I'd seen the National a few times before this gig, the most recent being at the Royal Albert Hall in May. The release of their most recent album, High Violet, seems to have catapulted them, if not into the mainstream, at least into much larger venues. This was the second of three sold-out nights at the Brixton Academy, one of the largest venues in London, showing that there is a massive market for the National's brand of introspective baritone indie rock.
The openers, Phosphorescent, were enjoyable, but didn't seem to go down very well, with many of the audience talking throughout. Although a standard problem at gigs of this size, I don't think they did anything to help themselves, with the set seeming to fall half way between enjoyable indie pop and introspective folk - it didn't really succeed at either, and long drawn out guitar solos are never going to go down that well at a National gig. Still, good enough for me to want to track down an album or two for a more involved listen.
Starting with 'Runaway', they played a set that drew on each of their last 4 albums. All the new stuff was performed and received exactly as you would expect, with big singalongs on the singles and chin-stroking on 'Terrible Love' and 'Lemonworld'. Matt Berninger's voice was in fine fettle, despite him saying he had a sore throat, with his voice very high in the mix. The Dessners and Devendorfs were also obviously on top form, not least in their bantering with Berninger. The Arcade Fire's Richard Reed Parry guested on guitar on many of the new songs, continuing the run of special guests started by Sufjan Stevens the night before. The band gradually built the crowd up through the gig, with the majority of their slow-burning classics such as 'Slow Show' and 'Secret Meeting' played early on in the evening. After the raw, shouty interlude of 'Abel', from 'Alligator', the opening arpeggios of 'England' rang out (a song that, according to Berninger, has now been renamed 'France') into the void above our heads - I think High Violet was written to be performed in arenas like this, and none of the new songs struggled to fill the space. Fake Empire, possibly the National's most famous song following its use in Barack Obama's campaign material, closed the main set superbly.
The encore kicked off with a very nice surprise. 'Lucky You', the closer from their second album, 'Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers', is one of my favourite National songs, yet is rarely played live. As soon as the opening piano chords kicked in, a lovely hush came down over the room. Or, rather, over the whole room except one guy, standing right behind me, who told his friends that he 'didn't know this one' and started chattering away. He was hushed by his friends, but he, and others in the crowd, definitely took away some of the magic of seeing the National live. The advantages of a big gig were shown in the next song, however - Berninger launched himself into the crowd, racing like a pro (see what I did there?) to the very back of the auditorium, without even the luxury of a radio microphone. He continued this through the next song, Terrible Love, before returning to the stage and, with the Dessners, closing the gig by leading the whole 5000-strong crowd in a completely unplugged, unamplified version of 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks'. With this original and stunning finish still hanging in the atmosphere, we walked out into a Dickensian snowstorm on the streets of Brixton, which seemed incredibly fitting.
The Brixton Academy is surprisingly intimate for its size, but I think it's pretty unfortunate the National will probably never play the smaller venues in London again. With their star continuing to rise, the bad points of this gig might even be further magnified in the future. Despite these niggles, though, this was a truly triumphant gig, one of my best live experiences of the year.
Elitist.
ReplyDelete