[These pics are from Jeff Mangum's Paramount Theater performance last October. Due to the strict no-photo policy, images are difficult to come by]. Last night’s Jeff Mangum show will be the last for the foreseeable future in our area, and it brought most of the 1000+ at Irvine Auditorium on the campus of UPenn to tears. This was our sixth show, including the five-song mini set in NYC two years ago, and it proved to be one of the most memorable. It was our second time with balcony seats, as the only show in Philadelphia sold out in 34 seconds back in November. Luckily, the acoustics of the auditorium were comparable to the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park. We skipped out on Neutral Milk Hotel alum Julian Koster’s The Music Tapes after a tedious opening set in Brooklyn several days earlier. Koster told the same long-winded, mythical stories he told during the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour. A 30-minute set would have been just right, but the band played on for an hour (equal stage time as Mangum).
Mangum entered stage right with his normal humble but slightly paranoid demeanor, but you could tell he was getting used to and was enjoying performing again after a large string of dates over past few months. He started right into “Two-Headed Boy Pt. Two” to a completely silent audience. It was so quiet you’d have to question, just for a second, if they were into it. The raging applause, yelps, “thank yous,” “we love yous,” etc. quickly put to rest that thought immediately. One of the highlights of the night was the accompaniment of Julian Koster’s singing saw during fan-favorite “Engine,” just as he did earlier in the week in Brooklyn (during a show I missed). Koster hit every note perfectly, and the song never sounded better. An additional highlight was another performance of the ultra-rare “Little Birds,” Mangum’s take on religious baptism, in which he sings in a raised voice, “knowing God in heaven could have … never could forgive him | So I took a hammer and I nearly beat his brains in.” Like most of his songs, the imagery taken from Mangum’s lyrics is both disturbing and beautiful. In the end, the highlight of each and every show was my personal favorite, “Oh Comely.” You can check it out the performance below [via NewJawnVideos] (poor video, decent audio):
One of the best surprises of the night featured The Music Tapes walking in from the rear of the auditorium at the end of “Two-Headed Boy.” On Neutral Milk Hotel’s opus In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, “Two-Headed Boy” is followed by the trumpet-heavy instrumental track “The Fool.” The Music Tapes made it about 2/3 through the main aisle in the orchestra section and stopped, playing the trumpet part of “The Fool” in the middle of the crowd. Mangum has previously told everyone to leave their seats, and approach the stage. The aisles were full, and the entire audience was standing by this point. The trumpet wasn’t mic’d but supplemented Mangum’s strumming guitar masterfully. Jeff and company exited the stage when the song ended. Mangum returned for a two-song encore after thunderous applause from the eager crowd. He went right into “Song Against Sex,” from NMH’s first album On Avery Island. He then finished the set with an epic performance of “In The Aeroplance Over The Sea.” I’ve heard the song live several times before, but it was always missing Koster’s singing saw, which adds a beautiful eeriness to the dreadfully hopeful track. Koster entered once again with saw in hand, and the NMH bandmates played a masterful live version of the song.
Jeff had previously announced these were the last shows for now, if not forever. And he kind of confirmed that last night when a fan shouted “see you soon” from the audience. Jeff responded “maybe” with obvious hesitance and doubt in his voice. One can only hope for anything more, including new music. In the meantime, we will revel in memory of these amazing shows that we never dreamed would happen.
