Review by Adam Schutz – please join us in welcoming him to the IATU team!

Photo credit: Cory Greenwall, via Alt Press

It seems hard to believe that one man could sell out the Southern Theater on a Monday evening but that’s just one more testament to the musical legacy of Jeff Mangum, the man behind the indie-legend Neutral Milk Hotel. From the moment Mangum walked on stage and dived into “Oh Comely” he had the crowd’s full attention. Despite it being an eight minute song, the crowd remained silent and entranced till the very end, save for the burst of applause at the entrance of a french horn player from the opening act. After the overlong opener he asked everyone to come a little closer and immediately the audience, including myself, ran down to the first level and crowded the isles. The show became much more personal from that point on as Mangum and the crowd conversed between songs. For someone who is notorious for leaving behind the pressure of the spotlight, Mangum seemed completely at ease on stage and had total control of the atmosphere. The set was short, as was to be expected with such a limited discography, but it left little to be desired. Although Mangum played several songs off his other EPs and albums, in my opinion the highest points of his set were when he played from the album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. My personal favorite moments were the crowd singing loudly along to “Two Headed Boy” and the one-song encore, “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea”. Despite insistent pleas from the crowd to make another album and to “not go away again”, Jeff Mangum never gave any indication of his plans for the future but here’s to hoping that I don’t have to wait another decade before I see him play again.

Enjoy a bootleg video from the show [editor’s comment]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrpq7OLdZvo]