The National At Fort Canning

I kinda ignored the Hostess Club Weekender's first instalment at Fort Canning. The afternoon's bands don't interest me and I've watched the evening's bands twice. (Skipped Mogwai!!!) Didn't see the need to spend money on another ticket. But as luck would have it, there were many extra tickets floating around our group of friends, so I popped in later in the night to watch the finale- one of my all-time favorite bands- The National.

I saw them twice in 2011- in Buenos Aires, then Singapore. Tonight made the third. Still so damn magical. The National last played at Esplanade Concert Hall in 2011. The sound was great, along with awesome vibes. The open-air Fort Canning tonight didn't pale in comparison. If any, the band played even better. Tighter, perhaps with even more angst.

Matt Berninger still wore his three-piece suit that quickly became just shirt and pants in the fierce humidity. He chugged loads of wine and was horrendously drunk. Thought he went off-key and missed out some lines towards the end. Oh well. This round, instead of walking over the concert hall's seats, he walked out to the audience on the green, up to the sound booth, and all around. Hurhurhur. Loved the Dessner twins on sizzling guitars, and Bryan Devendorf on drums. Scott Devendorf couldn't come as he just became a new father.

It was a really good show, except the last few songs and the encore were similar to whatever gigs played years ago and recently in other cities. Something about consistency, maybe. At least this round, they put in 'Graceless' that came out in December 2012. Otherwise, the end was full of 'About Today', 'Fake Empire', 'Mr November', 'Terrible Love', 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks'. It's like they really like to end on that nostalgic note.

The final song. "All the very best of us / String ourselves up for love"