The first time I saw The National 2008 in what was then the Carling Academy, Birmingham, holding just a few hundred people, Boxer had just been released and they were on the cusp of their big break. Since then, High Violet was voted one of the top albums of 2010, winning the Q award for Best Album. They were nominated for 'Best International Breakthrough Act' at the 2011 Brit Awards - ironic for a band who had released their first album ten years earlier. Now they sell out the Alexandra Palace for two nights (13 and 14 November 2013).
When I first started this blog two years ago, I posted a rant about how disappointed I was with the way The National were heading. As it turns out, I'm one of the few old-school fans I know who actually really loves Trouble Will Find Me. My worries about the band going bland were unfounded, as songs like Don't Swallow The Cap (above), Sea of Love and Graceless have all the lyrical dexterity and raw, self-deprecating, confused emotion that makes me return again and again to the band. Nonetheless, in the lead-up to the gig I'd been listening obsessively to early albums The National and Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, as I so often do, thinking what a shame it was that they would never play those songs again, so I was OVERJOYED when they played my favourite song, Available with the outro from Cardinal Song - in Matt Berninger's words "a strange mix of anger and eroticism". Matt's hair may be receding and his eyesight failing, but it's great to see he still has the rage which bubbled through their early albums.
(Sadly I can only find a really bad quality video).
Over the years, I've followed The National to the Royal Festival Hall, the Zénith in Paris (supporting Pavement) and the 02 Academy Bristol. This is the first time I haven't been in touching distance from them in a throng of die-hard fans, so I felt weirdly dislocated from them. They did a good job of filling the enormous stage with an impressive light show though, and I really appreciated the set-list packed full of hits from across their albums (including other old favourites like About Today and Mr November). The next time I see The National will be supporting Neil Young in Hyde Park in July - I can't wait to see what they're like in front of a crowd of over 60,000.
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