Neutral Uke Hotel is a cover band in a class all its own. It’s a show organized by a collection of dedicated musicians with the combination of audacity and insanity necessary to create a beautifully unusual performance. But before I get to the concert, I think some background is necessary.

Jeff Mangum, the lead singer of Neutral Milk Hotel, became relatively reclusive after the success of the band’s February 1998 release, In the Aeroplane over the Sea. The album received a well-deserved and intimidating amount of critical praise, and Mangum promptly broke up the group after a tour in 1998.

Although the release continued to gain popularity over the next decade – it was the sixth best-selling vinyl album in 2008 – fans were left with no options for seeing a live performance of this viscerally intimate album. Until one day a little over a year ago when Shawn Fogel and Michael J. Epstein had a good idea.

Fogel, lead singer of Golden Bloom, and Epstein, lead singer of the eponymous The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library, are friends that often perform covers of each other’s music. They also share a love of Mangum’s work, and were bold enough to attempt, as Fogel puts it, “an idea that seems horrible on paper.” The result is a live ukulele cover performance of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Fogel, Epstein, and a few members of each of their bands (which both performed small sets individually before Neutral Uke began).

If you’re skeptical, Fogel understands. He says people really have to see this particular concert in person to know why it works. He’s right, though. It works. It works amazingly well. A relatively unknown musician strumming a ukulele and crooning a cover of a beloved and respected album might sound like musical sacrilege, but something about it undeniably clicks.

After the brief sets by The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library and Golden Bloom – both of which were high-energy and wonderfully quirky – Fogel introduced the Neutral Uke concert perfectly. As he plugged in his ukulele and prepared to begin the night’s main attraction, he said, “Let’s celebrate this together.”

And we all did.

Like gonzo choir directors, Fogel and Epstein led the audience on a funny and furious journey into the album we all knew and loved. Neutral Uke went through the album in order, changing nothing other than the overall tempo. Although Aeroplane is often wistful and somber, Uke delivered a frenetic and jovial performance, with artist and audience alike giddy at the opportunity to join in the large-scale sing-along, as Fogel called it.

“It’s not about us,” Fogel told me after the show. “Anyone that knows anything about touring knows we’ll be lucky if we’re able to break even on this, so it’s definitely not about the money. It’s about sharing something with the audience.”

The up-tempo evening ended with all the members of both bands on stage for a final cover of Neutral Milk Hotel, this time of “Song Against Sex” from On Avery Island.

Fogel put his foot up on the monitor and shredded a ukulele solo – a fitting ending to a bizarre, memorable, celebratory night.