I am so high now after the concert that I just needed to post this, before I forget about it. Ok, not till fever high but the natural buzz after a concert.
After the long wait
since last year since the announcement they were coming for Mosaic Fest this year (which got postponed till tonight), I don't regret the $111 I paid (I felt that no point saving $20 that will only get me a seat upstairs behind) for my stall ticket in row Q, seat 15 to watch
The National. The close-to-2-hours-long concert was awesome. (I think could take photos lah, since everyone was taking and no one stopped us) We were their 1st stop in Asia. :)
You know they are huge when it's a sell-out at Esplanade Theatre (all tiers), and by the queue before (and after) the concert trying to purchase their merchandise (t-shirts, selected CDs and limited edition poster). And there were obviously people who flew in to watch them. I wasn't a hardcore fan, but given 15 minutes to the show, I decided to start queuing too, but the queue hardly moved (inefficiency?) and with less than 10 minutes left, I decided against queuing and went to take my seat inside. And thankfully there didn't seem to be an autograph session (that I knew of) after the concert, or else I'll be very "dui". The moment I was in the venue, I couldn't help but feel the excitement and anticipation of the concert. Maybe it's contagious! And as I said I'm not a hardcore fan. So far, I've only bought their albums digitally. What I love about The National is the great sound, lyrics and of course, the swoon-worthy baritone deep rich voice of their frontman, Matt Berninger.
They sang many familiar songs, mainly from their 2 newer albums
High Violet and
Boxer (not counting
The Virginia EP). My fave album is
Boxer, but
High Violet is slowly growing on me. I won't say I knew all the songs they sang, but they sang some of my faves like "
The Apartment Story", "
Bloodbuzz Ohio", "
Sorrow", "
Conversation 16", and of course "
Fake Empire", which as I expected, closed the main segment. Other songs included (if I got them right) "
Afraid of Everyone", "
Squalor Victoria", "
Mistaken for Strangers", "
Cardinal Song", "
Anyone's Ghost" and "
Runaway", among others.
And how can have no encore? With the audience chanting "we want more", they came back on and opened the encore segment with the rather apt "
Lucky You" (another song I liked) from their
Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers album that had lyrics like "you want me, there's nothing you can do". Ha!
The climax of the whole show came when Matt, in the midst of "
Terrible Love" (I think that was the song he was singing at that point) came down the stage stepping on the seat tops (balancing as he came) and striding down the stalls all the way down to the last row!
And wow! I was just next to him as he strode past me and came down sitting in the row behind for a brief moment before heading back to stage (the "normal" way). That was totally cool! Woah, didn't know Esplanade would actually allow something like that. The angmoh guy next to me actually congratulated me on having this opportunity, probably thinking I was a huge fan. Too bad my photo turned out blurry coz he was moving too much. :( But just to show how close I was (note: no zoom):
They closed the concert with an unplugged version of "
Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks".
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