The National @ Webster Hall, May 21

I shook off some live show rust and hit up Webster Hall solo last night to catch the National. There was much to complain about regarding the move from Bowery to Webster (the show, to my knowledge, didn't even sell out) but I had high expectations given the review from InMyTree. Simply, great band, great songs, great live show. It wasn't perfect, however, the band struggled a bit out of the gate with a sub-par performance of "Secret Meeting" followed by some technical difficulties that lasted a couple of minutes to which the only words that Berninger could mutter over the silence were "the last time we were here was the PLUG awards." By the way, I'm not sure if he was just too drunk but Berninger definitely has that leading man lunacy (Thom Yorke, Tom Smith, etc.) that's always a plus for a band's success - you wouldn't know it when he walks out on stage but he definitely hit himself in the head several times with the microphone. The band found their rhythm by the third track and played most, if not all, of Alligator. The violin solos were unreal, the drumming exceptional, both adding to a bigger sound not heard on the albums. Song highlights included "Abel," "Lit Up," "Murder Me Rachael," and the monster crowd pleaser "Mr. November" which had Berninger screaming at the top of his lungs, "I won't fuck us over, I'm Mr. November!" One fan even jumped on stage to join Berninger briefly during the chorus (much to the violinist's surprise). The last show on the tour, the National played for 90 minutes including a 1-song encore, and I was glad to be a part of it.