Not to suggest that The National's music is overbearing in the slightest, but it's just that when it gets into your head, it never quite leaves. The band is the kind of band that doesn't go away, as hard as you might try to keep it out of your speakers. You can try and wean yourself off of it, but as soon as you hear a couple seconds of one of its late-night television performances, you'll be addicted all over again.
Although it carries the appearance of quite a few different bands, The National is actually a band that is able to cover any territory it decides it wants to. The best way to describe most of The National's music is manic-depressive. The group's breakthrough 2005 album "Alligator," contains songs of raw, loud ecstasy that are followed by ones of crushing depression. Some lyrics can be as rapturous as "[I'm] so tall I take over the street / with high beams shining on my back, a wingspan unbelievable / I'm a festival, I'm a parade," while others can be in direct contrast, as in, "Sometimes you get up and make a cake or something / Sometimes you stay in bed / Sometimes you go la de da de da de da da until your eyes roll back into your head."
The music shares an equally drastic change in tone from song to song. The National is the only indie rock band today that can pull off screaming. These types of songs that roar out of the gates, such as "Abel" and "Mr. November," are coupled with nuanced acoustic pieces such as "Daughters of the Soho Riots" and "City Middle" seamlessly.
It might be the excellently crafted songs that latch on tighter with every listen or the unpretentious manner with which The National approach its live shows, but The National is one of the best live bands today. It's quite remarkable because concertgoers' favorite live bands tend to be the ones that are most energetic onstage. Perhaps there's something appealing about seeing lots of activity onstage.
With The National it isn't as if the band members constantly jump off their amplifiers; most of their music hardly calls for it. Rather, the band's control over dynamics is one of the most potent aspects of its music. This is even more obvious during The National's live shows when the band seems to ring together with synergy seen nowhere else. With The National, the onstage energy is all internal, but it is impossible not to hear and feel.
The band's shows on Sept. 5 and 6 at the 9:30 club let all that internal energy out. The National have progressed immensely from garnering a half-full Black Cat last fall. This time around, the band sold out two nights in a row at the 9:30 club, which holds substantially more people than the Black Cat. Thanks to its recent critical success and general rise in popularity, the band is now able to tour with multi-instrumentalist Padma Newsome. As a result, many of the crucial piano, violin and organ parts present in studio recordings were faithfully recreated with added improvisation.
The 9:30 club really is the best place to see The National from a sound perspective, with its unrivaled acoustics and superb sound quality. The audience must have agreed, as its excitement was contagious.
D.C. residents must make for a good audience, as The National have made it to the area six times in the last year alone. The District has been incredibly lucky to be graced by such a phenomenal band, and one can only hope the trend continues.
