Neutral Milk Hotel Concert Review

Neutral Milk Hotel graced the city of Providence with its wonderfully bizarre presence on Sunday, April 19th with a sold out show at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. The concert was part of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “last tour of the foreseeable future.” The band has been touring since their reunion in 2013 and it’s a shame to see them go – they put on a fantastic show.   No phones or image-taking devices were allowed during the show, and the audience took the band’s wishes seriously, keeping it old school. They opened with “I Will Bury You in Time” off of Ferris Wheel on Fire before moving to the more upbeat “Holland, 1945” off of their well known 1998 album  In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. They transitioned so effortlessly between songs through the brass instruments and the sustain of the guitars. Sometimes Jeff Magnum sang alone on stage, but most of the time he was surrounded by his equally talented bandmates – each killing it on their own respective instruments. The stage was packed with equipment. And while their set-up took a bit of time, it was well worth the wait. Julian Koster, especially (who essentially picked up a new instrument for each song), stole the show on the musical saw while sporting his unique look (in the picture below of Koster and Magnum at Coachella in 2014, both of them looking very much like they did at Lupo’s!), including a hat that flopped around his head as he danced in circles. He killed it every time he sat down on the stage to add the enchanting sound of the saw to Neutral Milk Hotel’s impressive repertoire.   Pro tip: If you can’t get enough of the saw, check out Koster’s 2008 Christmas album, The Singing Saw at Christmastime, to put a sort of psychedelic-folk spin on your next holiday season.   Neutral Milk Hotel is a genuinely fun band to watch. They didn’t say much to the audience, thanking them once or twice for coming out to spend the night with them. There’s no need for chit-chatty banter – it’s exciting enough to see them play their instruments. A Neutral Milk Hotel concert is also not a place for dancing. The crowd was relatively still while the band played, but took every opportunity to sing along. Neutral Milk Hotel truly put on an amazing show. Props to everyone who was able to snag a ticket and make it out to the show for an unforgettable performance, which ended with the melancholy and bittersweet goodbye of their final song of the night, “Engine.”