Tumblr regurgitated a crowd of hipsters at The South Side Ballroom on Saturday night. The venue, somewhat sold out, appeared ready to burst at the seams from the overwhelming ecstasy intertwined in the audience, causing people to swoon, minutes leading up to The National taking the stage.
The Ohio 5-piece has built up a fan base that follow in massive herds to see them play live, a result of their seven full length albums and 19 years of playing. The stage wrapped in rainbow lights had a simple set up: Singer Matthew Donald Berninger stands under a bright blue light harmonizing moody melodies. Multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner sits behind a wall of massive fender amps, pounding the keys of a traditional piano plus an electric keyboard, as his twin guitarist Bryce Dessner strikes a melody buffered out by pedal board effects on the opposite side of the stage. The rest of the band hovers in the back not quietly but subtly.
It is safe to say, Saturday’s night 92- minute set electrified Lamar street, filling the voids of a stressful week with head banging tunes. The National, at its highest, revived the people of a city that doesn’t sleep.
Starting on the dot at 9pm with “Nobody Else Will Be There,” the band abruptly stopped within the first seconds, due to an in crowd medical emergency. They waited on stage 8mn gazing out to a sea of anxious fans waiting for the show to go on. Finally, they sailed back into it with, “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” off the 2017 Grammy Award winning album Sleep Well Beast, driven with passion, Berninge clutching the mic screaming out, “I cannot explain it. Any other, any other way.” Vulnerability exploding from every note ripping off the fingerboard during “Walk It Back” off the same album.
“Don’t Swallow the Cap” began to play as the crowd picked up speed in their arm flopping. Chanting in unison, “I’m not alone. I’ll never be,” with their hands in the air almost touching the clouds of smoke as the whammy soundwaves swooped down between the barricades.
“Light Years,” “I Need My Girl,” and “Conversation 16” followed the shadowy strain. One major theme, the slow rhythm draping the melancholic vocals. “Dark Side of the Gym” started playing as an array of rainbow lights and fog ate the band members on stage. A mystical guitar solo served as base for the downtempo drum track. In “Day I Die” as the drums thickened, Berninge plunged into the crowd, freaking out security, as he surfed to the shadows buried in the very back of the venue. Hollering “The day I die, where will we be?” growing louder each time until reaching the very last note.
The rainbow made one last appearance during the class act performance of “Fake Empire.” The trumpets flourished as the rainbow converted into bright pink lights and a syncopated percussion suddenly brought the night to an end, only to be reawakened by four more songs, including a mellower version of “Green Gloves,” “Mr. November,” and “Terrible Love.” “Is everyone fully here?” asked Berninger before starting (“Green Gloves”) the last song of the encore. “Are you full of life right now?” Beyond the shadow of a doubt, people weren’t just full of life they were high on it.
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By: Maria Limon | Exclusively for @Music, Why Not!
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