The National

How fancy do you want to go because I know of a place that does incredible work. But it ain't cheap.
Yeah not too fancy really, just nice enough. I don't have any posters hung up. Well, I had a screen print of a National poster that some artist made years and years ago, but it fell down like a week ago and I haven't put it back up.
 
They're actually really consistent, regular visitors to Australia which is freaking awesome. The fact they can book three shows at the Palais in Melbourne is a good indicator of their following over here. I'm all in on the peer pressure of @whatwhatsaywhat and @AngryVal to go to all three nights though! I'm in a different city, not on the touring schedule but will make a trip to see them. Incidentally, I see you're in SF - I actually had tickets to both the Berkley shows in 2017 as I serendipitously happened to be in your part of the world at the time. It was too perfect, until the shows were cancelled. Still hurts..
We had tickets to the Sunday show and were bummed that they rescheduled their Saturday and Sunday shows for a Monday and Tuesday 10 months later!
 
Highlight of my year so far!


I’m a little jealous of that Montreal setlist. I would have loved to hear Apartment Story, Not In Kansas, Sorrow, etc. It looked to be a little bit better (and 2 more songs) than two days ago in Portland. Montreal is 2 hours from me and Portland is 4, however Portland was this cool outdoor theater that would have been nicer had it not rained the whole night. Also Montreal was a seated theater and I really wouldn’t want to sit for a band like the National. Did people stand for any of the show? I saw photos on their Instagram where some people were standing.
 
I’m a little jealous of that Montreal setlist. I would have loved to hear Apartment Story, Not In Kansas, Sorrow, etc. It looked to be a little bit better (and 2 more songs) than two days ago in Portland. Montreal is 2 hours from me and Portland is 4, however Portland was this cool outdoor theater that would have been nicer had it not rained the whole night. Also Montreal was a seated theater and I really wouldn’t want to sit for a band like the National. Did people stand for any of the show? I saw photos on their Instagram where some people were standing.

I was worried about the sitting thing too. But as it turned out, pretty much the entire crowd was on their feet rocking out the whole time. For the encore, security allowed everyone directly up to the stage, which is how I got so close.
 
I was worried about the sitting thing too. But as it turned out, pretty much the entire crowd was on their feet rocking out the whole time. For the encore, security allowed everyone directly up to the stage, which is how I got so close.
The first time I saw The National was at a seated venue. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but very quickly into their set, Matt said something like "this is weird, you all can stand or come closer to the stage" so I immediately did. That was the closest I've ever been as I was somehow able to be in the very front.
 
We had seats in the balcony at the Roxy in Atlanta. Split level venue. Lower level has to stand. Pretty sure everyone on the 2nd level with us stood except for the people in the premium seats that wrapped the sides. The National isn’t a sitting band.
 
I just came on here to say I saw your videos on Instagram, they are FANTASTIC! I can't believe how close you got!!

Thanks! I’m a Cherry tree member and just decided to treat myself to the best ticket available. It turned out to be the front row! (I didn’t realize as I had never been to the venue). When they came out for the encore, everybody rushed the stage and since I was already so close, I was able to be directly in front of it. It was amazing. :)
 
I was worried about the sitting thing too. But as it turned out, pretty much the entire crowd was on their feet rocking out the whole time. For the encore, security allowed everyone directly up to the stage, which is how I got so close.

I never aim for front row seats for anything but I logged in for the Cherry Tree presale for their upcoming LA date and I was assigned seats in the third row center from the very front of the stage. It’s gonna be the closest I’ve seen the National since they played the Troubadour in 2005 and I could easily squeeze to 10 feet from the stage.
 
Today I spun High Violet and Trouble Will Find Me, back to back. Still prefer TWFM over HV, but HV is still a really solid album. I remember playing the hell out of HV when it was released. I'm pretty sure I didn't listen to anything else that summer. It's still deeply entrenched in my body and soul. But so is TWFM. It also means much more to me personally. Anyway, I had fun doing these back to back and now I want to go back and do a full day listen to all the albums in order again.

Anyway, some notes:

Little Faith is still criminally underrated. Conversation 16 and Runaway have been creeping up into being songs I just keep wanting to replay lately for some reason. Also side 2 of LP 1 is flawlessssss. Little Faith > Afraid Of Everyone > Bloodbuzz Ohio.

The one-two punch of Humiliation and Pink Rabbits is perfect. Hard To Find might not be my favorite closer, but it kind of hit me hard today.
 
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