Here is last night’s setlist:
Although Jeff didn’t play the song, listen to Fishpork’s favorite track of 2011, the previously unreleased “Ferris Wheel on Fire” below:
Jeff Mangum came out of hiding to officially release some brilliant old tracks from the archives, Keaton Henson put out an achingly powerful single from 2010′s self-released Dear…, and a lot of deaf music reviewers shit on The Strokes latest collection of songs (except for us, of course). 2011 welcomed back our all-time favorite artists and introduced us to new favorites. Narrowing down the year’s best was especially difficult this time around, but here is our very biased list of 25 favorite tracks from 2011 (give the page a minute to load the embedded clips):
1. Neutral Milk Hotel – “Ferris Wheel on Fire”
2. Keaton Henson – “You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are”
3. The Strokes – “Machu Picchu”
4. Feersum Ennjin – “Hate The Sun”
5. Modeselektor – “Pretentious Friends”
6. HEALTH – “Goth Star (Pictureplane cover)”
7. Tapes ‘n Tapes – “Nightfall”
8. M83 – “Midnight City”
9. SONOIO – “Enough”
10. Radiohead – “Codex”
11. Panda Bear – “Alsatian Darn”
12. Keaton Henson – “Strawbear”
13. The Antlers – “Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out”
While 2010 may have been the year we got to see Jeff Mangum play five songs, who would have thought we’d get to see three full Mangum sets in 2011?! It’s hard to compare that experience even in a year that was loaded with unforgettable performances. We were also lucky to catch James Murphy bid farewell to LCD Soundsystem, Tapes N’ Tapes proved why they are one of the best live bands on the planet, and Portishead blew the roof off of Asbury’s Convention Hall twice in ATP headlining performances. ATP recently announced that it will be returning to Asbury Park next year for another round of I’ll Be Your Mirror Performances, a guarantee that 2012 will have much live music to look forward to. Until then, here is our very biased list of favorite shows of 2011:
While this past Monday’s Jeff Mangum show at the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park fell under the guise of ATP’s weekend-long I’ll Be Your Mirror music festival, it was available to non-ATP attendees and served as a separate event from the weekend festivities. And did it ever deserve its own night! We attended both Friday and Sunday performances and were expecting more of the same. What we got was something even better. [Photo via relaxing]
The night before Jeff hinted that Scott Spillane’s horn section would return one of these days after a vague reply to a question from the audience. I figured maybe Scott and fellow Elephant Sixers may join each others’ sets at Mangum’s curated ATP Festival in Minehead in December, since all members of Neutral Milk Hotel would already be playing with their current and respective projects. Instead, Jeff surprised all by inviting Jeremy Barnes’ (Neutral Milk Hotel drummer) Hawk and a Hacksaw, who served as the opening act, on stage for two songs. The first guest appearance was mid-set during “April 8th” from NMH’s On Avery Island. The second appearance by Barnes and company was during “The Fool,” the final song during Jeff’s two-song encore. Jeff alone with his acoustic guitar is a revelation, but to hear these songs more fully realized left us hoping we’d get to see a Neutral Milk Hotel reunion one of these days. Beyond that, would we be greedy to hope for new music as well? Probably. However, Jeff did leave that door open on Friday night when asked if he would ever write music again. “If my heart is in it” was his response.
Jeff seemed much more comfortable this time out. He appeared flat-footed and reserved during the first two performances earlier in the weekend but was moving about during Monday’s show. His requests for sing-alongs were now demands … “If you know the words, sing the fucking song.” And he seemed confident throughout. After a few quick exchanges between songs, he told the audience, “I’m going to go back to doing what I’m good at.” Another highlight of the night included the second ever performance of “Little Birds.” Hear a stream of the rare live performance of the song below [via Tyler Coates]
Check out Monday’s set list at the bottom of the page. Jeff has a few more dates in 2011, but you may need to hit Stubhub if you don’t already have tix. Most of the shows are sold out. Fortunately for some, he’s just added a second show in Jersey City in November. See the rest of his tour dates below:
Oct 29 New York, NY Town Hall SOLD OUT
Nov 5 Jersey City, NJ Loew’s Jersey Theatre (just added)
Nov 6 Jersey City, NJ Loew’s Jersey Theatre SOLD OUT
Nov 30 Dublin, IRE Whelan’s SOLD OUT
Dec 2 – Dec 4 Minehead, UK All Tomorrow’s Parties Curated by Jeff Mangum at Butlins Holiday Centre SOLD OUT
Dec 8 London, UK Union Chapel SOLD OUT
Dec 9 London, UK Union Chapel SOLD OUT
Jeff Mangum expressed his support of the Occupy Wall Street protest with a “Fuck, Wall Street” reaction to an audience member’s exclamation last night during his Monday night Paramount Theater performance in Asbury Park. Less than an hour ago, Mangum surprised protesters and the Global Revolution LiveStream feed with a 30-minute set! When his set concluded, Jeff told those in attendance, “You’re doing a beautiful fucking thing.” Check out the archived video from Livestream below:
Asbury Park has been in a state of cultural and economic revival over the past ten years, so it was only fitting that All Tomorrow’s Parties brought their burgeoning I’ll Be Your Mirror music festival to the historic seaside town. FRIDAY. We arrived in Asbury in time to check-in, collect our Friday Jeff Mangum tickets and catch Cults at Asbury Lanes. The sound was absolutely meticulous, and the Manhattan-based duo (plus live members) plowed through their indie-pop catalog before a near-capacity crowd. Our next stop was to the Paramount Theater for visually-stunning The Album Leaf, the solo project of San Diego-based multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle. LaValle and his live band took advantage of the Paramount’s top-notch acoustics, delivering an intensely atmospheric set that featured a superbly-lit backdrop.
