hearsay

I was excited to get last minute, 5th row seats to last nights Arcade Fire/National show at Radio City. I must say I’m a big fan of both bands, so seeing them on the same bill was a huge bonus. The show was the kick-off of a 10 day David Bowie curated High Line Festival, in support of development and preservation of New York City’s High Line into a public park system.

I was eager to hear The National play some of their ridiculously leaked new record, The Boxer. The sound at Radio City was awesome. The National seemed small on such a huge stage and hall, but filled it out amply with their rich sound, punctuated by Matt Berninger’s baritone. Berninger was hobbling about the stage on one leg for most of the show and made some reference to Lenny Bruce (who’s joke about man with bad leg got him arrested)…but still managed to put in his typical, animated performance, especially during highlights from their 2005 breakthrough ‘Alligator’, like Abel and Mr. November. Although the majority of their material came off their forthcoming record, they really made no mention of it, or ‘new songs’, only announcing by name Mistaken for Strangers. The new stuff definitely stood its ground with old favorites, and sounded equally polished. There has been some discussion about the new record’s lack of emotion or ’screamers’ like the aforementioned Mr. November. When played live, those songs definitely stand out and energize the crowd in a way most of the new songs wouldn’t. However, the band clearly diverged from the record and put more musical and vocal energy into the new songs, which translated great in a live setting. Despite that, the highlight of the show for me was the closer, About Today, off the Cherry Tree EP. I’d never heard it before and it was the most beautiful song played all night (by either band).

The last time I saw Arcade Fire was their infamous show where David Byrne stepped in and played a Talking Heads cover for an encore. Bowie, having curated the show and been known to jump onstage with the band himself, was expected by many to show his face, but instead kept to the shadows, stage right. I’ve been listening to the new record a lot, but didn’t realize until last night how good it really is. I guess I was expecting some drop off from their notoriously energetic performances a couple of years ago. The band is obviously enjoying playing live more than ever, and had an elaborate stage set to back it up. It included a live ‘mini’ pipe organ and five video screens around the stage which alternated between stock imagery and live footage of the band (sometimes superimposed). Most of the cameras were placed with immediacy to the performers, showing their energy in detail. From the Neon Bible openers Keep the Car Running and No Cars Go, to the main set finale of Neighborhood#3/Rebellion (Lies) the band played a raucous set that completely overtook the crowd at Radio City. The only downside of the evening came when Win (after a few earlier, more subtle, ‘hints’) implored the crowd to fill the aisles and crowd the stage. The RCMH security was surprisingly up to the task, using brute force to keep people away from the stage, and dragging numerous people out. After the encore, Win apologized saying he was ‘a very bad boy’. All in all, and incredible show by an incredible band that so transcended their already amazing recorded material.

: The National - About Today (live at The United Palace, 05.07.2007) :