The blockbuster this week, of course, was the big
Neutral Milk Hotel show (May 5, The Beacham).
If you weren’t fortunate enough to lock a ticket to the
long sold-out event, you’re still screwed because we don’t have any photos to show you due to a rare
artist-requested photography ban. Too bad because this could’ve been where I showed you Jeff Mangum Jesus-walking on the hands of the crowd…
Or Julian Koster rocking a singing saw solo to a laser light show…
Or pyro shooting from the horn section…
But as they say, pics or it didn’t happen, right? Well, what did happen was really more of a
historical event than a concert. Despite a lean oevre, Neutral Milk Hotel has cemented its place as one of the best, most defining acts of the legendary
Elephant 6 collective, a status that’s gained even more height after the fact. Now add the weight of this touring swan dive they’re currently on.
When band brain
Jeff Mangum played to a capacity crowd in this same big venue in 2013, it was in the full swing of a gradual return to the stage that would culminate in the announcement of a full
Neutral Milk Hotel reunion three months later. Now it’s the farewell to that unlikely dream since this is being billed by the band as their
final tour, a last hurrah that concludes this summer.
Fever (doubled up by reunion hype and last-chance urgency) and
enchantment (the inevitable effect of their strikingly enigmatic psych-pop) defined this show. It didn’t always sound great, with some of the more boisterous songs suffering from sonic cloudiness. But it
felt great. It was a
moment in history, one so self-cognizant that a funny flurry of
crowd surfing broke out during a solo acoustic song in the final stretch of the show. And so they rode out of this town to
deafening applause and into the otherworldly ether from which sprung...
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This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly's music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city's music scene.
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Email Bao: baolehuu@orlandoweekly.com