Fun x 3 Fest Pick: The National
It’s getting to be about that time. Time for the 3rd, and highly anticipated, installment of Transmission Entertainment’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, based here in Austin. All this week, you can find out which bands we are excited about seeing this coming weekend, and why we think you might want to fit them into your festival plans.
I’m going to start with an obvious choice, but with election day being upon us, this band has made clear their political leanings with the release of a t-shirt bearing the image of one presidential candidate and the title of their song “Mr November”. This day will determine whether or not the t-shirt will be relevant for years to come, or become a collectors item and a lost dream for many.
The National have a sound that isn’t easy to describe, and neither do many of the bands in today’s musical climate that I would consider successful in staying relevant to modern music. Calling Brooklyn home, seems an obvious reality when one takes in the poetic, urban detailed lyrics and sounds of the band. Easily applied to the growing understanding of life, love, relationships, and changes as life works it’s way into longer years. Maybe the appeal of this band reaches more to a mature crowd, but as long as The National will be around, the younger generation will eventually catch up and understand. Understand and appreciate the band’s ability to capture with their music, a snapshot in time of life. His life, my life, her life, your life…life as most of us know it to exist. It’s the life you lead, stepping into that bar to meet your friends, settling in for an evening in the apartment wasting time with the television, walking down the street thinking about whether or not you can make the relationship last, or care to, while doing everything you can to hold on to every memory that you can.
Alligator was released by the band in 2005 to critical acclaim, and the follow up Boxer, released in 2007 confirmed the band as a recognized musical force to exist for years to to come.
The band makes few stops through these southern parts, averaging about 1 a year, and based on my experience with them at last year’s ACL Festival, your opportunity to see this show should not be squandered.
The National take Stage 1 on Saturday Nov 8th @ 8:40 p.m.
MP3> The National ‘You’ve Done It Again Virginia‘
MP3> The National ‘Mr. November’
MP3> The National ‘Squalor Victoria‘
