It has been a long time in the making but it finally happened, I got to see The National live in concert. I was kind of bummed I didn’t grab a photo pass, but, I figured it gave me more time to just sit back, relax and enjoy one of my favorite bands. The show was at the Tabernacle in Atlanta…a historical venue with plenty of charm and character.
(Photo not taken by M.Snitch)
I must admit that I was rather perplexed when I saw that the opener was Colin Stetson (a solo saxophone player) but I walked into the venue with an open mind and some cash for beer. After the first few seconds it was obvious that Stetson is insanely talented and certainly takes a unique approach to sax playing, however, I wouldn’t cry if he cut his songs down to about one minute in length…maybe even 30 seconds. He just seemed like an odd choice to serve as an opening act for The National. Don’t get me wrong it was interesting watching Stetson play his gigantic contrabass saxophone, while attempting to use his mouth clicking as a percussion beat but the contrived noise ended up sounding similar to an elephant mating call (yes that’s an industry term).
The National appeared on the dimly lit stage along with a three-piece horn section (Colin Stetson included) and kicked the show off with a brand new tune, ‘The Runaway.’ The crowd seemed to be listening extra hard, fixated on making out all the beautiful new lyrics, so the venue was relatively hushed until the unfamiliar transitioned into a National staple, ‘Start A War.’ The National has a substantial amount of material, so I was anxious to see how their set-list would pan out. A number of the songs played were from their most recent album ‘Boxer’ but there were a few ‘Alligator’ tracks in the mix along with a couple brand new, unreleased songs. The set-list included, Squalor Victoria, Slow Show, Fake Empire, All The Wine, Apartment Story, Secret Meeting, Mistaken For Strangers…etc.
The band as a whole is so impressive, Berninger’s vocals radiated with honesty, the multiple guitars coincided without intruding on each other, the drums kept the music fluid and the keyboards added a dash of character. Plus any band who can rotate instruments from one member to another without missing a step is pretty stellar in my opinion. After their extended encore Berninger tipped his wine glass and slipped off the stage.
Take A Listen: The Runaway (Live) by The National
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Download:The Runaway (Right click on link and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox)
