The National, Lucy Dacus
Orpheum Theater 216 State St., Madison, Wisconsin 53703
Graham MacIndoe
The National
The National
The National, first started in Brooklyn, has grown into one of the country’s biggest bands by trading in melancholy indie rock. Their latest album, Sleep Well Beast, won the band its second Grammy, and shows the five-piece expertly juggling huge arena-rock expectation with its softer, nuanced post-punk roots. Songs like "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness" contain wonderful instrumentals that leave room for lead singer Matt Berninger's lyricism. With Lucy Dacus.
press release: To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their acclaimed album Boxer, The National performed the record from beginning to end at a very special show in Brussels, Belgium on November 9, 2017. The vinyl was released exclusively on Record Store Day, which sold out immediately. The live LP has now been released digitally and on CD.
The National have established themselves as mainstays of arenas and festivals with sold-out performances and headlining slots around the world. The band won a GRAMMY award for Best Alternative Music Album category for their 2017 release Sleep Well Beast during The Recording Academy® 60th annual GRAMMY® Awards.
Praise for Sleep Well Beast
"On their first album since scoring a Grammy nomination four years ago, The National have mastered their own sound, a brooding tunefulness they've streamlined into their prettiest batch of songs in a career of constantly topping themselves."
- Consequence of Sound (50 Best Albums of 2017)
"It's the rare album that's both of the moment and timeless."
- USA Today (10 Best Albums of 2017)
"It's a rock record that rages against our freakish cultural moment not by sloganeering but by turning inward, circling wagons, taking stock of beauty and love and gathering strength for what lies ahead."
- Rolling Stone (50 Best Albums of 2017)
"Sleep Well Beast highlights the National's penchant for magnifying insular conflicts into something a lot of us can relate to in that moment, a record detailing marital struggles and familial bonds during what feels like the end of the world."
- Stereogum (50 Best Albums of 2017)
"An hour-long odyssey into the darkness of our times, both political and personal, Sleep Well Beast is quietly, gorgeously insinuating, from the Leonard Cohen-esque "Nobody Else Will Be There" to the electronic thrum that drives the incredible title track."
- AV Club (20 Best Albums of 2017)
"This album, so full of anger and fear and cautious hope for the future, is an exquisitely unpredictable animal."
- UPROXX (50 Best Albums of 2017)
"Between the swaggering rock of the first half and the roving electronic ballads of the second, Sleep Well Beast shows The National is a band that only gets bolder with age."
- Digital Trends (50 Best Albums of 2017)