Review: The National at The Chicago Theatre

by: Kitty White

From April 15-18th The National had a residency at the beautiful Chicago Theatre. With all four nights sold out almost instantly after tickets went on sale it was a well sought after show for Chicago fans and I was lucky enough to get tickets to the second night. According to a local radio host the second night of a four-night stand is the magical night and that was most definitely true.


The opening band Daughter fit well with the ambiance of The National’s sound but fell flat for me. I felt monotony from their set although I could tell they were a talented group. The crowd was familiar with their most famous song ‘Youth’ but that was where the excitement ended. Especially after the experience that The National provided I’ve pretty much become indifferent with Daughter opening the show.

When The National took the stage though the crowd was on their feet. The band went right into ‘Start A War’ from their album Boxer. Front man Matt Berninger captured the audience not only with his haunting baritone voice but also his incessant pacing of the stage that he is known for.  From ‘Start A War’ they went right into ‘Sea of Love’, which really got everyone moving. I always here The National being described as depressing but they have some of the most danceable tracks out there. The chanting of ‘If I stay here trouble will fine me’ over and over with a sold out show was only rivaled by the unity I felt with the crowd and the band during their hit song ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ The sound of everyone singing about being carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees is what I suspect the sound of an actual swarm of human sized bees to sound like. In a good way of course. From there they went into hits like ‘Don’t Swallow The Cap’ and ‘Heavenfaced’ and also a powerful performance of ‘Squalor Victoria’, which is one of my personal favorites. Bryan Devendorf’s drumming in person is even more hypnotizing than on the record and to top it off with Berninger’s scream near the end, it blew me away. The true topper on the cake though was ‘Graceless’ in which Matt notorious for broken microphones and mic stands, broke yet another. This song alone took the entire show to another level and then pushed in over the edge in cacophony of noise and beauty.

This wasn’t the end of course. The National played a four song encore including ‘Terrible Love’ where Berninger crawled into the crowd and bringing an enthusiastic fan on stage for their traditional sing along of ‘Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks’ to bask in the love that the crowd now shared with each other after this emotional roller coaster of a night. The National have some of the most heart wrenching but beautiful songs I’ve ever heard that fill your gut up with both joy and broken heartedness. Experiencing it live was more than a concert, it felt like a successful therapy session that left you feeling lighter and with a bit of ringing in your ears.