Flipping through twitter last night and this morning, I was surprised that there were already a couple reviews of Jeff Mangum’s return to the Chicago stage posted-one of them within a hour of the show ending. Reading them, it seemed like most of the review was written in advance, with a great deal of the page dedicated to the past. I won’t bore you with that. If you don’t know who Jeff is, or why these shows were so monumental, you probably have little interest in it. So I’ll just start with Monday night.

The theater where the concerts were held is small. 900 seats small. With the fan base surrounding NMH, Jeff probably could have sold out any venue in the city, but he chose this one. Walking in you definitely get a very intimate feel. Monday night we were right up front and Tuesday our tickets were way in the back. The view and sound system in both spots were great, and being further back actually gave me a better understanding of the crowd reaction.

Both nights the show was opened by Andrew Rieger, Laura Carter and Scott Spillane. Everyone knows Spillane from his work with NMH, and all three are members of the Elephant 6 collective. I thought they sounded amazing. It was a much more linear set than what was played at the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise shows. They played interesting covers of “A Very Good Year” by Sinatra and Randy Newman’s “Germany Before The War.” My favorite song from their set was “Two Skies” sung by Spillane. He has an underrated voice that can reach the highs of Neil Young and the lows of Mark Lanegan. It’s a pretty country song that’s so simple it hurts.

Once the three of them left the stage, the excitement in the theater increased exponentially. While they delivered a great set, Mangum is on a plane of his own. Despite the stage being basically empty, there was still roughly thirty minutes between sets, with Jeff taking the stage around 9pm. Tuesday nights crowd clapped a bit louder than Monday’s, but both nights displayed how much love was in the audience.

A couple things really surprised me about the show: Mangum’s voice is EXACTLY the same as it was in 1998, and the guy is affable as all hell.

On Monday he came out and went right into “Two-Headed Boy pt 2,” which was met with considerable applause. Then he demanded that the audience sing along to “Holland 1945,” which we were more than happy to do. The weird thing about these shows is that it almost doesn’t matter what he played. He could have come out and played Third Eye Blind covers and received a standing ovation. He didn’t do that, though. Here’s the setlist for night one:

Two Headed Boy Pt. 2
Holland, 1945
Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
Song Against Sex
Little Birds
King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1
King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 2 & 3
Ghost
Naomi
April 8th
Oh Comely
Two-Headed Boy
The Fool

Encore:
Engine
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

For night two many of the same songs, but a different order:

Oh Comely
King of Carrot Flowers Pt 1-3
A Baby For Pree
Engine
Holland, 1945
Ghost
Song Against Sex
Two-Headed Boy Pt 2
Naomi
April 8th
Two-Headed Boy

Encore:
Gardenhead
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

I was most impressed with some of the songs I’m not as familiar with. Like everyone else in attendance, I count In The Aeroplane Over The Sea as one of the greatest albums ever made, but I haven’t given the other releases their due. The two that stick out most from these shows are “Naomi” and “Little Birds.” For “Naomi” a cellist came out to accompany Jeff. It’s such a gorgeous song, with a fantastic story. And “Little Birds” is a song as relevant now (maybe moreso) as the day it was written. “Naomi” was played both nights, while “Little Birds” was left off Tuesday’s set.

The real highlights of the shows were the songs themselves. Any time the whole crowd was singing along was a great moment. Never were the voices stronger than the finale “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.” It may be the most perfectly joyous song about death ever written.
It was also nice to see Spillane and Mangum on stage together. As a fan I find it infuriating that they didn’t just force Julian Koster and Robert Schneider to come along for this short tour, but I respect their decision.

So why did Jeff Mangum decide now is the time to return? I don’t know. And really, I don’t care. Whatever his motivation was, I’m glad he decided to give it another go. Maybe in another fifteen years he’ll do it again.