The National’s Australian Tour: Punk Energy with a Campfire Twist

I have been looking forward to seeing The National for years. They were originally coming to Brisbane with Phoebe Bridgers back in 2020, which I had tickets to, and then COVID hit. Four long years later we are finally here, but with Australia’s own Annie Hamilton and Fleet Foxes instead. Outside at the Riverstage in Brisbane, with both raccoon sized bats and the aroma of marijuana in the air, The National channeled their inner punk with a show that was aggressive, loud, unhinged and teetered on collapse…I loved every second of it.

Before we get to that, we need to take a look at the supporting acts. That’s right, acts. We started with Annie Hamilton who was given the thankless job of opening at 5:30 on a Wednesday. However, the hardcores were there early and she managed to get a few hundred people, which approached over 1,000 by the end of her set. She is a past top 50 artist and had a tight 40 minute set full of rock. Even though she sings with a band, it was her solo with an electric guitar and bat wings. Images of Phoebe Bridgers and Joan Jett danced in my head as she nailed her bigger hits Fade and Kitchen with raw guitar and rockin’ vocals. I wish she was later, so she could have had a bigger audience, but I think she gained some fans from a solid opening act.

Next came another past top 50 artist, Fleet Foxes, which stretches the definition of an opening act. Fleet Foxes is a well established band who played for over an hour. Therefore, it was closer to a double bill than an opening act, but The National was first on the call sheet, so technically they did open. I have seen Fleet Foxes before and I have the same problem with their live show last time that I did this time. As a 7 piece band that employs a great deal of harmonies it can get muddy in the mix with everything happening at once. In a studio you can clean all that up and have people on seperate tracks that you can layer, but outside live it only takes one or two people to be off to bring the whole harmony crashing down. Having said that, Robin Pecknold’s vocal was stellar and highlights were the CSNY-esque 70s rock infused Mykonos, a spellbinding rendition of White Winter Hymnal where the harmonies came through and were angelic and Helplessness Blues. The crowd was at 80% capacity for their set, so I would say that a large portion of the audience came for Fleet Foxes as well as The National.

Now we get to the main act. The National turned everything up to 11. All the guitars and percussion were blisteringly loud and Matt Berninger was bringing his David Byrne and Curtis Ian on stage. That is to say, he prowled the stage like someone who has either had too much coffee or not enough Oxycodone. He jumped on monitors, launched himself into the crowd and danced around the stage like someone holding a rattlesnake over their head while speaking in tongues. It all started with Matt pacing around the stage screaming Eucalyptus against a backdrop of blaring guitars and percussion you could feel in your chest. For those of you that know that song, it is a dialled back track with Matt singing across his entire range…but not today…today they turned it into a Black Flag fuelled rocket.

There was little let up from there with Matt whipping the mic cord around and jumping on monitors like there was a mouse on the stage. He would jump in the crowd and a crew member would have to hold his mic cord, so he didn’t decapitate a fan. It looked like someone hooking a Marlin off the Florida Keys. There were a few deep cuts like Smoke Detector, which the band said “we don’t play this a lot, but we like it” that were a mix of unintelligible raw punk energy and performance art. Having said that, all the hits were there. Emotionally touching and contained versions of Bloodbuzz Ohio, I Need My Girl, Weird Goodbye and Pink Rabbits were there and brought huge applause. They made sure the fans had their favourites played, which I appreciated. Nothing said love to the fans more than an intimate and emotionally weighty version of Fake Empire. For me, there was a good mix of punk rock experimentation with some of their tracks and traditional heart felt performances of fan / crowd favourites. This shows a love and appreciation to their fans that some bands forget.

The highlight and most fan service track of the night came in the final track of the encore. For this Matt said that it was going to be a sing-a-long with the audience. The band picked up acoustic guitars and huddled together as Matt walked the stage and led the crowd in an unmiked version of Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks. Even though Matt didn’t sing into a mic, you could just hear him belting out the track and conducting the 8,000 fans into a campfire type sing-a-long. Everyone became connected and it gave me chills. An amazing way to finish over 2 hours and about 20 tracks.

Having said all of that, the issue with the show is one of accessibility. With the screaming, blistering electric noise and Matt’s constant movement, both on and off stage like a toddler that needs a nap, came an incredibly palpable energy…but it also came at the expense of those songs. If you didn’t know those tracks, you would just see it as incoherent noise, while myself and hardcore fans sang and jumped with joy. I would go as far as to say that even casual fans may have felt disconnected during those times. I think the band knew this and sprinkled in very tight and traditional versions of the hits to keep those more casual fans onboard. So, if you came to check The National out because you liked the tracks with Taylor Swift and a couple other big ones on Spotify, you may have left a bit lukewarm on the show.

All and all, the band was incredibly tight with the Dessner brothers being at the top of their games and Matt’s punk frontman energy was compelling. This reminded me of old punk shows and L7 shows in college, which were filled with frenetic energy and less than strict versions of their tracks. However, The National gave us a good balance of punk rock arson and fan generosity to make this a fulfilling journey through the band’s past 20 plus years of making music.