Repeating Myself
* Neutral Milk Hotel: Holland, 1945 (4.5 mb) NMH_CowHaus_MP3 (94.0 mb) | NMH_CowHaus_Flac (414.0 mb)
From Live At The Cow Haus : Feb 7th, 1998 : Tallahassee, FL
Alright, I know what y’all are going to be saying already: “But CB, you already posted a concert by this band not too long ago (look here). Why’re you posting more?” Well, because in my opinion, you really can’t have to much of a great thing. And this band, Neutral Milk Hotel, are a great thing. What’s interesting to me is how a band that released two albums and a couple of singles ten years ago can still have such a hold on so many people. Obviously, I’m one of those people that were so incredibly affected by their work that I just can’t let go. In fact I can still remember sitting in my college radio station, February of 1996, snow piled deep on the ground, lights dimmed and blasting my brains with their first album. Their music was an incredible revelation to me, as I’d never heard anything like it before.
At any rate, here’s an incredible performance at the 1998 Florida Popfest (wish I could’ve been there).
It seemed like that was the show where everyone, the fans, Jeff, the rest of the band, realised something more was going on here than just another “indie pick of the month”. The festival was two or three nights if I remember and NMH were to close the last night of the festival. Because of various delays, NMH didn’t get to come on until about 2 am. You would think most of the kids would have been exhausted by this point and shuffling home. But they didn’t. The place was packed and it seemed as if the whole crowd was one person, all jumping and screaming every last word Jeff was singing back at him. I have a great memory of Jeff looking back at Julian with this, “What the hell is all this about?” look. (Chris M)
Honestly, this recording isn’t the greatest (the sound is kind of compressed sounding). But don’t let that deter you one bit. This is the real deal and provides, for those of us who weren’t fortunate/smart enough to see them when they were around, an opportunity to hear their power.
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Also, I came across this rather in depth/amazing thesis project on In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. You can view part one here, with links to the other parts at the end of the first part.
