Jeff Mangum hopped onto the Knitting Factory stage three times last week at the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour’s New York stop. Over the weekend in Pittsburgh, he didn’t literally go onto the stage, but he did perform “Holland, 1945″ B-side “Engine” from the floor, accompanied by Julian Koster on, what else, singing saw. Last night in Ohio, he likewise avoided the stage and performed “Engine.” As tipster Andrew tells it:
Jeff and Julian came into the crowd tonight at the Wexner Center in Columbus Ohio during the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise show and played Engine. I was right next to Julian (the video isn’t mine) and it was one of the most amazing (and suprising) things I’ve seen in my life.
911WDUB provided us with pretty dark, but pretty video from Ohio. Contrast/compare the Rust Belt performances.
Jeff Mangum, 10/18, Brillobox, Pittsburgh, PA
(Pittsburgh clips via P4K)
Jeff Mangum, 10/19, Wexner Center, Columbus, OH
Impressively, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is more than ten years old at this point, but even the B-sides sound fresh.
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Simply beautiful.
if that’d happened here in athens, I guarantee it would have been dead silent. i’m really surprised at how many loud obnoxious assholes were allowed to continue yelling in the background.
It was completely silent in Columbus. I should know since I was a foot from Jeff’s elbow.
But yeah, I don’t know what Pittsburgh’s problem was. Show some respect, even if you don’t understand (or, worse yet, give a shit about) the importance of what’s happening.
beautiful! I really love the quality of the WDUB video, the flashes of light add to the whole experience.
The atmosphere in the room while they played this at Columbus was amazing. It was silent and people basically just stood in awe (although I don’t think some people realized who he was at first and I’ sure some didn’t know who he was at all) I couldn’t help but smile during the performance.
I heard that at the PA concert a lot of people didn’t even know he was playing and thought that the concert was over.
In Columbus, Julian first asked if they should do it inside or go outside. Of course, we all yelled outside, but sadly that didn’t happen. Oh well, doesn’t really matter. Changed my life either way.
This is nice to see. One of my favorite playlists on shuffle is the all acoustic, so jeff at jittery joe’s gets played quite a deal. One song can be Hank Williams and then the next can be Jeff and the one after that Robert Johnson or maybe Lennon demos. It ‘s like one gigantic White album. A great recent find was Stills “Just Roll Tape” capturing an artist in the midst of a career defining creative surge while being in between bands limbo.( I think he might of been in love on top of it)…Who knows maybe something is stirring in Jeff and he doesn’t even know it yet. Elvis 68!
I’m pretty sure the Wexner Center being a dry venue helped curtail loud assholes.
Let’s not forget the first two louden wainwright albums. good kitchen music!!!
it was pretty quiet in pittsburgh. i was right next to jeff. a couple of the videos seemed to amplify the background sound a lot… i guess they have crappy microphones.
I was in Pittsburgh as well, within 3 feet of Jeff. The people in the back were being annoying, talking loud and clanging bottles. I don’t think they realized what was going on 20 feet away from them. But it was still amazing.
I was in Pittsburgh, too. I was two or three rows behind Jeff, who played across from Julian. It should be noted that the show was almost 4 hours long in Pittsburgh and by the time Jeff and Julian played, the show was over. People were coming into the showspace from the bar at that point, not knowing what was happening. Alot of the crowd was starting to leave already. Those of us around the duo didn’t want to take the time to say anything to anyone, even if it was to say, “Shut up!”
Oh my god, I wanted to go see this show so bad as it was, but I just didn’t think I’d be able to since the only people I’d know who’d want to go…well none of us had the vehicular ability…
BUT JESUS CHRIST.
I cannot even believe this happened. I know I would have been at the Pitt show, and I would have probably killed everyone if they were carrying on like that around me. Jeff is one of the greatest musicians on this earth, and…christ, I just really wish I was there. Those people just don’t even know how important this is, Jeff performing even just one song. I guess we really should have known when it was called a “Surprise” tour…a surprise it certainly is, because I know I’m not alone when I say this, but I never guessed he would pop out of hiding in a million years. Hopefully this means something good for the future.