The Artful Band from Ohio

Hui Min and I have been so busy with school work and Life that we forgot all about our date with The National on 29 November 2010 until we opened our diaries and saw that we did pencil in that date (time really does fly it's already December!). So there we were in the freezing cold waiting to go in to join the rather mature crowd at the O2 Academy at Brixton.

We missed the opening band but we didn't have to wait long for The National to come out. Matt Berninger emerged in black on black on black (completely suited in black) and they opened the show with 'Runaway'- the crowd took some time to warm up to them and their opening songs- (I expected them to open with 'England' to fit the whole London thing).

I was so thrilled that they didn't just play songs from 'High Violet'- they played songs from Alligator and Boxer- and even Green Gloves, Slow Show (I have a new-found appreciation for that song it's really such a nice sweet song which Matt said he hopes that grandparents dance to this song in the future- I'm sure HM and I will dance to it in 40 years' time). And a dream come true- they played Fake Empire to close their first set and in their encore set, they played Mr November!! And Matt jumped into the crowd and walked through it while singing the song.

The National ended with an acoustic version of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks and it was so restful to hear everyone in the crowd sing along with him- they really do put their heart and soul into their songs and they're so down to earth. I'm so glad I started listening to them over summer. Matt was wrong in saying that they don't make artful noises- they sure do make artful and moving music and two simple words sum up the gig: Beautiful and romantic.