The new Kunstrasen season got underway last Thursday with a visit from US band The National in perfect weather. Perhaps sunshine and smiles don’t quite fit the melancholy mood of singer Matt Berninger’s generally sombre texts, but given the heat, it was probably best that we didn’t have a lively dance band in front of us. Even so, there was a break for medical attention midway through the band’s set. Join me if you will, down by the Rhine with a plastic cup of Veltins in one hand and a pretzel in the other as The National take the stage to the strains of Talking Heads ‘Slippery People’
Well actually, at this point in the show you won’t be able to join me but will be glad. The good news is that I am in the photopit. The bad news is that the stage is now a metre higher even than last year and deeper. So much so that, even with arms raised above head and using a tilted camera screen, the brass section, drummer and bassist all remain invisible. I can occasionally see twin guitarists (brothers actually) Aaron and Bryce Dessner. It does seem at times though as if I’m watching three lead singers at least on stage. One right, one left, and one stage centre. They are all actually Matt Berninger, but he is always on the move.
Okay, Dropkick Murphy’s had the same lively presentation with singer Ken Casey but no one is jumping around here with an accordion or guitar as accompaniment. Matt Berninger’s demeanour is very different. He clearly isn’t here to rally the audience into singing or dancing. Berninger is constantly wagging his index finger at us. constantly imploring us to listen as he bears his soul over the terrible situation he is in: The divorce is taking everything he confides angrily via ‘Eucalyptus‘ from last year’s disc ‘First two pages of Frankenstein’, and each one of us is made to feel the anger of that wagging finger as if we are the wife he’s telling “You can take it! I can see it when I visit!” It’s not easy to give 4,500 people a guilt complex, but Matt Berninger does it with consummate ease as he ambles from one stage side to the other with that wagging finger, occasionally reinforcing the emotional torment by dropping to his knees in apparent exhaustion. “No one is listening, so leave it alone!” He tells his ex, via 4,500 people in the sunshine at Kunstrasen. Can he keep this intensity up for two hours?
It turns out that, thankfully for us anyway, there are indeed enough things going wrong in the life of Berninger’s musical persona to keep the anger going. I say ‘musical persona’ as his own relationship is a harmonious one, with wife of 20 years Carin even contributing to the angst-filled lyrics. Berninger’s biggest enemies are actually himself and depression. It’s telling then I think that even when he sees the fears of others it’s not really about someone else. On Rylan (where he is tonight joined vocally by support guest Bess Attwell) although he sees the world through an introverted child’s eyes. “Is it easy to keep so quiet? Everybody loves a quiet child” he ultimately lets slip that it’s his own problems that are the centrepoint as he trumps his subject by telling him: “If you wanna be alone, come with me“.
“This one is about America” Announces Berninger introducing ‘Fake Empire‘. Politics have always been a further source of inspiration for The National, The lyrics of ‘Mr November’ for example seem somewhat obscure now, but the song’s title was printed on Barrack Obama t-shirts, and it’s rather depressing in itself to discover that ‘Fake Empire’ isn’t about Donald Trump or the current frightening situation in World politics but goes back to the administration of George Bush. Berninger described the song in a later interview as being about a World “Where you can’t deal with the reality of what’s really going on, so let’s just pretend that the world’s full of bluebirds and ice skating”. At the end of ‘Fake Empire’ tonight Matt Berninger concludes “That was political theatre”. Certainly, there’s no chance of pretending that this is a perfect world of just bluebirds and ice skating when The National are playing on your lawn.
I’ve gone on a bit about the lyrics of the band, which is a sign of how highly I rate them. However to be successful on a large stage in front of thousands of people, over more than two decades of music making, you need more than thought-provoking words, and The National certainly deliver on that score. No pun intended with that word ‘score’ but the Desner brothers know how to create perfect mood-rock music for those Soliloquy-like musings from Matt Berninger. Bryce Dessner’s staccato piano perfectly underpins the staccato vocal delivery. The level moves up through a bass phase. The drum tempo ups the pace until the guitars and horns come crashing in – to a point where you can’t help but join in that beat with handclaps.
Good as The National are on disc, that extra intensity takes the live shows to a higher level of intensity. With that wagging finger, imploring eyes and ‘on my knees’ presentation by the frontman. He seems perhaps a little worse for wear by shows end “Can I have a drink? Or several?” he asks via his mike halfway through the set, he certainly deserves it.
This poor man with so much suffering to get out of his system. I admit to getting a bit lost in the imagery by shows-end. What’s that about “Walking with spiders” (from ‘Terrible Love’) and I keep asking myself why Berninger doesn’t invest in a cordless microphone rather than having oodles of cable played out by stagehands every time he ventures into the far reaches of the stage and goes audience walk-about. But the Manonstage has a lot on his mind. A lot to worry about. And we all get to benefit from it. If ‘Fake Empire’ is political theatre, then a National concert is musical theatre. Maybe not Greek tragedy, more Romeo & Juliet meets King Lear. I come to praise Matt Berninger – not to bury him, so to speak.
A quick word or two for supporting act Bess Attwell. A short, enthusiastic, but not dynamic set from the Brighton-based Girl. Her new release ‘Light Sleeper’ is being produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner. hence the support slot. Female singer/songwriters are, and have been, all the rage for quite some time now in the pop charts as Dessner will, as producer/collaborator with Taylor Swift be all too aware. Attwell writes excellent lyrics and her soft, sweet voice works well on the studio tracks I’ve checked out. I’m betting that her songs and band have more oomph in smaller venues. At Kunstrasen both band and songs got rather lost on the gradually arriving National crowd. I’m sure there will be more fire when she takes her new album on the road. Time will tell and these are early career days.
Lots more to come of course on the lawn by the Rhine, including ZZ Top, Nile Rogers, Dave Stewart, Jamie Cullum…
