The National - Donnybrook Stadium - 15th & 16th June 2018

flasher0030

Could be just me,, but definately a band for a more intimate setting gig. I really like their music. But all around me was more of a social night out. I thought the fine art of their music got lost in the surroundings. Enjoyable all round. But not totally memorable.

LowOdour

Hope everyone enjoyed yesterday, I certainly did!
Rostam - really enjoyable music, would love to have seen how they would have sounded in the Workman's club.

Dream Wife - again, I really enjoyed them but they were out of kilter with the rest of the music on the day.

Cate le Bon - quite funny between songs, but her music wasn't great. All very samey.

Villagers - the biggest suprised. They were excellent..loads of energy. Really good show...did not expect to be writing that this morning!

The National - great setlist, great sound..just a great great band. One of the best gigs of theirs I've been to.
Fav songs were: The system only dreams, I should live in Salt, Squalor Victoria and Graceless!

My negativity and despair for Irish gig goers can wait for another post!

Foreign Sports

Squalor Victoria was made to be played live! I was delighted that they played it.

Was hoping they'd play Apartment story too and was not disappointed! The only song missing for me over the nights was mistaken for strangers. Guess you can't have it all..

Surprising to hear I should live in salt but it sounded excellent.

ghostdancer

two great gigs. preferred the vibe/crowd on Friday, too many "out for the night" talky groups last night.
Even though there were some similarities, the setlists for both nights were great, I Should Live In Salt, Pink Rabbits and Sorrow were welcome surprises last night, and Slow Show on Friday was amazing as always, and nice to have Light Years and About Today played too.
liked the venue overall too, would have preferred The National indoors/in the dark rather than it being bright for most of the gig, but still better than 1 night in the 3Arena...

ngunners

ghostdancer wrote: »

two great gigs. preferred the vibe/crowd on Friday, too many "out for the night" talky groups last night.
Even though there were some similarities, the setlists for both nights were great, I Should Live In Salt, Pink Rabbits and Sorrow were welcome surprises last night, and Slow Show on Friday was amazing as always, and nice to have Light Years and About Today played too.
liked the venue overall too, would have preferred The National indoors/in the dark rather than it being bright for most of the gig, but still better than 1 night in the 3Arena...

That's weird, I found Friday night to be the chatty, messy drunk night and Saturday the crowd was almost perfect around me. I guess it really depends where you were standing...all it takes is one big, boisterous group to ruin things for everyone in their vicinity.

I had a look at the setlists there and did a rough count...I think they played 31 different songs over the two nights. The two day ticket was well worth it.

pwisp

Personally preferred Friday too

pwisp

My one disappointment is that they didn't play Lemonworld over the two nights. Still top drawer performances

dirkmeister

Excellent performance I thought.

Absolutely delighted to get I Should Live in Salt and Pink Rabbits.

No issues with the crowd where we were either.

I was also VERY pleasantly surprised with how good Villagers were.

xkat11

pwisp wrote: »

My one disappointment is that they didn't play Lemonworld over the two nights. Still top drawer performances

agreed. And i'd have loved little faith, although I am not sure they play that live

Kay_80

Two great gigs nice to have the mix up in the set list over both nights - personally would have loved an album specific night for boxer (or Aligator) plus shortened extras list but you can’t get everything all of the time! Also would have liked Lemonworld and would have loved all the Wine Karen and geese but delighted to get green gloves rylan and dark side of the gym on Sat and About today, Light years and Wasp Nest on Fri.

I also preferred Friday crowd and vibe wise. I have seen them over 40 times ( I go to ALOT of gigs) and was expecting to not be wowed by them outside as bigger venues tend to not work for them and outside can be hit and miss. Was 4th row both nights and Saturday was a lot more chatty and frankly Headwrecking a lot more ppl pi**ed around me as well which does ruin it - I tried moving but hard in a crowd that size. I don’t mind the odd bit of chat between songs but full blown convos and chats about life etc are better left to non gig environments imho - I could just be a cranky wench though!