We next strolled through the Grand Arcade to the adjacent Convention Hall, grabbed spirits, and waited for the Steve Albini-led Shellac to begin. Without any sort of notice, Albini and company ripped into their set with amps turned to “bleed.” I had to take my aging ear drums to the rear section of seats. Convention Hall does not have the best reputation for sound quality, but the sound techs were on their game all weekend. Shellac’s performance was one of the big hits at the festival. We ran into many who praised the performance, and the same question was repeated all weekend: “Did you see Shellac’s set on Friday?” The band later performed a surprise set at the much smaller Asbury Lanes.
Our next stop was the show we had anticipated since tickets went on sale and the lineup was announced. Having been previously teased by his five-song set at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC last year, the reclusive Jeff Mangum promised a 60-minute set at the Paramount Theater. As the crowd waited anxiously, the staff announced that Jeff had personally requested that all photo, video, and audio recordings be prohibited. We turned off our cell phones, and Jeff walked on stage to thunderous applause and howls from the crowd.
He sat down in a chair at center stage surrounded by four acoustic guitars on stands and went into my all-time favorite song, “Oh Comely,” the epic eight-minute closer to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Jeff was very reserved on Friday night but played favorites from NMH’s catalog, including “In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,” “The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt. One,” and “Holland, 1945.” The crowd showed genuine appreciation with loud applause after each song. Jeff returned the love with several “thank-yous” and grateful gestures. Mangum ended his set, and the crowd cheered enthusiastically for an encore. Jeff returned to the stage and continued with “Naomi” and “Engine.” We left with weak knees and heavy hearts. The rest of the night was spent at The Annex on Cookman Avenue relishing our experiences of the day.
SATURDAY. Saturday proved to be the strongest of the three days collectively. We started with Geoff Barrow’s recent side project, Beak>, at Convention Hall and stayed for excellent sets by Foot Village, The Horrors and Battles. LA-based Foot Village may have brought the most energy to Asbury, but the four-drummer set-up grew a bit tired beyond the 30-minute mark. The Horrors, a band I tried getting into after Trent Reznor’s high praise, were electrifying. Geoff Barrow produced their second and most-acclaimed album, Primary Colours, and his decision to bring them to Asbury paid off.
We’ve seen Battles twice before, and Ian Williams and company made tons of new fans based on our conversations over the weekend. Although their set was racked with technical issues, the veterans kept smiles on their faces and pleased one of the larger crowds of the weekend. We skipped Ultramagnetic MCs and Swans to grab dinner, proper drinks and prepare for the rare Portishead performance later that night. The performance by Swans seemed to get a lot of attention from social media, as audience members tweeted about the intense volume of the show.
As their 10pm set time approached, the largest crowd of the weekend flooded Convention Hall for Portishead. Save the three Jeff Mangum sets (I’m biased), no performance approached the sheer magnitude, emotion, or sound of Portishead’s Saturday night show (we gave our Sunday wristbands to family members). The setlist featured classics like “Sour Times” and “Glorybox” but seemed to focus on more recent tracks from Third. “Machine Gun” is a personal favorite (sorry, not regretting missing the Chuck D mash-up on Saturday) and was the high point. The obnoxiously harsh, brutal, and repetitive bass-heavy beat contrasted with the delicate voice of Beth Gibbons is such an aural mindfuck. The band experienced a minor technical issue while starting “Chase the Tear” but quickly recovered. Another personal favorite, “Threads,” served as the set closer, but the crowd quickly pleaded for an encore with thunderous applause. Portishead acknowledged and played “Roads” and “We Carry On” for their last two songs of the night. We all left knowing we had experienced something special.
SUNDAY. We planned a lighter day on Sunday with brief appearances at DD/MM/YYYY and Deerhoof shows after Sunday pitchers at Wonder Bar. Again, the focus was on the Jeff Mangum show, which was rescheduled for 3:30. Jeff put on another spirited performance and was a bit more vocal during his Sunday set. One audience member asked if he enjoyed performing, and Jeff responded, “Yes, very much so.” Another audience member asked about Scott Spillane’s horns, and Jeff teased crowds by hinting that the horns would eventually become part of his performance. We left again in a state of euphoria but could not possibly be prepared for what would come on Monday night’s show. We’ll post that show review separately. At the end of the day, ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror festival in Asbury Park removed everything we despise about large, bloated festivals (I tend to avoid them like the plague) and gave us one of the greatest musical weekends of our lives. Kudos to Barry Hogan and All Tomorrow’s Parties for bringing this perfect event to our backyard. If the festival returns in 2012, we’ll be first in line!
