iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
I wish I had signed up for the new package.
Correction: Aug. 19, 2021
An earlier version of this article included a photograph published in error. It pictured Aaron Dessner's twin brother, Bryce, not Aaron Dessner. The photograph has been removed.
Fantastic show last night, they played 3 or 4 new songs (all good). I was roughly 6 inches away from Matt Beringer at one point during the show, having a high school friend be the person responsible for all the booking of a concert series has its perks! Thought a lot about this forum and all of you who love the band during the show.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-national/2022/ogden-amphitheater-ogden-ut-23b390ff.html
That sounds awesome. I’m miffed that they aren’t playing NYC this tour, and secretly hoping it means they have another There Is No Leaving NY festival in the works.
Fantastic show last night, they played 3 or 4 new songs (all good). I was roughly 6 inches away from Matt Beringer at one point during the show, having a high school friend be the person responsible for all the booking of a concert series has its perks! Thought a lot about this forum and all of you who love the band during the show.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-national/2022/ogden-amphitheater-ogden-ut-23b390ff.html
That sounds great. I have a ticket to the Red Rocks show in Sept although I am sort of weirdly dreading it just because RR is such a hassle and my last experiences there with the audience were not as good as in the before times when people weren't such assholes and RR was always a guaranteed amazing experience. The National was the last show I saw just before the pandemic and it was a smaller venue than they usually play and was not even close to sold out, which was bizarre, so we had great seats. Matt came slithering through the audience right up to where we were, and it was great fun, but his voice was shot from the get-go. How did he sound?
cobl—I, too, liked I Am Easy to Find a lot but those songs did not play that well when I saw that tour, just because the audience didn't know them and so they did what assholes in the US do during songs they don't know.
I have been to a few shows this year and the only one where the audience was absolutely fantastic was Sigur Rós. It has been disheartening to say the least.
Joyful [emoji7]
I hear you on people being a-holes post pandemic. Did we all collectively forget basic manners while staying home during lockdowns?
I'm interested to hear a bit more about these arseholes you're experiencing - what do they do? Where else have you both experienced it recently? I saw Gang of Youths the other night and was surrounded by plenty - having full-blown conversations and laughs during songs, going off to get beer, yelling shit at the band. (I know the beer thing is a bit unfair, pretty normal thing to do, but I have never gone to get a drink during a show, not once, I just don't get it personally.)
That sounds great. I have a ticket to the Red Rocks show in Sept although I am sort of weirdly dreading it just because RR is such a hassle and my last experiences there with the audience were not as good as in the before times when people weren't such assholes and RR was always a guaranteed amazing experience.
I'd say you should definitely still do it! They sounded great and seemed really happy to be touring again. Not sure what Denver will be like, but the crowd was great at my show. I got in a huge conversation with random strangers in line about prior National albums and concerts, I was honestly surprised everyone standing near me were such big fans.
I even, god help me, watched the entire six hours of their performance of Sorrow that they put up on youtube for pandemic entertainment. (Does everyone know what I'm talking about? Forgive me for not scrolling back to see.) I sat on my couch and watched Sorrow over and over and over for six hours and, in solidarity with the band who did not stop playing during the filming of that performance piece, I did not leave the couch. Not for water, not for food, not to pee. Six hours of Sorrow. And it was fucking amazing. And cathartic.
Believe it or not, a vinyl box set of that entire performance exists. It’s called “A Lot of Sorrow.”