Don’t know about you, but the dark side of our gym involved those days we had to do sports in some lost-property kit that had clearly been pre-soiled. The National have a rather more romantic idea of PE noir, though, judging by the new video for the latest brooding offcut from their Number One album Sleep Well Beast’, ‘Dark Side Of The Gym’.
In a post-prom gymnasium full of multi-coloured balloons - or maybe it’s one of Coldplay’s old storage facilities - a pair of sparkle-eyed dancers flip and frolic through the detritus like the last ones to cop off at a Strictly wrap party. “I’m gonna keep you in love with me for a while,” Matt Berninger mumbles deliciously as their duo - NYC Ballet Resident Choreographer and soloist Justin Peck and former Miami City Ballet mentor and Principal dancer Patricia Delgado - sweep and swing around the hall and the watching world thinks ‘Jesus, get a trampette already’.
The video rounds off an impressive week for The National - ‘Sleep Well Beast’ picked up Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Recording Package and the band announced a headline slot at Victoria Park’s new festival All Points East on June 2. The band are also due to tour the US and Australia next year before hitting Lollapalooza events in Argentina, Chile and Brazil and European festivals including NOS Alive in Portugal, Denmark’s Northside and Finland’s Sideways. The National will also play two shows at Budlin’s Donnybrook Stadium on 15 and 16 June.
