Recap The National at the Pabst Theater

As The National kicked into the brand new “Runaway” at Friday’s sold-out Pabst Theater show, I couldn’t help but wonder if a couple hundred crowd members had randomly stumbled in while waiting in line for Rob Thomas tickets. The hushed baritone of vocalist Matt Berninger was able to stay afloat on the sea of chatter, but that didn’t make the shrill, goose-honk giggling of the woman behind me any less hair-raising. The obnoxious elements in the crowd didn’t, however, prevent The National from successfully trudging forward with a mind-blowing set, which pulled largely from 2005’s Alligator and 2007’s Boxer.

During low-key numbers like “Green Gloves” and “Racing Like A Pro,” the gorgeous finger picking of guitarist-pianist Aaron Dessner was met with subtle collisions of trumpet and trombone, while bulkier songs like “Squalor Victoria” and “Mistaken For Strangers” would erupt into huge, sweeping crescendos as multi-instrumentalist Padma Newsome wailed away on his violin. After “Squalor Victoria,” one female fan let out a long, agonizing scream, to which bassist Scott Devendorf replied, “Hey Matt, I think she has a better scream than you do.”

Surprisingly, the biggest spectacle of the live show was the semi-drunken staggering of the leather-jacket clad Berninger, who would awkwardly stumble away from his microphone, punch his fists together, and scream to himself incoherently as the band played around him. Additionally, the band was constantly swapping instruments. Guitarist Dessner hopped on piano and bass for a handful of tunes, and Newsome often switched between keyboard and violin within the same song.

After the Brooklynites closed their proper set with a humbling rendition of “Fake Empire,” Bryce Dessner hopped on piano for the band’s first encore, a haunting new song titled “Blood Buzz.” The crowd then exploded into sing-a-long mode when The National blasted into fan-favorite “Mr. November.” Berninger ran all over the theater with his microphone as he howled, “I won’t fuck us over, I’m Mr. November.” As the band finished up the wall-of-sound ending of “About Today” from 2004’s Cherry Tree EP, Berninger handed off his bottle of wine—which had maybe one hearty swig remaining—to some lucky lady near the stage and waved goodbye.