The National Celebrate New LP ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’ with First Nashville Show in Five Years, Tonight, Aug. 15 at Ascend Amphitheater

Cincinnati born, Brooklyn forged indie rockers The National are a rare example of a band, especially in this fast-moving contemporary musical landscape, who only seem to have become more culturally relevant and creatively refined in middle age, boasting a long and celebrated career that can roughly be defined by three distinct periods. There’s the early period, where members met while living and playing in various early projects in their native Cincinnati, before they all relocated to Brooklyn and formed The National, drawing critical acclaim for their early efforts and becoming beloved fixtures of the buzzy 2000s indie scene by 2005 third LP Alligator and 2007 masterpiece Boxer. Their middle period, which saw the band break into the mainstream in a whole new way, become even more critically lauded, win major awards, and climb the charts, is defined by their two most famous albums, 2010’s High Violet and 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me, efforts which have become such modern classics that the band will perform each in full at their upcoming Homecoming Festival in Cincinnati. By 2017’s Sleep Well Beast, their highest-charting LP to date, The National had cemented themselves as one of the most relevant and universally adored bands in indie rock, a major festival draw, and in-demand collaborators, and it was on tour in support of that album, in the summer of 2018, that the band last played Nashville.

Since then, the band have entered what feels like something of a third chapter of their career, having released two LPs, 2019’s I Am Easy to Find (a great work whose attention seems to have been lost a bit to the pandemic) and stellar recent ninth album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, singer Matt Berninger released a solo album, Serpentine Prison, in 2020, guitarist Aaron Dessner released two albums as part of a supergroup with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Big Red Machine, and Dessner and his twin brother and bandmate Bryce have continued to work as in-demand collaborators and film composers, among many, many other creative endeavors. Perhaps most prominently, the band (and chiefly Aaron) have found a whole new wave of younger fans through their work with Taylor Swift in recent years, with Aaron listed as a co-writer and co-producer on much of her work since 2020’s folklore, and the whole band showing up for a guest spot on evermore track “Coney Island.” Swift returned the favor with a guest spot on Frankenstein tune “The Alcott,” while Phoebe Bridgers, who’s also collaborated with the group in recent years, appears on “This Isn’t Helping,” and fellow indie icon Sufjan Stevens guests on album opener “Once Upon a Poolside.”

As creative, prolific, and busy as they’ve ever been, The National return to Music City for only the third time in the last decade, and first in five years to headline Ascend Amphitheater tonight, Aug. 15 with New Zealand indie rockers The Beths (who we recently wrote about ahead of Bonnaroo). And though tickets went pretty quick when the tour was announced at the start of the year, a handful still remain right here. Snag ’em while they last!

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