Rockin at the Knox, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. 6-18-10.

I'll confess. I saw The National play at Massey Hall in Toronto a couple of weeks ago and didn't write a review about it. Not because the show wasn't incredible, but I wasn't very close and I knew I would be seeing them a little over a week later. 2010 has been quite the year for these guys, their fifth album High Violet was released to much critical acclaim and they seem to be playing every festival around. I'll be seeing them three times this year myself and after the first two I would gladly welcome more. The National is one of those bands that I find myself listening to over and over, their whole catalog, and at very different times. I have a habit of having very distinct musical moods in which I can only listen to a certain artist. The National is one of those rare bands that seem to shirk any one particular feeling and encapsulate them all. Matt Berninger's lyrics aren't fantasy, this isn't the type of music you use as an escape. The National is about affirmation, connection and honesty. People are boring, they lie, and are miserable, they have 9 to 5 jobs, spouses and cars, they're real. Take Berninger's words on Alligator stand-out Secret Meeting, "I'm sorry I missed you, I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain, it went the dull and wicked ordinary way", or on High Violet's Conversation 16 when he proclaims "you'll never believe the shitty thoughts I think." Despite the relative cynicism The National are refreshing, throughout their lengthy career they have avoided the common "we're trying something completely new" mantra and simply perfected what they know. With 2007's Boxer they made the initial shift to more flushed out material and with High Violet they let elegance and grandeur reign supreme. The Massey Hall show was a bit of a surprise, the band played quite a few National classics, more than one relatively obscure gem and of course the majority of High Violet. 10 days after the show in Toronto, I was lucky enough to catch The National again, this time at a yearly one day music event held at the local art gallery, The Albright-Knox. The event was held out doors, on two stages, one right next to the other. I arrived just in time to see a very intimate solo acoustic set by Atlas Sound (Deerhunter's Bradford Cox.) Cox played mostly stripped down material off of 2009's Logos and used Andrew Bird esque looping to add some of the effects from the album. Cox is a great performer and very vocal, he played along with the crowd well and stuck around after to talk to some fans. After Atlas Sound's set I took about ten steps to the left and positioned myself left of center to the main stage. Based on the two times I've seen them, I'll say that it seems to take Berninger a little bit longer to warm up than the rest of the band, not vocally, but crowd interaction wise. At first guitarist Aaron Dessner did most of the talking, but after a couple of his quintessential trips off stage, Berninger joined him in vocalizing the band's excitement as well as providing a few bits of comedy. As far as the set list goes, the classics were there (Start a War, Mistaken for Strangers, Squalor Victoria) as well as a bunch of High Violet (Afraid of Everyone, Bloodbuzz Ohio, Sorrow) and of course the bands climactic hell raiser Mr. November. As is tradition, Berninger leapt into the crowd to scream the "I won't fuck us over, I'm Mr. November-s", it was a shock to the system of the mostly middle aged art gallery frequenter attendees, but the crowd was receptive. It was a surprise to me that The National weren't the headliners for this event (that honor went to Rufus Wainright), but the band proved how worthy they were when they knowingly surpassed their allotted time in order to provide fans with their fully intended set. It wasn't rude or over-stepping, but befitting of such a powerful band to end on a powerful note. Forgive the lack of pictures, camera weren't allowed (technically.)