The boys of bummer
Their sombre, melancholy music has seen The National tagged as arch-moochers. Face to face though, frontman Matt Berninger turns out to be a stand-up fellow.
Roisin Dwyer, 15 Nov 2007
The National’s second long-player for Beggar’s Banquet, Boxer, already ranks highly in the slightly premature but enduringly accurate ‘Album of the Year’ lists floating around in cyberspace.
And what a knock-out it is. A rich tapestry of haunting melodies, dramatic string arrangements and mercurial guitar merge sublimely to form the perfect backdrop for vocalist Matt Berninger’s sumptuous deep baritone.
In advance of their recent sell-out Olympia show, the velvet-throated frontman has taken some time out to spar a few rounds with hot press.
Despite his darkly sonorous vocals and lugubrious lyrics, in person Berninger is warm and affable. After we exchange pleasantries I remind him that when the band visited these shores in 2005, they played the notably more modest setting of Whelan’s.
“We remember that show!” he exclaims with a smile. “That was one of the more memorable dates over the last few years. It was before many people knew who we were but it was packed and the crowd crazy. It was a very uplifting experience at a time when we were playing a lot of clubs where hardly anybody showed up. We have very fond memories of good times in Dublin.”
Since then the trajectory of the Brooklyn-based Ohio quintet has been firmly in the ascent. Case in point: they started out 2007 with a slew of Arcade Fire support slots.
“We've known them for a while,” Berninger explains. “Bryce (Dessner, The National’s guitarist) and Richie (Reed Parry, Arcade Fire’s upright bass operator) were already buddies through their Clogs side-project. We've been fans of theirs for a long time and they're fans of ours. They asked us if we wanted to do ten of their dates. It was a great way to kick off the year.”
Their paths also crossed this summer when both acts played Oxegen. In fact Arcade Fire swooped in with a modern day Sir Walter Raleigh routine.
“We were walking across to the stage and it was really rainy and muddy,” Matt recalls. “Arcade Fire pulled up in their shuttle and kindly picked us up and drove us over to where we had to go.”
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