The National Live @ Paris

I still remember when I first saw The National, it was in December 2002 in Paris at The Café de la Danse. On the ticket it was written: Low plus special guest… most of the time those so called special guests are not very welcome by the fans or are usually boring - I can’t tell how many support acts that I saw who later vanished. I’m sorry for them. So that evening, before the very much desired Low, it was quite different, everybody listened with much attention to those guys coming from nowhere - from Ohio, sorry! - playing a cocktail of honest country and soulful Rock’n’Roll and you know how Low’s fans are so selective…
In December 2002, The National where starting to be international, it was their first European tour ever. Five years later, the band is back again in Paris– Matt Berninger and his friends came back several times since 2002 – but this time The National filed in a much bigger room (a sold-out show) only with their name.
So Wednesday, the set started with the first verses from Neil Young’s Ambulance Blues, the room was completely in the dark, the band waited few minutes… Good start, I said to myself. I was standing in the first rows, on the left of the stage, unfortunately the sound was awful and I had to move from the front to the back of the room close to the bar. Feeling more comfortable, I could enjoy a very pleasant set mainly field with songs from The Boxer (setlist here). The National has a formula: every focus is on the vocal support by a strong rhythmic (the drums are an exceptional pleasure, take About Today for example). But Matt, last Wednesday, had a cold and it was not so easy for him to be 100% efficient even if everybody on stage tried to hide it. Nevertheless, at the end, it all works very well and the band finished with an amazing live version of About Today.
The National will tour Europe until the end of the year before flying to New Zealand and Australia. More dates here.
Also, the band just released a new single Apartment Story back by a live cover of Mansion On The Hill, better known as that Bruce Springsteen song from his Nebraska album of 1982.

Web: americanmary.com
MySpace: myspace.com/thenational
Label: beggars.com

The National - Fake Empire .mp3
The National - Murder Me Rachael .mp3
The National - About Today .mp3

The National Live at Paddy O's in Boston, Massachusetts, on Friday, October 26th, 2007 on Bradley's Almanac

Photo: Oliver Peel: flickr.com and a review of the show in German via Mmeinzuhausemeinblog