Although The National were opening for R.E.M at the Hollywood Bowl the next night, I decided to head to San Diego to catch them at a smaller venue: the House of Blues, and it happened to be my birthday, and yes, I flew solo to the show. I had not been feeling that great for the few days prior, including that day, but decided to go anyways, as they are one of my favorite bands, and put on some of the most intense shows I have seen in long time.
I arrived Downtown San Diego HOURS before the show, walked around for five minutes, decided it was too hot, so I went to my car, cranked up the air conditioning and took a nap for two hours. After waking up, still hours to go, I called my cousin to meet me for appetizers and I watched her drink a martini and had a nice innocent ginger ale. We left that place, with still two hours to go, and headed to the House of Blues Bar to hang there until the doors opened. After about 30 minutes, I looked up to see the guitarist from The National standing there, meek, with his hands in his pockets looking for someone. I was coaxed to go say something, but that's not my style, so I left him alone and he went back to his table with the rest of the band, sans the singer and drummer. Minutes later he came back, and I came up with the dork courage to say something. I discretely called him over, and introduced myself and my cousin, Brynn, and he was sweet as pie. He told us to hang on a second, and went and grabbed the rest of the band and introduced them to us and they sat around and hung out with us for a good 15 minutes, at least. My cousin told them it was my B-Day, and I came down alone, and was going to the show, alone..........they were all really genuine and real and wished me a happy birthday and thanked me for my gratitude towards the band.
7:00 came, I walked my cousin to her car, and went to the venue to grab my place on the floor. While waiting for the opening act, I met a cute couple from upstate NY, Alex and Lora, who were en route from NY to Portland, and being The National fans they were, they decided to drive 18 hours out of there way to see this show, their 7th time at a National show, die hard fans, my kind of people. We talked, and laughed, and they gave me raspberry gum, which lost it's flavor half way through the long set of the opening band. Lights came up, curtains closed, and we waited. Anxiously.
As with every show, house lights went down, the curtains opened to an empty stage. The band walked out and the sold out audience went crazy. They introduced some visiting artists they had on stage with them, a fiddle player, and trombone player, and a trumpet man! The first four songs were passionate, loud, intense, and even brought a tear to my eye. They stopped for a pause, and the singer slyly said my name , "Cory". He announced that it was my birthday, the guitarists pointed me out, he came to the foot of the stage and told the crowd I was solo on my birthday, came down from LA to see them, and for them all to wish me warm birthday wishes. The crowd started shouting Happy Birthdays, we love you Cory, and all sorts of other wishes. He then said this song is for you, I hope you like it. One of the other guitarists leaned into the mic, looked at me and said 'yes, this is your song tonight, so we do hope you like it'. First three chords into it, I knew it was 'ABEL', which happens to be my favorite song, and I went crazy! Definitely worth my day, my not feeling well, my drive and my nap in my car.
Aside from my personal experience, it was, by far, the BEST and most energetic show I have seen them perform. They even said it was the best time, and performance they have ever put on. Their intensity, and passion brought tears to my eyes, and I went nuts throughout the whole show! They came back for an encore, ended with Mr. November, then started to leave, came back and said, we are having such a great night, we are going to play one more and ended the set with a 15 minute version of 'About Today', a song I have never heard them perform, it was spectacular!!
To ANYONE out there who are not familiar with The National please, please, PLEASE, check them out www.myspace.com/thenational or on itunes. They are lyrical geniuses, amazing musicians, and all around great guys, who evoke so many emotions during each show that I have seen!!!
BY CORY RADKE
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