MOG

Live music addicts would know about that exciting feeling left behind by the end of summer. However it sort of hurts saying “bye” to the dashing summery festivals; they would not feel that bad about the fact that winter is coming. Addicts love it more in smaller venues where it is cozier and the audience is much lesser. And by the end of summer shows; the estimations on what bands might come on tour start over. Few ever happen to be real among these predictions. Sadly! For sure, The National have been one of the most anticipated bands in this consistency of wishes since they released one of the best records in 2007. Yet it was hard to believe! Hence, the news was received with a cheering shock in the first place: The National in Babylon – 11pm – 7th Dec. 2007. Official date!!

Since the date was official then; we had to find something else to get worried about; “Hey, I heard they are not that good live, eh?”, “They had trumpet and trombone for Fake Empire, in Letterman Show. Don’t think they would bring those all the way to Istanbul, man!”, “Just heard, Padma Newsome won’t make it here with the band! Damn!”, “Do you think Sufjan could come along with them too?”. Boy oh boy!

So, Friday night comes and it is time to get rid of all these worries at last. Been to the venue around 10pm firstly because I couldn’t risk the front row and secondly I wanted to see the instruments during the soundcheck. Unfortunately though, there was no trumpet, nor strings at first sight. Downer! Still, expectations were high and we were waiting impatiently. 10.30, 11.00… Room was already filled with fans. A sold out obviously! 11.10. Ah, they are late. No strings, no trombone and they are late. Nice! But then; a familiar face appears walking in from backstage. Padma Newsome! Setting the strings to soundcheck. For a brief moment, my friend and I found ourselves cheering: as happy as kids. We could even go and give a hug to Padma. That happy we were! And not long after, I spotted Aaron wandering about and then passing into backstage. 11.30… 11.45… Setlists are being placed... (Being at the front row, I could see the setlist and About Today was there!! Score!)

So, “Shall we start the countdown yet?”… Oh yes! It is midnight and there they were. In order of appearance: Scott Devendorf, Aaron Dessner, Bryan Devendorf, Bryce Dessner, Padma Newsome and finally Mr. Berninger (holding some water and a bottle of Doluca White!) walking up the stage, firing the noisy cheering more each second. A soft entrance with the sound of guitar gets even warmer with Matt’s starting to sing “We expected something, something better than this..”… Start a War! Who claimed “Matt doesn’t sound that good live” again?

A wee “hello” and “thanks for having us” before playing Mistaken for Strangers and Secret Meeting both of which is an absolute pull on the trigger to get the audience warmed up and singing along ALOUD! Matt’s dreamy vocals, the harmony and joy of the whole band, Padma’s amazing contributions, Bryan’s naket feet… it was too much to be amazed at!

The enthusiasm was at its highest and it was time for Brainy. The crowd got even noisier, applauding and cheering like mad as per what I had heard before and during the show; it was probably the most desired track for the gig. The best crowd I have seen recently! Which seemed to impress the band too, I suppose. They looked a bit surprised to see people singing along and enjoying the whole thing that much. Well, that’s what you get if you don’t tour Istanbul often enough, eh.

After Brainy, one of the best performances of the night came up: Baby, We’ll Be Fine! To speak the truth, even though I really do love this song very much, I was not expecting such a killer live performance. How could I know, what could come out when the wonderful aura of The National meet with what Padma can do with strings on stage? He was like a magic wand, touching to chords and turning everything into something otherworldly awesome; whilst soloing at the end of the track!

And Slow Show! What a great tune that is! A good one with Scott’s backing vocals smilingly! I think during the whole gig, Scott didn’t stop smiling. You could feel the positive energy coming out from him very live! How nice and happy he seemed up there! Following the settling in the track, emotions ran high along with the noisy guitar and Matt’s spotless singing: “You know I dreamed about you for 29 years before I saw you!”… Can’t help but think, how genius you gotta be to write such lines?

