For those in attendance at The National‘s Thursday night show at the Greek Theatre, it was clear the band is hard at work on the follow-up to 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me, performing six new songs throughout the set.
The show opened with new song “Sometimes I Don’t Think,” after which singer Matt Berninger admitted, “Bryce [Dessner] had some fancy guitar work in there that I forgot he was going to do. We’re still learning that [song].”
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These new songs also have tentative titles at this point, as Berninger explained the different names during the show: “This is another new song called … It had like seven titles. The title it has now is ‘Checking Out of a Collapsing Space’ … which I think is a little short.”
Watch the National Perform Two New Songs Live
For another new song, he mused, “It’s called ‘It’s Just the Lights,’ which is not any better than yesterday’s version, which was ‘The Lights.’ That’s terrible.”
The concert also featured guest appearances, including The War on Drugs‘ Adam Granduciel during “The Day I Die” and “Terrible Love” as well as St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark during “Prom Song 13th Century.” For the latter, Berninger and Clark danced together at the end of the song. “I realize I don’t know how to spin somebody,” he admitted after attempting to twirl her.
But the surprise star of the night was a beetle that Berninger found on stage: “This is a beetle that’s going to get killed if someone doesn’t take it home with them,” he said as he carefully lifted the insect off the stage and handed it to a person in the pit.
The singer ended up dedicating two songs to the insect, which was given the unisex name Chris. “This is a new song called ‘Can’t You Find a Way … Out of Her Glasses Case,’ basically,” he quipped, referring to the beetle who was being kept in a fan’s eyeglass case during the concert.
The National, who are staunch Obama supporters, initially made a subtle reference to the upcoming election, dedicating “Afraid of Everyone” to America: “This is for my good friend America, who’s going through a rough time right now,” said Berninger. But by the end of the night, he was more frank, declaring: “F— you, Trump.”
Watch The National Perform ‘Bad Stuff Happens in the Bathroom’ From ‘Bob’s Burgers’
Among the new songs, the set list mainly focused on the band’s last two albums, Trouble Will Find Me and High Violet, though the encore did feature “Mr. November” from 2005’s Alligator. The band also performed “Morning Dew,” a cover of the Bonnie Dobson song, which was covered and made famous by the Grateful Dead. The cover of a cover is from the 59-track Day of the Dead album, which was produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner and benefits the not-for-profit Red Hot organization in its fight against AIDS through pop culture.
Despite the night’s “slow jams,” particularly the new ones, Berninger kept the evening light and entertaining. When he realized the band was waiting for him to start singing “Sorrow,” he rushed to the microphone and had a hard time keeping a straight face over his mistake. “This is super serious! Shush!” he told everyone with a smile. He also joked with the audience as the bandmembers tuned their instruments: “This is great because then I have to attempt the impossible, which is inter-song banter.”
Overall, however, the band were consummate professionals, such as the spot-on live rendition of “Graceless,” in which the Dessner brothers raised their guitars in unison for a bit of mid-song theatrics. Berninger, meanwhile, often was entirely engrossed in the songs, at times crouching as if the weight of the music was crashing down on him. Having performed in L.A. many times before, the band always inspires the crowd to cheer during “England” when Berninger sings the lyric: “I’m in a Los Angeles cathedral.”
For their final song, The National performed a purely acoustic version of “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.” With no microphones, it was stunning to hear the song sung so loudly by both the bandmembers and the audience in the sold-out venue.
Berninger topped off the performance by walking out into the crowd, as swarms of fans took photos of him on their cellphones. While the band exited the stage, fans were left now eagerly anticipating the new album, which The National will soon start recording. To end the night on a whimsical note, Berninger placed Chris the beetle on top of his microphone, likely the band’s most ardent fan in the insect world.