The National Remember Past Camden Gigs at Triumphant London Show

The National played a hot and heavy show as part of the iTunes festival in London on Saturday, July 10, charging their way through a set list of tracks spanning their whole career.

Playing to a devoted crowd of fans at Camden's Roundhouse, guitarist Aaron Dessner commented on how, many years previous, the band had played at The Barfly down the road.

Shortly before the band played 'Daughters of the Soho Riots' Dessner said, "When we first came to London we played at the Barfly and Matt [Berninger, vocals] was hanging off the air conditioner over the stage and the promoter John was so scared because apparently it was full of asbestos. He was worried it would break and cover the crowd in this asbestos dust." Berninger responded by asking Dessner, "How can you remember all that?" He added, "That's the difference between us, you remember things and I hang off s---."

Over the course of their two-hour-long set the National played tracks from right across their back catalogue, including a rare outing for 'Available' from their 2003 album 'Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers.'

Speaking of the track guitarist Bryce Dessner said, "We're going to play something old for you now." When the crowd cheered, he responded by saying, "You might think you know what's coming but you probably don't."

Playing just four songs from 'Alligator' in the set, the National relied heavily on 'Boxer,' alongside tracks from this year's much lauded album 'High Violet.' These included 'Bloodbuzz Ohio,' 'Vanderlye Cry Baby Geeks' and the single 'Anyone's Ghost.'

Ending their set with the epic 'Fake Empire,' best known for soundtracking much of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign trail, the band then returned for a four song encore culminating with a performance of 'Terrible Love' in front of a star-spangled black backdrop.