Music review: The National, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow

“IT’S gonna start raining any minute now guys, get your ponchos out!” The National’s bespectacled frontman Matt Berninger suggested sarcastically after a few songs, gently trolling an audience already thoroughly drenched before a two-hour set had even properly begun.

Frontman Matt Berninger didnt let the Glasgow weather stop him going walkabout in the crowd Picture: Pedro Fiuza/Zuma Wire/Shutterstock

The National, Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow ****

The Glasgow weather had struck again and it didn’t let up throughout. Yet it never stood a chance of dampening spirits at this first of two shows at Kelvingrove Bandstand from one of American indie-rock’s biggest and most treasured bands. The Grammy-winning New York-based Ohioans first began playing gigs in Glasgow years back in near-empty basement venues, long before anyone cared. Their long but sure rise has been hugely satisfying to see for their growing mass of diehard fans, and with their eighth album, I Am Easy To Find, The National continue a run of fine form.

A key feature of the new record are female guest singers, three of whom – Pauline de Lassus, Kate Stables from This Is The Kit and Eve Owens – have joined the band on tour as backing and sometimes lead vocalists, swelling The National’s live line-up to a dozen members (there was barely room for them all on a small stage). Their voices provided a pleasing counterpoint on the likes of Light Years, You Had Your Soul With You and Rylan, to Berninger’s moody and mournful baritone.

The frontman’s awkward and vulnerable lyrics and librarian-like appearance belie his modestly nuts performance style. His entertaining fondness for roaming off into the audience at the end of a very long microphone cable – sometimes disappearing from sight altogether among a sea of hugging bodies and glowing phone cameras – was indulged often and at length. After one particularly long excursion he reappeared on stage, soaked through and wearing a disposable poncho.

Bloodbuzz Ohio, Mr November and Terrible Love were the set’s surging and cathartic anchor points. Yet it was the two gentlest moments which were its most memorable. The National’s guitarist and pianist Aaron Dessner produced what was to become Frightened Rabbit’s final album, Painting of a Panic Attack, in 2016 – two years before the Selkirk band’s singer Scott Hutchison committed suicide. A ramshackle but heartfelt cover of My Backwards Walk, featuring guest vocals from local hero Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry, paid warm tribute to a much loved figure on the Scottish music scene, of whom Berninger said “we miss Scott a lot… we miss his music and we miss him as a person”.

Then right at the end, acoustic slow dance Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks was bellowed en masse and largely unamplified by all 12 members of the band from the edge of the stage, Berninger’s microphone turned to face the audience, entreating them to become part of the choir. Was it still raining? Who even noticed.

MALCOLM JACK