The National Celebrate Their Homecoming in New York

Posted on Jul 28th 2010 11:30AM by Dan Reilly
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Simone Joyner, Getty Images

Before introducing 'Blood Buzz Ohio,' the National's fourth song of their Tuesday night concert in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Prospect Park, singer Matt Berninger made it clear he was happy to be back in his adopted hometown. "This song is about Ohio," he told the crowd, "but most of you realize that Brooklyn is our home now." Without missing a beat, guitarist Aaron Dessner added, "He's going to get in trouble with his mom."

The jovial banter continued throughout the band's homecoming show, which, as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series, comes on the heels of a European tour that started at Glastonbury in late June. The National were lucky to be among friends, they revealed, as they had to borrow equipment after their gear was mixed up with Leonard Cohen's last week in Portugal. As they joked before performing 'Slow Show,' "Someone should call Leonard and tell him we have his stuff."

The National's set, which followed a mellow performance by Beach House at dusk, varied between subdued sing-alongs and frenzied versions of songs from their entire discography. During 'Squalor Victoria,' from 2007's 'Boxer' album, Berninger pacing the floor, grabbing his hair and screaming in registers way above his normal baritone. For the 'High Violet' track 'Conversation 16,' spotlights cast huge shadows of the horn section against the stage's fabric backdrop while Berninger repeated the "because I'm evil" line during the song's outro.

Still, the highlight of the evening was seeing how elated the National were to be in Brooklyn. They noted it was one of their first shows they could walk to, with Berninger joking that he was going to take a Hummer limo instead. The band also dedicated 'Geese of Beverly Road' to the hundreds of Prospect Park geese that were recently killed in an effort to prevent another airline crash like the 2009 "miracle on the Hudson." "I'll be glad when I take off from LaGuardia, but for now I'm sad," said Berninger.

After closing their main set with the epic 'Fake Empire,' the band returned for a four-song encore that began with 'Sorrow.' They introduced 'Secret Meeting,' from 2005's 'Alligator,' by saying it's about both "our cultural demise" and "getting wasted," which naturally elicited a huge cheer from the crowd. After a hard-hitting take on 'Mr. November,' they paced the stage in nearly complete darkness, with the orange lights of their amplifiers resembling the glow of cigarettes. The National then closed out their show with a rousing 'Terrible Love,' thanking Prospect Park once again before they presumably walked -- or took a Hummer a limo -- back to their homes on a beautiful Brooklyn night.

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