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Concert reviews Music

Jeff Mangum opus

JEFF MANGUM at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church, Friday, August 12. Rating: NNNN


In the 12 years since Jeff Mangum bowed out of the music industry, the reclusive Louisiana singer/songwriter has become a massive cult figure among indie kids who were barely teens when his Neutral Milk Hotel released their 1998 high-watermark album, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.

The hellishly hot Trinity-St. Paul’s Church was filled to the rafters with them, and they sang every word to every verbose song, asked to keep the towel with which he’d wiped off his face and stomped their feet for encores (he returned for one tune).

Between songs, 40-year-old Mangum was smiley, talkative and seemingly at ease with the adulation. Surrounded by four acoustic guitars, he gave us just what we’d been waiting for all these years: his impassioned near-hollered vocals, frantic guitar strumming and surreal, stirring narrative lyrics.

The intensity (and heat) was so high and the lack of dynamics so apparent that the brevity of the set came as a bit of a relief.

Still, there’s nothing quite like witnessing a show by a musician you never thought you’d get to see. Especially one who sings lines like “Jesus Christ, I love you” over and over again. A cappella. At the top of his lungs. In a church full of fans singing it, too.

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