Stephen Colbert is a Huge Neutral Milk Hotel Fan!

What are three of our favorite things?

Stephen Colbert
Neutral Milk Hotel
My Friend Stephanie aka "Stiff" (if you know her)

Last week, Stephanie went to see The Colbert Report live. What follows is an instant-message re-enactment of our real-life conversation after the show:

Me: How was Colbert?
Stephanie: AMAZING!!! OH MY GOD STEPHEN SANG NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL TO ME!
Me: What?? (Beatlemania screaming face, actual screaming, etc)

Here are the facts as we know them. Between segments, the Neutral Milk Hotel song "Holland 1945" came on (as, apparently, it often does) and Stephanie began absentmindedly lip-synching along to it. A few seconds into the song, she realized Stephen was pointing at her and singing along. According to witnesses, Stephen and Stephanie continued to sing along to the song while making eye contact for over a minute until their reverie was interrupted by the end of the commercial break. During this time, Stephen:

- Appeared to know all of the words to the song.
- Moved his head to look around a producer when his eye contact with Stephanie was briefly blocked.
- Acknowledged his and Stephanie's mutual understanding of the sad nature of the song, which is about Anne Frank, by making a "sad face" and tracing the motion of an invisible tear down his cheek. Stephanie, in kind, mimicked this motion back to Stephen.

In Stephanie's words: "I can die now."

Geoff, a sketch comedian who attended the show with Stephanie and witnessed the event, had this to say:

"It was magical. Neutral Milk Hotel was playing, Stephanie was singing, I was singing. Then I looked up and noticed Stephen was singing. Then I saw that he was singing in my general direction, so I looked to my right and realized that he and Stephanie were singing to each other. So I told Stephanie, "Hey, Stephen Colbert is singing to you!" and she did her best job of shushing me while continuing to sing Neutral Milk Hotel with Stephen. I was about 15 seconds behind on all fronts. But still, pretty awesome."

Here is our very most favorite picture of Stephen:

And here is the song: Download 06_holland_1945.m4a by Neutral Milk Hotel.

The world just screams and falls apart!!

Comments

[H-bomb]

OMG, that is HOTT!!

[lengli]

Oh Stephen Colbert, just one more reason to love you!! Especially for the tear drop mime bit - one of the most under-appreciated comedic gestures. Priceless!

[sylvia plath]

OMG. i am dying. that is so incredible. i wonder what other bits of indie goodness he has hiding in him?

[Patrick M]

OMG the guy from Elephant Larry is a Huge Neutral Milk Hotel Fan!

[karen]

If only Stephen had also been there the time you took it upon yourself to sing the whole of that album while drunk on cheap white wine in Vermont. (Good times, good times...)

[Miranda D.]

OH MY FREAKING FRANK! That is so AWESOME! That's, like, beyond words amazering, lol! Damn, I envy Miss Stephanie. That is just super cooly, lol.

[Uncle Grambo]

Fabulous story!

[anna]

I DID THAT TOO! on the 7th i went to colbert report and when that song came on me and my friend freaked out and then we noticed that colbert was singing along and when he looked at us we all sang together. i can't believe my special moment has been shared with others. but seriously he must do this every night!!! so awesome!!

[Chris]

Lindsay,
Just found your awesome blog today via Stereogum.
Also, this is a great story.

Take care.

[Aleks]

Would you be surprised if you come to a small country in Southeastern Europe (Macedonia), and you see a person with headphones on, eyes closed, mouthing I love you Jesus Cuhriiiiiist as he walks down the street (me)?! Jeff Mangum is a frickin' world superstar! It's only what he deserves. God bless that genius.

[Soulwaxer]

i love colbert but i could live with him (as in survive).

but some more neutral milk hotel in my life would be an awesome thing so i'm down for doing everything possible to ge a live show out of them:
http://notpaul.com/event/29/neutral-milk-hotel-nyc-reunion