Our set list: Friday
Cults @ Asbury Lanes
The Album Leaf @ Paramount Theater
Shellac @ Convention Hall
Jeff Mangum @ Paramount Theater
Saturday
Beak> @ Convention Hall
Foot Village @ Convention Hall
Silver-Qluster @ Paramount Theater
The Horrors @ Convention Hall
Battles @ Convention Hall
Portishead @ Convention Hall
Sunday
DD/MM/YYYY @ Convention Hall
Deefhoof @ Convention Hall
Jeff Mangum @ Paramount Theater
Monday
Jeff Mangum @ Paramount Theater
ATP I’ll Be Your Mirror – Asbury Park – September 30 – October 2, 2011
Beginning November 22, 15 previously unreleased Neutral Milk Hotel tracks will be made available on their brand new site WalkingWallofWords.com. The band will distribute the never-before-heard tracks using the pay-what-you-want sales model using Bandcamp. The site includes some other goodies, including an incredibly-complete, all-vinyl box set for $88 and some original Jeff Mangum prints, which are already sold out. If you are on the fence about buying a box set, know that $1 of every purchase goes towards the Children of the Blue Sky charity. If you can’t wait until November 22 for the new NMH tracks, there are two already streaming on the site. You can download Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Oh Sister” here and “Ferris Wheel on Fire” here or stream them both below:
Don’t forget to support Jeff on his upcoming tour.
Canadian-based Southern Souls does recording work similar to our friend NYCTaper in New York. Last week, they attended Jeff Mangum’s second show of his current comeback tour. It’s probably the best quality live recording we’ve heard in some time from the former Neutral Milk Hotel frontman and adds to our anticipation for his special guest appearance at ATP Asbury in October and other shows in NJ. While you can hear the entire set over at Southern Souls, download “Oh Comely (Live in Toronto)” by Jeff Mangum here or stream it below:
Elephant 6 senior alums Andrew Rieger and Scott Spillane will open for Neutral Milk Hotel mastermind Jeff Mangum on his upcoming US and Canadian tour. Rieger and Spillane will be joined by Laura Carter (Elf Power) and will perform as an acoustic trio, playing both songs from the Elf Power and Gerbils catalog. Most of Mangum’s tour is already sold out. See the complete listing below:
Aug 8 Burlington, VT First Unitarian Church SOLD OUT
Aug 10 Montreal, QC Cabaret du Mile-End SOLD OUT
Aug 12 Toronto, ON Trinity St. Paul’s United Church SOLD OUT
Aug 13 Toronto, ON Trinity St. Paul’s United Church SOLD OUT
Sept 07 Northampton, MA Academy of Music Theatre
Sept 09 Cambridge, MA Sanders Theatre at Harvard University SOLD OUT
Sept 10 Boston, MA Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory SOLD OUT
Sept 26 Baltimore, MD 2640 Space at St. John’s Church SOLD OUT
Sept 27 Baltimore, MD 2640 Space at St. John’s Church w/ A Hawk and A Hacksaw SOLD OUT
Sept 30 Asbury Park, NJ ATP America – Paramount Theatre
Oct 2 Asbury Park, NJ ATP America – Paramount Theatre
Oct 3 Asbury Park, NJ Paramount Theatre SOLD OUT
Oct 29 New York, NY Town Hall SOLD OUT
Nov 6 Jersey City, NJ Loew’s Jersey Theatre SOLD OUT
Nov 30 Dublin, IRE Whelan’s SOLD OUT
Dec 2 – Dec 4 Minehead, UK
Dec 8 London, UK Union Chapel SOLD OUT
Dec 9 London, UK Union Chapel SOLD OUT
The Horrors release their third LP, Skying, on July 26th via XL Recordings. The band will also play ATP’s highly anticipated “I’ll Be Your Mirror” festival in Asbury Park this Fall. The festival is curated by Portishead and will feature two performances by Jeff Mangum. Here’s the first sneak peak at the band’s latest record. You can download “Still Life” by The Horrors here or stream it below:
[These pics are from Jeff Mangum's Paramount Theater performance last October. Due to the strict no-photo policy, images are difficult to come by]. Last night’s Jeff Mangum show will be the last for the foreseeable future in our area, and it brought most of the 1000+ at Irvine Auditorium on the campus of UPenn to tears. This was our sixth show, including the five-song mini set in NYC two years ago, and it proved to be one of the most memorable. It was our second time with balcony seats, as the only show in Philadelphia sold out in 34 seconds back in November. Luckily, the acoustics of the auditorium were comparable to the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park. We skipped out on Neutral Milk Hotel alum Julian Koster’s The Music Tapes after a tedious opening set in Brooklyn several days earlier. Koster told the same long-winded, mythical stories he told during the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour. A 30-minute set would have been just right, but the band played on for an hour (equal stage time as Mangum).
