Neutral Milk Hotel
2014-04-13
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - Weekend 1
Outdoor Theatre
Indio, CA

SOURCE (AUD #1):
SP-CMC-8 (w/Mods) > SP-SPSB-11 (95Hz Roll Off) > SONY PCM-M10 > Sandisk MicroSD Card (16gb - Class 10)

TRANSFER:
.WAV > Adobe Audition 5.5 (normalize/amplify) > CD Wave (Track Splits) > Trader's Little Helper > Flac (level 8)

SETLIST:

01. Intro
02. Two-Headed Boy
03. The Fool
04. Holland, 1945
05. Gardenhead / Leave Me Alone
06. King of Carrot Flowers, Part One
07. King of Carrot Flowers, Parts Two & Three
08. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
09. Ferris Wheel on Fire
10. Song Against Sex
11. Rubby Bulbs
12. Snow Song Pt. 1
13. Ghost
14. [untitled]
15. Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2
16. Engine

NOTES:

Where to begin? I saw Jeff Mangum play solo twice (both weekends) at Coachella back in 2012, and I looked at that as a once in a lifetime deal for me. I never thought Neutral Milk Hotel would get back together (well okay, I did think it could happen as pretty much EVERY band reunites eventually...except the Cocteau Twins apparently...), but sure enough 2 years later, here they are. Say what you want about Coachella, but the promoters still manage to fulfill pretty much every wish I have, including seeing NHM perform on the Outdoor Theatre at sunset. You can't really ask for anything more perfect. Except in this case, you actually can. The booking of Lana Del Ray right after them on the same stage was completely stupid. It meant over half the audience there was a bunch of flower head dress wearing tweeners who were texting on their phones, yapping with their friends, and pushing their way up front for the entire set. Thankfully the group of people I was with scared some of them off with a little moshing during one of the songs, and a nice shout of "Fuck Lana Del Ray" near the end.

Another problem? Whoever was running the sound for at foh cleary had no idea what they were doing. I know NHM isn't the loudest band in the world, and I especially don't expect them to be super loud at an outdoor festival, but seriously....at times it felt if the sound was practically on mute at this stage. WTF? The mix was horrible too I thought. Get your shit together sound people, or find a new profession.

TL;DR: awesome set, great setting, annoying LDR fans, and a few sound issues. Still worth the download :)

Check out my site:

http://www.coachellarecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/coachellarecordings
http://www.twitter.com/livecoachella

***DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH THIS RECORDING EXCEPT SELL IT (OR ELSE THE KARMA POLICE WILL GET YOU)***