This is good news. I thought I might have to drive to Seattle.

Aeroplane's my favorite album, maybe even my favorite work of art, but I won't make any effort to go to this show, or any others.

Here's why: Any live version of Aeroplane songs (and especially any live version with a rapturous audience shouting out all the words) will do violence to the "perfect" version that already exists.

Discuss, if you like.

Note: Nearly a year ago, my friend and I (the same one who thinks I'm crazy to think the above) tried desperately to get to SE in time to catch the tiny unpublicized show JM did. We were late by about 10 minutes apparently. I maintain that was more about the thrill of the surreal hunt, really.

GODDAMMIT NO NOT THE CRYSTAL BALLROOM.

@CC, I don't disagree with you. But ultimately I'd rather be disappointed than wonder for another 10 years.

@CC I remember hearing about a show like that in Eugene. What kind of venue in SE?

seeing the weird bunch of dirty hippies (a saw, really??) setting up in a small rock club in bloomington, indiana in 1995 as an opening band for superchunk, we wondered what the fuck would happen. about 30 seconds in, we realized that it was something we'd all be forever stoked to have witnessed.

so, colin- i can attest that the live version was just as good, if not way better than the recording. however, that was in 1995 when no one (including me) knew who they were. so no rapturous singalongs, which would likely ruin it now. and it was the full band, in their prime, not just the brilliant mastermind. if i was going to be in town, i'd be going. but i'm not, and i'm jealous of all you who will be.

@ Wallstreet, it was a private-house-party-type-thing, and someone present texted the address to my friend. As I recall*, we were on the street looking for the address when we found out he'd just wrapped up.

Also, Crystal Ballroom = boooooo.

* I'm not completely reliable because I was all birthday-drunk at the time.

@ 7, I like to think I'm precious about very few things, but this album is definitely one of those things.

Anyway, I certainly don't begrudge JM for touring (the opposite is true) or the fans who want to go.

@10, since time as we experience it is linear, none of us who were 17 when NMH was a going concern are still 17.

I highly doubt Mangum played an unpublicized show in SE Portland a year ago. The person who wrote that (or the person who texted him) must be confused and must be thinking of Mangum's unpublicized show at the Schoolhouse in Brooklyn on December 5, 2010, which was announced only the day of the show and was only advertised by word of mouth (and text message). Even though only 75 people attended the Brooklyn show, it was a huge, huge deal because it was in effect a return to the spotlight for Mangum and there are thousands of mentions of it on the Internet, audio recordings, etc. At one point I uploaded the full audio recording of that Brooklyn show to YouTube, which got thousands of hits and not a single mention of other private Mangum shows around that time period.

If Mangum had in fact played a show in Portland around that time period, even if only five people were there, there would be at least some mention of it on the Internet, but there's absolutely nothing. And I just checked with the person who runs neutralmilkhotel.org (who lives in Portland), who in turn checked with Mangum's longtime friend Ross Beach (who also lives in Portland), and nobody has heard of this SE Portland show.

Of course, none of this is conclusive evidence that a SE Portland show didn't happen, but neither has any proof been provided that it DID happen, and the person who said this also says he was drunk at the time and "not completely reliable."

In conclusion, most likely there was miscommunication about the impromptu Brooklyn show and somehow, somebody thought it happened in Portland.