The National: Fabulous and beautiful!

The National.
by Steffen Jørgensen,
(c) Photo-jint.dk

Sometimes I really feel blessed that I have been to such an abundance of memorable concerts. It sounds corny and all, but just this month, I've been blown away twice by eminent musical mastery and beauty. Yesterday it was The National, whom I saw at Roskilde last summer. It isn't always an advantage to have seen a band more than once. Whether you like it or not, you inevitably start comparing aspects of the different shows, and often your first live experience with a band has a special significance which makes it more memorable.

This time though, I think The National upped their game slightly, which is quite a compliment, their Roskilde-show being one of the highlights of my summer at the Animal Showgrounds. This band is so superior in balancing between melancholy and aggression, and that's really apparent live. Matt Berninger wasn't as much on fire as he was at Roskilde, which is kind of self-explanatory - eighteen thousand people are a bit more than four, but the band's quieter pieces really hit home this time around. Personal highlights for me were 'Daughters of the Soho Riots' and 'About Today'. I was unsure if they would play either of the two, so hearing them was obviously a nice surprise, as they are two of my absolute favorites.

Otherwise, regarding the set, I personally think it's a bit too heavily loaded with tunes from the newest album, High Violet, which isn't my favorite, but I must admit that many of the songs from exactly this album, such as 'England' for example, really do work very well live, and when the band plays a full 20-song set, it doesn't matter that much. I could have wished for 'Green Gloves' or 'The Geese of Beverly Road', but other than that, the set was pretty good, and as mentioned above, the inclusion of '... Soho Riots' and 'About Today' made it for me, other than inevitables such as 'Slow Show', 'Fake Empire' and 'Terrible Love' of course.

As so often is the case, there is a bit of a lack of nerve to normal, another-stop-on-the-tour concerts, compared to festivals, and it took the band a while to really get going. Not to make this a total High Violet-bashing, but part of the explanation for the slow start could be, that 6 of the first 9 songs were from that album. The band's strength lies in its impressive catalogue of songs. We got three songs from Alligator, which indisputably were all highlights, and so was, as before mentioned, 'About Today' from Cherry Tree. Seen in that light, some of the High Violet-tunes do come across as slightly more boring. It was very gutsy however to finish off with a totally unplugged, sing-along version of 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks'. It was as if the room suddenly became half as big, as everyone were singing or humming pensively along. In general, the crowd was amazing. Some might complain that people were too quiet and absent. Honestly, I don't think of it as such. I don't come to hear people yelling and clapping out of sync. I come to hear some of the most talented musicians and songwriters I know, and I was very happy that the vast majority of the crowd felt the same, as opposed to Roskilde, where people tore a tune like 'Fake Empire' completely apart by clapping on top of it. There seemed to be a nice, tacit agreement to just enjoy the music, and only clap and sing appropriately at highlights - which is the way a concert with a quality band should be, in all honesty.

A memorable and beautiful concert, through and through.