Photo: James Berry
The National are a band that have commandeered themselves a devout set of followers. In between songs at the Bristol Academy, the air is littered with strained yelps for obscure album cuts. “We can’t decide if this is a good thing”, contemplates guitarist Aaron Dessner.
With a hoard of rabid attendees crammed into every nook and cranny of the venue however, each holding their own personal connection to the Brooklyn quintet, there’s a risk that trying to please fans old and new could result in no-one going home truly satisfied.
Naturally, frontman Matt Berninger and co are far to savvy too fall victim to their own success. The majority of this year's 300,000 selling High Violet is trotted out, opening with a lilting rendition of that LPs most reserved moment, ‘Runaway’.
The restrained airs and graces of that introduction were soon cast off though, with a punchy combination of the vicious morbidity of ‘Mistaken For Strangers’ and ‘Buzz Bloodohio’s' repentant anthemics.
From this point onwards these titans of indie rock never really take their foot off the gas, even transforming the normally reflective ‘Slow Show’ into a more propulsive number by means of a bombastic horn section. Songs such as ‘Squalor Victoria’ and ‘All The Wine’ are impressively supplemented with similar flares of musicianship, without muting their defining core of pained catharsis.
Years spent on the road have even honed the band’s penchant for self-deprecating stage banter. A rendition of jingle bells, various roley poleys and even a threat to ride a German Shepherd dog across the stage by Matt Berniger, are all delivered in a typically tongue in cheek style.
Where the propulsive pace does dip, as with pre-encore sign-off ‘Fake Empire’, the tone is magisterial. “Stay out super late tonight”, serenades the refined troubadour to an audience, who by the awed expression etched across the venue, had no intention of leaving for the early train home.
An encore comprised from the obscure but presciently revived Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers track ‘Lucky You’, alongside the more weathered concluding tracks ‘Mr November’ And ‘Terrible Love’, raise heartbeats to a peak before a remarkably profound au revoir of ‘Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks’. Performed entirely acoustically, a touched mass sing back each lyric word for word.
“I’ll explain everything to the geeks”? Tonight The National gave a pretty fabulous account of themselves.
