SOUNDTRACK: THE NATIONAL-NonCOMM Free at Noon (May 16, 2019).
The National are an interesting band. They tend to write songs that feel ponderous–sometimes slow and, with Matt Berninger’s deep voice, very intense. And yet their lyrics can sometimes be inscrutable [“I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees”] and they have done cover songs for Bob’s Burgers on more than one occasion (“Bad Things Happen in the Bathroom”).
So this concert is a bit of a revelation because of how poppy and almost dancey some of these songs are. Berninger’s voice is nowhere near as deep as I imagined (his speaking voice is deeper than his singing voice) and the songs have a lot of variety to them.
Perhaps it’s the new album, I am Easy to Find.
Expanded to a ten-piece band, The National showcased ten of the album’s sixteen tracks, demonstrating the beauty and strength of the project. Vocalist Matt Berninger led the group’s vast array of instruments and vocalists, and kept everything from sounding overwhelming. The resulting set was a glorious display of emotion and expansive sound.
They opened with “You Had Your Soul With You”, The track shows their musical horizons starting to expand. Vocalists Kate Stables (This Is The Kit) and Pauline de Lassus (Mina Tindle), joined Berninger on stage, adding a new dimension to the band’s sound. They sung throughout the show, representing the inclusion of female voices and perspectives across the record.
Like many of their songs, it is pretty and invites you to lean in to listen to the lyrics.
Berninger introduced the next song “Oblivions” by emphasizing the “s” “There’s a bunch of them. They keep coming. Together.” This song sounded very different, with a synthy, almost dancey vibe.
Stables and de Lassus opened “The Pull of You” before Berninger joined them. This song has some interesting drum work as many of them do. Midway through, Berninger has a spoken word section that makes it sound like Tindersticks.
He tells us that his wife wrote “Hey Rosy.” He deadpans, “I thought it was about me.” There’s a quiet piano intro and I love the very-The National delivery of the chorus “Hey Ro / zee I / think I know just what the / feeling is.”
“Quiet Light” is a gentle, shuffling song. The warm horn solos that closed the track were a wonderful touch.
Aaron Dessner spoke before they played the tender “I Am Easy To Find” and dedicated it to his friend, Adia Victoria, who played the same stage yesterday and was watching the set from the balcony.
The song is a duet of female and male vocals. I love the fast delivery of this chorus as well. Once again, very The National: “there’s a million little battles that I’m never gonna win / anyway.”
The band contrasted the solemness of these tracks with the brightness of “Where Is Her Head.”
Berninger says, “Mike Mills wrote the lyrics to this one… well, most of them… so he gets all of the publishing. So now you know whey were doing it.”
Sung mostly by Stables and de Lassus, the track replaced the grey aura that filled the room with glittering oranges and pinks.
The song features a quiet looping of the lyrics as Berninger sings solo vocal runs over their chorus.
“Rylan” continued the upbeat-streak. The song, which declared that “everyone loves a quiet child,” showed The National playing with their volume. Towards the end they repeatedly built up their sound, only to swiftly quiet it.
Easy To Find‘s closing track, “Light Years,” was the simplest and most moving they played. With its heartbreaking lyrics and one of the saddest basslines ever played, the track left the crowd awestruck.
It opens with a gentle piano and Berninger’s deeper, quieter vocals. When the women sang back up with him, it was really lovely.
They could have stopped there, with tears quietly building in everyone’s eyes, but they continued with “Not In Kansas.”
Berninger says. We have one more song. This one’s 25 minutes long. It was. Then Mike Mills made it like 6 minutes long. Whatever. He was in charge. Everything that’s bad about the record we always blame on Mike and we take credit for all the good stuff.” He paused “there’s some good stuff.”
It has a lovely quiet guitar intro.
While its lyrics focused on the craziness plaguing the world, the track felt small and insular. In closing with it, The National went out with a polite wave, rather than with a bang.
My friend Armando told me that The National puts on some of the best shows he’s ever been to. I hope to see them some day.
[READ: June 1, 2019] “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere”
I did not like the narrator of this story at all. She is hiding behind so much. In fairness, she has a lot to get over, but she closes herself off so much that she’s hard for people to get to know (and also hard for a reader to like).
Dina is at Yale orientation. She does not have to do the trust fall because she “shouldn’t have to fit into any white, patriarchal systems.”
In the next game she had to say what inanimate object she wanted to be. She said “revolver,” which got her put on psychiatric watch for the entire year and a solo room.
She also saw a therapist whom she wasn’t interested in talking to but who seemed to see right through her.
One night a woman knocked on her door. When Dina told her to go away the woman collapsed on her door and started weeping. Dina knew the girl was white because black people don’t act like that.
The woman, Heidi, quoted Frank O’Hara at her and that lowered Dina’s guard (Dina loves that poem). They chatted some and then Dina accused her of being a lesbian:
Short hair… dressed like an aspiring plumber. … And lesbians had cats: “Do you have any cats?”
Charming.
Dina thought that would be the end of it, but Heidi was persistent, eventually getting her to go to the cafeteria instead of just staying in her room eating ramen.
While they were eating someone handed them a flier inviting them to a gay party. Dina was put out: “he thinks we’re fucking gay.”
Dina and Heidi decided to get jobs in the cafeteria. It was disgusting–privileged white jocks were so revolting with their wasted food.
The Doctor said she had troubles with intimacy. She related a story in which a boy she didn’t know offered to help her carry her bags home. In reality she ran form the boy dropping the groceries in the process. In her retelling they went back to his house and made out. The doctor could surely see through it.
But it seemed to make her open up to Heidi a bit. In fact, one night at end of their shift, Dina suggested that rather than going home to shower, they just rinse themselves down with the spray hose.
Dina took off her clothes, used hand soap and Heidi hosed her down. Heidi was laughing hard and they did that until it stung. Then it was Heidi’s turn. She didn’t want to show off her body, but Dina tried to convince her that she should be proud of her size–“large black women wore their fat like mink coats.”
Heidi did as she was asked, feeling embarrassed until she slipped and began rolling on the floor as they both laughed
I think I began to love Heidi that night in the dish room.
Heidi started sleeping over. First on the floor, then in the bed. They spent all their time together, skipping classes and reading books.
Dina went home to Baltimore for a weekend and when she came back the school was holding a Coming Out Day event.
Dina watched it from her room. She was fascinated by the woman who announced she was gay as casually as if she was telling the time. Another one stood at the microphone while another woman cut off her waist-length bleached blonde hair and tossed it around.
Then Heidi got up on the podium and proudly announced she was dyke. She loved women and wanted to sleep with them. While everyone clapped, Dina felt sure Heidi could see her all the way in her room.
After that event Dina wouldn’t speak to her. Just when you think you like Dina, she turns unpleasant again. People who can’t be honest with themselves are no fun to be around or even to read about.
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