t he nat ional T h e r o u n d h o u s e , l o n do n . P h o t o : e m m a s w a n n
As The National finish playing ‘Secret Meeting’ they reminisce on stage about having played the same song years earlier at the tiny Camden Barfly just a few hundred yards down the road. How things have changed. No longer your best-kept secret, this ‘last-minute’ 3000-strong Roundhouse show sold out immediately. The new and expensive-looking video display screens are brightly lit and huge behind them and you get the feeling frontman Matt Berninger might be swigging from something a bit classier than Blossom Hill. They certainly rise to the occasion tonight, delivering an almost faultless performance that shows that they know how good they are. It’s near pitch perfect; a two-hour long journey that mixes their best material with a large chunk of the equally mesmerising new record ‘Trouble Will Find Me’. The mix of the old and new is fascinating; ‘Graceless’ matches that song’s urgent intensity. The National make people do things other bands don’t, they’re a band for the people, and at last the people are realising this. (Danny Wright)
Bilbao B B K L ive Kob e ta m e n d i , B i l b a o , S pa i n
It’s hard to imagine a more perfect setting for a festival than up a stonking mountain overlooking the Basque country. After a glimmering early evening set from Mercury Prize winners Alt-J, Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros thrill with a raucous brass-filled set of stomping melodies before Biffy Clyro shake us to life with the aptly titled ‘Mountains’ on the nearly Heineken Stage. “I wish we could play all fucking night,” says Simon Neil, “because this has been the best night of our summer.” The next day it’s drizzling as The Vaccines play ‘Wetsuit’, and by ‘Post Break-Up Sex’ we’re wishing we had a wetsuit ourselves, running through a lightningfilled downpour. On Saturday a serious nostalgia-trip is in order, so it’s over to Green Day for a set chocka with hits from ‘American Idiot’, classics from ‘Dookie’, and wrapping up with with ‘Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)’, true to the lyrics, we have had the time of our life this weekend. (El Hunt) 77