At the Palace
Back in the midst of the pandemic, I was meant to be going to see The National at Brixton Academy. There was a lot of talk about how they were going to probably play "High Violet" in full to mark the 10th anniversary of the LP. It didn't happen. The gigs got rescheduled and then cancelled, and although they did come over last year for a few outdoor dates, I didn't want to pay the big prices to see one band. This year, they announced dates at Alexandra Palace. They first announced a date for this Tuesday, and then followed it up with a Wednesday show as well and I bought tickets for both shows, partly to compensate for the in-between years, and partly because I thought something special might happen. The shows finally came around this week, hard on the heels of a surprise second LP of the year. You'd expect shows focussed on those new LPs but the setlists of recent have shown a willingness to mix it up, and long long sets. The first show was fantastic - they pla...