It’s a mild September evening in Copenhagen and tonight Matt Berninger performs in a sold-out Store VEGA, full but still pleasantly liveable.
What shall we expect from this concert?
It’s not the first time that I happen to go and see prominent frontmen of iconic bands take the stage solo, but somehow the flavour was always different: Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Billy Corgan played intimate, stripped down semi-acoustic shows, mostly covering the hits of their main bands while seeding their setlist of solo material, some with more to say than others.
How will it be with Matt, with two solo albums on his shoulders that flirt a lot with the soundscape of The National but at the same time are a completely different matter? Will there be room for covers? And if so, will we feel the absence of the twins couples or will this confirm that’s the voice that makes the band? Keep on reading to find the answers…
The evening is opened by the lovely Ronboy performing solid songs coated by her velvety voice. A nice appetiser ahead of the main course.
The stage is very minimalistic, just the instruments – a four piece band – and a vintage looking blue floor lamp, something to toy with in between songs.
The concert opens with three songs straight from the newest album, Get Sunk, and it’s clear that solo or with the band, the mood on stage is of physical involvement with the music, with the lyrics and with the crowd. From the very opening No Love, Matt crouches at the edge of the stage, leaning towards the first rows of public, taking my fellow photographer Christian a bit off guard when he hugged him in an impromptu interpretation of the verses “With careful hugs / And kisses off the cheek”, or, in this case, on the camera.
The second song is already one of the reasons I really wanted to be at the show tonight: Frozen Oranges. I cannot really explain the feeling of listening to an album for the first time and being captured by a song. It popped over all the others and even during distracted listenings, that’s the one that always catches my attention. The live rendition is equally captivating and precise as on the record, with the added value of the moves and gestures that underline the meaning of the lyrics.
And here’s the magic of seeing Matt Berninger on stage, with or without The National: he embodies the songs, he interprets them with moves, dances and continuously painting figures in the air with his (impossible to grab in an isolated picture) elegant hands.
The songs flows easily one after the other, with room for a few words here and there by Matt to help getting more insights on what we’re about to listen to, like sliding into the skin that keeps the words and the feelings tight together.
There’s room also for a good dose of irony, like when introducing All for Nothing he started with “and here’s another optimistic…” and stopping there with a smile realising that “optimistic” and whatever else about one of his songs couldn’t fit the same sentence.
Hits from Serpentine Prison – One More Second was one of the highest points of the concert in my opinion –alternate to Get Sunk played in its entirety and finally we get to the moment that should answer our questions. It’s time for two covers of The National, two immensely beautiful songs that melt also the coldest of the hearts: Gospel and Terrible Love.
The short answer is: it’s not the frontman that makes the band when it comes to Matt Berninger and the National.
The more articulate answer is that the re-arrangement for Gospel was a bit cold, flat, it missed the roundness and warmth of when it’s played with its original band, proving that The National are a full bodied music machine. Also the answer of the crowd was… I’d say standard. Not necessarily lukewarm, but not that screaming and cheering over the top of the lungs.
That to me was one of the best indicators of the evening, proving that Matt Berninger can deliver a concert with his own original material and people are there to see him, not just waiting and hoping for songs of his other band.
The main set closes with Bonnet of Pins and here we have our good old Matt-the-nightmare-of-security in full fashion, jumping the pit fence and venturing into the crowd.
It’s a collective embrace, the hugs he gave us all evening long with his warm voice are returned tenfolds by the dancing bodies around him.
A short encore of three songs closes the evening.
“We had a great time” Matt says before tuning in Inland Ocean.
“We too!” someone screams from the crowd. Couldn’t agree more.
