My hat is off to Bryce and Aaron Dessner for putting together an incredible 3+ hours of music last night. Dirty Projectors started the night with a few songs, the last of which was the David Byrne collaboration "Knotty Pine." I like that song quite a bit but the others didn't do much for me. My Brightest Diamond was out next to sing an incredible version of her Nina Simone cover, "Feeling Good" with The National as her backing back. Matt Berninger then joined to kick off a 4-song set. They began with "Slow Show," and then a piano driven new song called "England," followed by "So Far Around the Bend" and then another new song called "Vanderlylle?? Crybaby" featuring a rare (for the National) guitar solo from Justin Vernon and backing vocals from Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond). Both of the new songs were excellent and now has me completely pumped for a new album. Dave Sitek was next to perform his DWTN tune. I saw Kyp Malone before the show but he didn't make an appearance on stage. David Byrne closed out the first half performing three songs from past Red Hot compilations: "Don't Fence Me In," "Dreamworld: Marco de Canavezes" - with Justin Vernon, and "Waters of March (Aguas de Março)" - duet with Feist (pic above).
Bon Iver started the second half with a four song set. I loved the song that he did on DWTN but prior to that I've never really taken much interest in his music. He completely won me over last night. He's an immense talent. In addition to "Brackett, WI" he performed "Blood Bank," "Big Red Machine" (also from DWTN) with Matt Berninger, and "Flume" (also with The National). Feist followed with a 4 song solo set including "Train Song" with Justin Vernon and Sharon Jones brought down the house with the Dap Kings. Good cause. Good times. Now if I could only find my No Alternative cd...