When the first bars of green gloves started I actually turned to the group Of guys behind me and asked them to be quiet as they hardly play this in the set anymore - I wanted to hear it they weren’t impressed but frankly if you want to discuss GAA go stand at the back and not up the front and while we’re At it don’t spend money on tickets if you’re not going to listen to the band go to the pub!

There are songs of the National I cannot stand (I need my girl) but I don’t chat over it as I know most of the crowd love it - to me it’s too saccharine. The only positive for it is the non album bit of Bryan’s drumming and Bryce’s guitar distortion- otherwise pass but I won’t wreck it for those around me.

Loved John Grants set and Villagers were deadly.

ngunners

Kay_80 wrote: »

There are songs of the National I cannot stand (I need my girl) but I don’t chat over it as I know most of the crowd love it - to me it’s too saccharine. The only positive for it is the non album bit of Bryan’s drumming and Bryce’s guitar distortion- otherwise pass but I won’t wreck it for those around me.

I find I Need My Girl overrated as well but these lyrics are just beautiful:




"Remember when you lost your **** and
Drove the car into the garden
You got out and said I’m sorry
To the vines and no one saw it"

poteen

Do they ever play Demons live ? I saw the trouble will find me tour and they didn't play it then either

ngunners

poteen wrote: »

Do they ever play Demons live ? I saw the trouble will find me tour and they didn't play it then either

85 times according to setlist website. Pales in comparison to I need my girl which has been played 274! times.

cefh17

A short vid of Matt heading over the direction we were on the Saturday, made my night

(It's loud)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h35DgWgwojk

dirkmeister

poteen wrote: »

Do they ever play Demons live ? I saw the trouble will find me tour and they didn't play it then either

Yeah they played it alright, they played it in Dublin in November ‘13.

Glad I went for the two-night ticket in the end. Personally preferred the Friday night gig but was good to see the setlists were varied. For me the biggest disappointment was they didn't do Turtleneck; that's the one song on Sleep Well Beast that immediately made me think "I would love to see this live". Also would have loved if Mistaken for Strangers and/or Sea of Love made an appearance. But shur, they couldn't possibly play everyone's desired setlist so how bad!

Also add my name to those really impressed by Villagers. I was only vaguely familiar with them before but now I am definitely going to be listening to them more often, and checking out new album.

whatever76

i wish they mixed up the 2nd night a bit more and played more of a best of kinda of night if you get me - they were already on tour with sleep well beast in sept so a bigger change on sat would have been great IMO esp as the 2 day festival was set up around them ( surely they are bored as well as they have some touring schedule and like a mix up a bit ) !

I just didn't enjoy the gig as much as I thought I would and have seen them at least 5 times in Ireland including back in Sept in vicar st … so I was a bit underwhelmed sadly leaving !

ghostdancer

Deleted User wrote: »

Glad I went for the two-night ticket in the end. Personally preferred the Friday night gig but was good to see the setlists were varied. For me the biggest disappointment was they didn't do Turtleneck; that's the one song on Sleep Well Beast that immediately made me think "I would love to see this live". Also would have loved if Mistaken for Strangers and/or Sea of Love made an appearance. But shur, they couldn't possibly play everyone's desired setlist so how bad!

Also add my name to those really impressed by Villagers. I was only vaguely familiar with them before but now I am definitely going to be listening to them more often, and checking out new album.

I hate Turtleneck, and hated it even more when they did it live when I saw them before, so I was delighted they didn't play it :pac:
It didn't occur to me until your post that they didn't do Sea Of Love though, I would have thought it'd be very likely but just checking setlist.fm it seems they've pretty much retired it, only played 10 times in the last year....

ghostdancer

might as well post here, new album "I Am Easy To Find" out 17th May, with Rylan and Light Years as played in Donnybrook. Touring Europe in Nov/Dec, but no Irish or UK dates announced yet.

