The National @ Fopp
I wouldn’t normally write about gigs in record shops. After all, they’re not proper gigs, innit? But this one on Monday was a bit different. For a start, The National played for about an hour, and even did an encore! None of the usual few-songs-throwaway promo set then. Also, for the band at least, it seemed to be significant. Singer Matt Berninger told us that this was their first headline show since last October (all their recent US performances have been in support of Arcade Fire). There was a muted response from the crowd. “It’s a big deal for us though” he defended. Sure, it’s an odd place to start a tour in support of new album Boxer, but then again, said album was freshly-released that day, and on sale upstairs.
The band played most of Boxer, which sounds excellent live, and a couple of oldies for good measure – Abel in particular sounded fantastic. Then they rounded off with what they claimed was the very first live performance of Gospel.
So all of that, plus my failure to make it to the Astoria show last night, means that this particular instore is well worth writing about. The National are always well worth seeing live, and Boxer is certainly well worth buying. You know what to do.
Download: The National – Fake Empire
Download: The National – Abel
Picture from the Flickr photostreams of (the appropriately titled) Mr November and Rahaha. I figured my crappy cameraphone wasn’t up to it.
They’re back in London at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 7 November. Hopefully I can get to that one.
1Matthew
wrote on 24 May 2007 at 7:43
It seems sort of strange to get a proper gig in a record shop.
I am definitely going to go back and try Alligator again, and properly this time. Boxer is such a good record.
2Brooner
wrote on 26 May 2007 at 18:40
It was a really great show, having not heard anything off boxer prior to that I was most impressed. Most instores at Fopp tend to be pretty full affairs, its brilliant (especially as its a few minutes away from where I work). Kristin Hersh, Malcolm Middleton & Simple Kid have all played really long shows there.
Blonde Redhead on Monday too, should be good.
3The Daily Growl
wrote on 28 May 2007 at 13:08
Yeah - it’s a surprisingly good place for an instore gig. Maybe it’s because it’s not in the middle of a shop, like with HMV and Virgin. The sound was good too - better than some gig venues I’ve been to! I’ll be back for more shows there, for sure.
4Rahaha
wrote on 23 January 2008 at 19:43
it was a great evening. Thanks for the photo credit!
rahaha x