Jim Clark
10-04-2010, 06:56 AM
A paltry crew of 1,300 showed up at the historic Uptown Theater to take in The National last Wednesday, Sept. 29'th. It takes a lot to get the Clark's out on a Wednesday night but The National is one of the few that can manage it. An all ages show the crowd age ranged from 18-55. I know this since Mrs. Clark was there with me (and no, she's not 18). Brilliant show of sadness and despair brought to a crescendo of crashing guitars and a front man refreshingly devoid of typical rock star trappings. The place rocked.
Setlist: The Runaway; Anyone’s Ghost; Mistaken for Strangers; Bloodbuzz Ohio; Brainy; Slow Show; Squalor Victoria; Afraid of Everyone; Available; Conversation 16; Apartment Story; Abel; Daughters of the Soho Riots; England; Fake Empire. Encore: All the Wine; Mr. November; Terrible Love.
And that's the rub on this show. Having the complete catalog save for the first release, there were a lot of favorites absent from the set list, most notably, About Today. Luckily I have enough bootleg recordings that I can get the sense but the songs absence left me feeling a bit cheated. Other faves, like The Mansion On The Hill would have been nice but hey, when you love about everything they do there's gonna be omissions.
Admitting upfront that I'm a non-musician I'd like to suggest that Bryan Devendorf is quite simply the best drummer out there right now. This guy is wicked good. I think he was trying extra hard on Wednesday since his drum kit maker C&C is located in KC I think he may have been auditioning for sponsorship dollars. It would be money well spent.
The opener, some dude named Owen Pallet was unfortunately largely forgettable. He had talent but he is one of those guys who wants to be in a band by himself. He lays down a riff, records it, loops it and then repeats until he can do the song. It's a gimmick that is kinda neat at first but quickly gets old.
Setlist: The Runaway; Anyone’s Ghost; Mistaken for Strangers; Bloodbuzz Ohio; Brainy; Slow Show; Squalor Victoria; Afraid of Everyone; Available; Conversation 16; Apartment Story; Abel; Daughters of the Soho Riots; England; Fake Empire. Encore: All the Wine; Mr. November; Terrible Love.
And that's the rub on this show. Having the complete catalog save for the first release, there were a lot of favorites absent from the set list, most notably, About Today. Luckily I have enough bootleg recordings that I can get the sense but the songs absence left me feeling a bit cheated. Other faves, like The Mansion On The Hill would have been nice but hey, when you love about everything they do there's gonna be omissions.
Admitting upfront that I'm a non-musician I'd like to suggest that Bryan Devendorf is quite simply the best drummer out there right now. This guy is wicked good. I think he was trying extra hard on Wednesday since his drum kit maker C&C is located in KC I think he may have been auditioning for sponsorship dollars. It would be money well spent.
The opener, some dude named Owen Pallet was unfortunately largely forgettable. He had talent but he is one of those guys who wants to be in a band by himself. He lays down a riff, records it, loops it and then repeats until he can do the song. It's a gimmick that is kinda neat at first but quickly gets old.