I Am Easy To Find tracklisting:
1. You Had Your Soul With You
2. Quiet Light
3. Roman Holiday
4. Oblivions
5. The Pull Of You
6. Hey Rosey
7. I Am Easy To Find
8. Her Father In The Pool
9. Where Is Her Head
10. Not In Kansas
11. So Far So Fast
12. Dust Swirls In Strange Light
13. Hairpin Turns
14. Rylan
15. Underwater
16. Light Years

Nov 25 2019 Torwar Hall Warsaw, Poland

Nov 26 2019 Columbiahalle Berlin, Germany

Nov 27 2019 Columbiahalle Berlin, Germany

Nov 29 2019 Royal Arena Copenhagen, Denmark

Dec 01 2019 RuhrCongress BochumBochum, Germany

Dec 02 2019 Palladium Cologne, Germany

Dec 03 2019 Samsung Hall Zurich, Switzerland

Dec 04 2019 Zenith Munich, Germany

Dec 05 2019 Porsche Arena Stuttgart, Germany

Fuzzy_Dunlop

ghostdancer wrote: »

might as well post here, new album "I Am Easy To Find" out 17th May, with Rylan and Light Years as played in Donnybrook. Touring Europe in Nov/Dec, but no Irish or UK dates announced yet.

They're playing All Together Now the August Bank Holiday. Can't wait for this album!

MisterAnarchy

Nice gap in the touring schedule in September ,hopefully play the Opera House in Cork again !

Eod100

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Nice gap in the touring schedule in September ,hopefully play the Opera House in Cork again !

Was hoping so but not so sure. SFASH is 12th 15th September.

National are playing Texas 11th September. Would they fly from US to Cork just for a weekend? Unless they announce a few shows in Dublin too?

Foreign Sports

https://youtu.be/lBcVrb-snPk

First track from the new album is up on you tube

ghostdancer

Fuzzy_Dunlop wrote: »

They're playing All Together Now the August Bank Holiday. Can't wait for this album!

sorry, I meant standalone shows here/UK during the Nov/Dec European tour.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

ghostdancer wrote: »

sorry, I meant standalone shows here/UK during the Nov/Dec European tour.

Ah yes I didn't notice that it was a separate leg later in the year.

Woden

failed to get tickets to the 'special evening with the national' in the royal festival hall in april. ah well

I have tickets to the hyde park show with florence.

Eod100

ghostdancer wrote: »

sorry, I meant standalone shows here/UK during the Nov/Dec European tour.

Looking at their 2017 tour schedule they linked in Irish gigs in September with UK gigs then US gigs and Europe gigs in October. Hopefully similar happens again this year! But they didn't have a festival slot here that summer afaik so might not be a given that they will play here again but fingers crossed sure!

Zardoz

Woden wrote: »

failed to get tickets to the 'special evening with the national' in the royal festival hall in april. ah well

The Royal Festival Hall get alot of ticket returns so check the site regularly especially the week before the gig and you should pick one up.

ghostdancer

album out next week, 4/5 stars in the IT today: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/the-national-i-am-easy-to-find-review-a-bold-ambitious-collision-of-the-past-present-1.3884722


a few UK dates added today too, at the end of the year. the 3Arena has nothing listed for the 12th December....

BullBlackNova

Surely there'll be some Irish shows added but they might wait until after All Together Now? Although, since it's sold out, it wouldn't be an issue for tickets.

Would expect some news on Sounds from a Safe Harbour in Cork in the next few weeks too. Have a feeling we'll see Big Red Machine or the Dessners and some friends (Lisa Hannigan, Gloaming, etc), rather than the National or Bon Iver like last time, though, just going by what they've done in Copenhagen and at PEOPLE in Berlin and New York since.

Looking forward to the new album. New tracks have been good so far and Rylan has been popular at their live shows for the last year or so.