Alexandra Palace is a horrible venue; big, souless and a pain in the arse to get to, but despite that I had a jolly good time watching The National there last week. I love this band dearly and this was technically the second time I've seen them live as I had no idea who they were way back in 2011 at Reading Festival. Anyway, due to bad organisation I got to the venue a lot earlier than anticipated hence my front row position.
The band played for a solid 2 hours which is no surprise due to their 6 album spanning career and whilst the set list wasn't perfect I can't complain too much as they really put on a terrific show. Earlier this year they bought out "Trouble Will Find Me' which is a really great album; tales of love and heartbreak which is all very National-esque. They ended up playing all but 3 songs of it and whilst I do love hearing the new stuff live I also adore the older tunes and more new songs inevitably means less of the oldies. They played most of my favourites but when you compare the setlist from the previous night the lack of Apartment Story, About Today and Available is a little hard to swallow. It was nice they played their brand new song Lean which features in the new Hunger Games movie and I of course enjoyed swooning on Matt from my front row position, I even went all fan girly when he came right up to the barrier on several occasions! I sobbed during Slow Show which is undoubtedly one of the most romantic songs ever written and I jumped about like crazy when they played Mr November. Matt Berninger really is amusing to watch, when he's not singing he paces about the stage like a lost boy which I found hilariously awkward at times.
It was a fun night and I really hope I get to see them again soon as they really are a phenomenal band. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Primavera and Glastonbury next year
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This was such a good gig - highlight was definitely seeing you on the big screen from my slightly further back viewpoint! x
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