The National
June 21 at the Middle East Downstairs
All
photos by Matt Teuten
It was difficult not to root for the National at the start
of last night’s show, when six scruffy, average-looking dudes walked onstage,
shyly and graciously, without a trace of hipster-ness - perhaps a sign of their
Cincinnati roots, though they now reside in Brooklyn. It was the first of two sold-out shows (the
other is tonight), on a sold-out tour, and this is new territory for the
not-so-new band. The National released four incendiary albums and became
accustomed to playing half-full (or less) venues before their fifth album, Boxer, came out last month (and leaked well before that) to a
virtual storm of hype and critical acclaim - all of it well-deserved. There’s
nothing particularly complex about Boxer
- it’s lead singer Matt Berninger’s baritone voice (often compared to Leonard
Cohen), brooding piano, guitar and strings, combined in a vaguely
Smiths-influenced Americana-type
way - except maybe for lyrics like “I’m sorry I missed you, I had a secret
meeting in the basement of my brain,” which are simultaneously mysterious and
yet all-too-familiar. But simple songwriting is the National’s brilliance. That
brilliance didn’t necessarily translate to the stage, however, no matter how
badly anyone wanted it to. Crowd chatter and sounds drifting down from the Middle East upstairs threatened to swallow the National
on slower numbers, such as “Slow Show” and “Brainy,” though the dedicated crowd shouted along
heartily on “Fake Empire,” and “Murder Me Rachel,” one of the band’s signature
old live favorites. Full review to come soon.
--Caitlin E. Curran