Following night 1 of The National’s 2-night stand at Prospect Park Bandshell as a part of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival we returned for night 2, despite a bleak forecast of late night rain on the horizon. The weather did hold out during Courtney Barnett’s opening performance and as The National began their set, it seemed like we were possibly in the clear.
Starting off as they did the previous night with I Am Easy to Find opener “You Had Your Soul With You,” the sound mix was off, with many fans in the front pointing to the sky, a gesture to try and get the band to realize that something was amiss with the sound. Things were quickly fixed during the next track, “Quiet Light,” and from there it was clear that night 2 was a completely different operation that not only featured the band operating at a different level but a much more lively crowd. This came in crucially when the rain finally did grace us as the crowd stay strong during the first bits of light rain, but it helped that the band was keeping our mind off of it by digging up some old favorites such as
“Quiet Light” and “All the Wine,” mixed with tracks like “Sea of Love” and “Apartment Story,” that weren’t played the night before. The rain finally did come down in an unforgiving manner during “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” but the crowd seemed to embrace it’s arrival with such a rousing song, seemingly calling out frontman Matt Berninger to come out to his people and take to the crowd and get totally soaked during the process. From there the crowd was completely theirs and they delivered what was easily the best show that I’ve seen from them so far this year. Boy did we get soaked in the process, but it was hard to complain when you get to see one of the best bands working deliver a pitch-perfect setlist.
Find the setlist for night 2 posted below and our Night 1 coverage right here.
The National setlist:
1. You Had Your Soul With You
2. Quiet Light
3. The Pull of You
4. Hey Rosey
5. I Should Live in Salt
6. Bloodbuzz Ohio
7. Oblivions
8. I Am Easy to Find
9. So Far, So Fast
10. Where Is Her Head
11. Green Gloves
12. Sea of Love
13. Apartment Story
14. All the Wine
15. The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness
16. Pink Rabbits
17. Graceless
18. Light Years
19. Rylan
Encore:
20. Not in Kansas
21. ake Empire
22. Mr. November
23. Terrible Love
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