others. Should be just to the left of 'Reply' but it's not there.