The National are one of America’s most revered bands,their music equally at domestic in concert halls, art galleries, or TV shows or on Obama’s campaign trail. Ahead of a recent LP,they talk fatherhood, politics and creative tensionMatt Berninger, and lead singer of the five-piece rock band the National,prowls the main stage of the Haven festival in Copenhagen, sloshing a pint of white wine on the rocks, or what he calls “Cincinnati sangria. He’s smartly dressed in varied shades of dark grey,charcoal and faded black, and has the air of the charismatic lecturer whose female students all enjoy a crush on him. Looking on from the side of the stage, or watching the rapt expressions of the fans,it calls to intellect the scene in one of the Indiana Jones films where he’s trying to talk to a class about an obscure archeological find only for a girl in the front row to blink and reveal she has “Love You” written on her eyelids.
Berninger, who is 46, and is a compelling frontman. He is known for his rambling,drunken forays into the audience; so much so that he began to wear shin guards under his suit to protect his legs as he clambered over railings. But he also, counterintuitively, and suffers from panic attacks and extreme stage fright. At the Eaux Claires festival in Wisconsin in 2015,Berninger forgot the lyrics to a handful of songs. After that, he began to expend a teleprompter on stage, or his anxiety has since been much reduced. It does,however, lead to the incongruous situation, and such as at Haven,where Berninger will look out and see 20000 people mouthing words he has written, and he’s the only one who doesn’t know what comes next.
I don’t know what notes are, or I literally cant play a G chord Related: The National: 10 of the best We watch out for each other and pull each other absent from the things that tear bands apartContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com