Jeff Mangum Live at The Schoolhouse
I first heard about the show just hours beforehand via a text from a pretty good looking bro, who asked me for details about the “NMH thing”. I had no idea what this dude was talking about, so I went out with a different, equally good looking bro and got a sandwich at the bodega across the street, ignoring the text. Mid-sandwich, it clicked. Neutral Milk Hotel? At first I didn’t believe it was true. Seemed like a real Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist type of situation; my ultimate high school dream band is playing somewhere, at sometime in Brooklyn. Only it was Jeff Mangum I was chasing, not some band called “Where’s Fluffy?”.
After hours of texts, phone calls, and IMs in pursuit of entry, halfway through Mangum’s set I found myself running up the stairs to a loft on the third floor of a bushwick apartment building known as The Schoolhouse. The space is clean and spacious, large enough to fit about 200 people comfortably. Highly selective, the venue hosts about one show per month, most recently with Black Dice, Blues Control, McDonalds (Oxford Collapse side-project), and an Avey Tare DJ set. I felt fortunate to be one of the 100-or-so people to see Jeff Mangum play his intimate set last night, but it was also unfortunate that I got there after the opening band, Forma, who I’ll definitely catch at Tandem this Saturday December 11.
Hair a little longer and dressed in signature red flannel, Mangum played a 10 song set of Neutral Milk Hotel songs. The audience sat on the Schoolhouse’s hardwood floor cross-legged, quietly mouthing the words of Mangum’s lecture. Perched beside a music stand with a revolving cast of three acoustic guitars, he constantly traded instruments, sometimes in mid-song while sounding an entrancing, malismatic bleat. It was endearing to see Mangum go from having this powerful, raw, emotional presence while performing, and then between songs, change his composure and become meek and incredibly gracious for the opportunity to perform. It felt like this event was just as special to him as it was to his admirers.
My personal highlight, The Aeroplane Over The Sea finale “Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 2″, concluded the night’s festivities. Mangum thanked the audience, and left the hand-built stage to walk among the crowd, who parted way for Jeff. People begin to talk a little softer or a little louder, depending on wether or not they want their words to be heard by the man while he continued to mingle, trying to find someone chill to hang with. Beyond his fuzz-folk demi-god status, at the end of the day Jeff Mangum is pretty much just a good looking bro rolling on.
Jeff Mangum – King of Carrot Flowers, Pts. 1-3
Jeff Mangum – Song Against Sex
Wow! Thank you! I continuously needed to write on my blog something like that. Can I include a part of your post to my website?
I cannot thank you enough for posting this.
You are indescribably lucky to be able to see him play live.
[...] Jeff Mangum appeared again and played a small show to a small crowd. The set was recorded and is as good as you’d expect. [...]
[...] earth. Fans have had very few chances to see the master works performed live, and despite a recent treat, it looks like there is little hope for this to change any time [...]
[...] Milk Hotel. Randy contacted me all excited not the other day on account Jeff Mangum has been playing a live show or two again after a lengthy spell away from performin’. So who knows whether that’ll [...]
well, i take a look from time to time in the internet to find perhaps something new about the man, who made the best album ever written together with his brilliant band. thank you for the fantastic news he started again playing music. so there’s hope, he will start making some new songs, too.
greetings from germany
i have wanted to see him/them so fucking much for so fucking long. come to londooon pleeeeaaaasssseeee!!!!
[...] International Tapes Share and [...]
[...] of silence, Jeff Magnum of Neutral Milk Hotel finally announces a show (that actually isn’t a secret…), but of all places, it has to be in New Jersey! It appears as though he will be playing along [...]
[...] will take the Paramount Theatre’s stage to play songs from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. He did something similar last month in Brooklyn but who knows when he might [...]
[...] Jeff Mangum, the reclusive frontman of Neutral Milk Hotel, whose In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is in my Top 10 Favorite albums ever, performed a few songs recently in Brooklyn. As far as I am aware, this is the first time he’s played any NMH songs live since 1998. You can download 5 of the tracks here. [...]
[...] mp3s of Mangum’s Schoolhouse show, hurry on over to International Tapes, and for another, non-video timeline, check out WSJ. Add a comment var addthis_config = [...]
i’m so glad to see he’s back playing. Great musician, one of my favorites
[...] e. did you hear that Jeff M from Neutral Milk Hotel played a secret show in BK over the weekend?? check out the songs from it HERE. [...]
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
[...] of boxed set including unreleased material. After baby-stepping back into fans’ minds with a private show in Brooklyn last December, Mangum has continued to pick up steam — playing more shows and adding more [...]