The National, review: We need them more than ever

2013’s Trouble Will Find Me confirmed The National’s status as one of music’s biggest critical forces. The National have never shied away from politics, and in the intervening years have seen their country elect a television personality to its highest office, thus ending the halcyon days of Barack Obama. As avowed Democrats and Clinton supporters, the election forced the Cincinnati band into the woods, and into a period of withdrawal and introspection. The new record, Sleep Well Beast, is a beautiful, intimate document of this period and has given The National their first UK number one album.

As The National embark on a four-night sold-out residency at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo they do so as a band that are both innovative and self-assured. There is something triumphalist about the run, which sees a modern-day absurdity: A critically acclaimed indie band who are able to push creative boundaries and never need to worry about money again. They would surely have no problem selling out a bigger venue over fewer nights, but they seem to be sensitive to the intimacy that best suits their music.

Raw, mature and emotive, the band open with a selection of tracks from Sleep Well Beast. The reflective ‘Nobody Else Will Be There’ is more dynamic and vitriolic live as frontman Matt Berninger plays the role of a drunken vegas crooner, wailing and wheezing his lyrics which imagine a hypothetical marital crises (much of the album is in fact written with Carin Besser, Berninger’s wife).

Berninger stalks the stage like an angst-ridden Hamlet, making even the adjustment of his in-ear monitor seem like a Tom Waits-esque raindance. Acclaim and fortune don’t seem to be able to dispel the anguish and anxiety which lies at the heart of The National’s music, and Berninger embodies it fully in his performance. Anchored by the Dessner twins, the charismatic frontman seems determined to drift from the rest of the band, both musically and physically by wandering into the audience or, in this case, out of a fire exit. Drummer Bryce Devendoft, one of the most underrated drummers in modern music, who is able to keep the whole band on track through Berninger’s occasional musical wobble, whilst still amending his intricate drum parts to keep himself entertained.

A setlist that took in much of their career, only ‘Trouble Will Find Me’ was slightly neglected, presumably due to fatigue of the last tour rather than any reflection of their regard for it. Berninger squawked and howled through fan-favourite ‘Squalor Victoria’ in such a way as to seem inexplicable that he can perform with such commitment every night. New single ‘Day I Die’ and ‘Fake Empire’ from 2007’s Boxer brought the main set to a high-octane conclusion.

The band had some sound issues during the encore which saw an entire song (‘Empire Lines’) abandoned (replaced by a bit of a tantrum) before going into a spirited version of live-staple ‘Mr November’, the unofficial anthem of Obama’s first presidential campaign; which now will surely become the anthem of a new generation who didn’t realise they would need it to oppose a president Trump.

The National’s success has straddled the economic crash and taken place over a decade of unprecedented change, yet their upward curve has never diminished their ability to represent the desolate and the defeated. They have returned with a wonderful new album and in powerful form. They are still pushing boundaries and we need The National more than ever.