I went to see The National in concert at House of Blues on Saturday night with my friend Sarah, and they totally rocked my world. I have loved this band for a while, but I was still surprised by how hard they rocked the live show. The band sounded amazing, and Matt Berninger (primary songwriter and lead vocals) was working this quirky, self-deprecating, wine-swilling, tortured-artist vibe that killed me... It was just ridiculously freaking awesome. I don't really know how to properly put it into words...
Above are my camera-phone pictures from the show... taken with my phone's truly pathetic resolution. (The band was much closer in person, as well as being less pixelated...) The picture on the bottom right is an attempt to show the piano/keyboard guy working his accordion. This was my first time seeing a rock accordion, and I hope it is not my last. They were also sporting a horns section, and the occasional lead-guitar-goes-over-to-be-the-second-piano-player situation. I find I prefer live shows from bands with a bit of instrumental diversity. And, damn... I could listen to the lead singer all day. Which, in fact, I pretty much did today. You know it was a good show when the first thing you do is go home and listen to the albums every chance you get... and spend the rest of the day singing the songs in your head... Just: wow.
Even having had to pay the extra $25 for baseball-game-day parking rates (HoB is across the street from Fenway and apparently there was a game going on) wasn't an issue after this show... They played most of the tracks from Boxer, a lot off of Alligator (saving a seriously awesome rendition of Mr. November for the encore, as I sort of suspected they would), and also sang a few new tracks from the album which will be released "tomorrow" (the metaphorical "tomorrow," that is...) and which may or may not be called "How the Leprechauns Died." I can't wait...
Above are my camera-phone pictures from the show... taken with my phone's truly pathetic resolution. (The band was much closer in person, as well as being less pixelated...) The picture on the bottom right is an attempt to show the piano/keyboard guy working his accordion. This was my first time seeing a rock accordion, and I hope it is not my last. They were also sporting a horns section, and the occasional lead-guitar-goes-over-to-be-the-second-piano-player situation. I find I prefer live shows from bands with a bit of instrumental diversity. And, damn... I could listen to the lead singer all day. Which, in fact, I pretty much did today. You know it was a good show when the first thing you do is go home and listen to the albums every chance you get... and spend the rest of the day singing the songs in your head... Just: wow. 
2 comments:
I love The National. Glad they rocked.
I'm never quite sure when a band has so many mid-tempo songs if they're going to be good in concert or what the vibe will be in the crowd. Looking forward to the new album.
I know what you mean... Going in, I thought this might be a pretty mellow (possibly even boring) show. I was really pleasantly surprised by how hard they rocked...
The crowd vibe was pretty awesome, too... When the lead singer jumped down into the audience for a sing-along at the end of Mr. November, people were going crazy... =)
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