This decent moment is followed by Bryan’s gushing drum beats and Squalor Victoria! I thought this was going to be a good one but it was beyond good! Simply one of the bests of the night! For a brief moment I felt speechless; seeing how Matt was emotionally occupied with singing. He was deepening on the stage as he was screaming out “SQUALOR VICTORIA!”. So effervescive and turning around himself that towards ending the microphone desk fell off the stage. And during the next song Abel, it would be none other than Matt himself who is falling over the crowd this time. His getting carried away with singing, the upbeat melody of the tune and the white wine which is quickly running low in the bottle must be the possible reasons for this little balance problem, I suppose.

Well, speaking of wine; next track was All the Wine which, Matt would announce as “this song is about wine and love. Fifty/fifty!”. Great one again, thanks to Padma’s tambourine entrance and Aaron’s soft touches to the guitar all along! And this is followed by Padma and Aaron changing places for one song where Aaron plays the keyboard on Padma’s corner and Padma gently do the strings on Aaron’s corner (which is right in front of me): Racing Like A Pro that is.

By the end of Ada, someone in the crowd told Matt something about Bryan. I couldn’t heard it clearly but obviously he was a fan on Bryan and wanted to see more of him. Who could blame him, right? Anyway, then Matt presents Bryan to receive strong applause from the audience. It was so uproarious that Matt finally went like “He’s just a drummer! Come on!”. Ha! Applauds go for Matt this time!!

According to the setlist, the next track would be The Geese of Beverly Road but they skipped this one. I have no idea why though. Next one was, Apartment Story. Uplifting with the drums and catchy! Good one! Daughters of the Soho Riots followed this slowly again with Aaron’s dreamy soft strikes to the guitar. Big pleasure it was, watching him from that close…

Finally it was time to “pretend” like going (as Guy Garvey would say!) for the band to come back to play the encore in short. Fake Empire: the so called final song! A wonderful piece from Boxer! No trumpets, no trambolins but the dynamic of this brillant tune was all the same still. We were all captivated, singing along in a huge delight!

As I said, they were going to come back and so they did in short. Who could resist that top-notch crowd anyway? First song in the encore was supposed to be Green Gloves based on the setlist but they did Karen instead. From the beginning till the end Karen was requested a lot. Even though Aaron tried to convince some people not to play Karen by saying “they are all about same thing anyway”; clearly they couldn’t disregard the total request! Well, I am pleased they did not yet I am a bit sad that we missed the chance to listen to Green Gloves live. I love that tune!

Another most requested song was Mr. November and we were all sure that they were going to do it that night – even the ones who couldn’t have a peek on the setlist! A The National show can’t be complete without Mr. November, you know. It was utterly fantastic! It was crazy! Matt was like everywhere during this track. He fell over again, then jumped off the stage volunteerly and sang the song arm in arm with peeps. Then I noticed him jumping back to the stage to run to the other end of the stage to climb up the walls and keep singing – and shaking there! Needless to say how this got the audience fired?! For a second I thought I was going deaf!! Crazy, I tell you!

During the grandiose applause reaction to Mr. November, a little worry began to catch me. It was the time for the final song of the night! And I wanted it to be About Today (just like in the setlist) more than anything. As this is one of the greatest tunes of the band and I kind of waited for this moment from the very begining. What if they skip About Today just like they did Geese and Green Gloves? Not took too long to stay worried, luckily! A wonderful night was finding an end with About Today, right there! To me, which was the highlight of the night! Much I was dying to hear this one, yet I wouldn’t know such a remarkably magnificent closing this slow tune could make! Matt’s dazzling vocals, Scott’s jumping into the crowd with the bass, the perfection happening on the stage, showy ending...everything made it an unfogettable moment.

At the end, my hands were hurting after applausing that much! Most of us still were cheering for the band even though they left the scene already and the DJ put a Kaiser Chiefs tune on to keep the night going. What’s it with playing Kaiser Chiefs right after The National? Anywho, lucky us, we had a chance to see Aaron, Scott, Bryan and Padma after show. I can honestly tell, it was the best live show I have been recently and clearly one of the nicest bands I have ever seen! Just try to catch these guys live whereever you are. You will love it! I promise!

-Champers

P.S. Sorry for the low-quality images. I had to take these with my mobile.