On Sunday afternoon I drove over a snow coated peace bridge and crossed the border, en route to watch a reunited Neutral Milk Hotel play that evening at Koolhaus (a lofty venue located on the outskirts of downtown Toronto).  By the time we got there it was nightfall. We parked and walked toward the direction of the venue's address,  spotting it amid  isolated industrial buildings from the sea of people wrapped around all three sides of it. We joined the line and waited in 15 degree weather for at least half an hour, unsure of what to expect.

Neutral Milk Hotel became inactive shortly after the release of their sophomore album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in 1998. It was a collection of songs that definitively sold the band to listeners and critics alike, topping most year end "best of" lists, etc. Their decision to suddenly drop from the radar of the public subsequently catapulted their reputation into the league of indie-dieties,  amongst bands whose lo-fi mythology were worthy of gospel spreading (Modest Mouse, Pavement, Pixies, etc). Needless to say,  their reemergence over a decade later led to quickly sold out tickets.  

Upon entrance, I maneuvered towards the middle-frontish section of the crowd (fyi you can do this by feigning drunk). Elf Power was playing and although I was unfamiliar with their music, I  grooved along like I was. It wasn't contrived either, they were easy to tune into, their music radiated the intimacy, warmth, and quirkiness that can be attributed to most bands under the Elephant 6 Collective. After a 15 minute intermission the spotlights turned to the stage again, revealing the assemblage of instruments that the members of Neutral Milk Hotel would shortly utilize. Soon enough Scott Spillane walked on stage and fettered with the trumpet, Jeremy Barnes took seat behind his drum kit and in front of him, Julian Koster took center in front of a Moog synthesizer. Lastly, a bearded Jeff Mangum appeared from stage-left and picked up his guitar. The crowd nearly ignited when he began strumming the opening chords from "King of Carrot Flowers". And the excitement continued to escalate as he belted  "when you were young.." with his bagpipe of a voice. 

They continued onto to play "Holland, 1945" in which Spillane's silky trumpet balanced the explosive strumming and drumming of Barnes. They were tight as hell, and from then on it was all hazy,  I was too enamored with what was going on in front of me to jot down the rest of the setlist. However, they played through all of the songs from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea sans "Communist Daughter," some highlights from On Avery Island including "Naomi," "Songs Against Sex," and "Gardenhead/Leave me alone," alongside songs from their EP Ferris Wheel on Fire  and several unreleased tracks. At times Mangum's wife Astra Taylor and Laura Carter (who played in Elf Power as well) would join the group on stage and there were vivid, fleeting moments when all the members would burst into a fuzzy soundscape of a jam session. Emotively speaking, Mangum played through each song as though he had just written them a month ago. Yet dynamically (as chillingly clear when he played "Oh, Comely") his voice noticeably packed more resonance and his strumming more sturdiness than it did 15 years ago. 

Much to the crowd's delight, the encore went on for at least 15 minutes, during which the band played "Ghost", "Two Headed Boy (part 2)," and "Engine".  At one point, Koster used an extremely disheveled bowstring (I mean nearly all the hairs were dangling loose) to manipulate a theremin while Carter whipped out a black, boxy, electric saxophone. Oh yeah, did I mention that people were moshing to "Ghost"?

Altogether, what's important to note is that they exceeded expectations and left the crowd awe-struck; as  Toronto Star puts it "a stunning gig, one that's still rightfully become the stuff of legend in Toronto indie circles". The quality of their live performance allowed them to transcend their highly revered recordings. I had caught Jeff Mangum solo last year at Buffalo's Asbury Hall and this concert proved to me that it takes the entire band to breathe the songs into full life. Live, they didn't merely come across as quaint, bustling, freak folk tunes. They punctured your ears with aggression and the kind of raw energy that can only be forged through 20 something years of playing together.