Music Monday

Holy shit. That's all we had to say at the end of the night Friday. Shortly after hitting the opening of Round Robin in Greenpoint, the stars aligned above the stormy veil of the night and, moments later, we found ourselves at The National's show at The Bellhouse, hands-down our favorite venue in Brooklyn (and Patrick's from Oh My Rockness, as chance would have it). They announced Friday's last-minute show and one on Thursday a mere three days before via various social networky outlets and—no joke—tickets were sold out in ten minutes. But, thanks to our extra-sleuthy friend, Nina, we scored two of the few remaining tickets day-of. The result: A whole lot of awesomeness. We assume they're polishing up their live show in front of some friendly faces before heading out on the road next week. Judging from the new material they played, the band's in no danger at all of hitting a slump after the massive success of The Boxer. The music and arrangements seem to have matured considerably and likely benefitted from the band members' various side projects—like brothers Bryce and Aaron Dressner's multi-media piece at Brooklyn Academy of Music and their Red Hot benefit, Dark was the Night—and singer Matt Berninger was as brooding, emotive, and commanding as ever. It made us supremely excited for the new album, High Violet, due out May 11. In the meantime though, we'll have to tide ourselves over with the memories of a truly superb show. And for anyone who missed their performance last week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, this week's Song of the Week is their live performance from that show of the new track, "Terrible Love" (which Beringer dedicated to his wife at The Bellhouse Friday). Photos by Bao Nguyen. You can see more of them and check out the night's set list over at Brooklyn Vegan.