testmeat photoblog

last thursday i went down to london to see the national. i think they're probably my favourite band, certainly if you discount those that are currently disbanded (bright eyes, grandaddy) or dead (elliott smith, sparklehorse). this was the first time i've ever seen them live. i was pretty lucky to get tickets as i missed out on the first round that reportedly sold out in four minutes. then a couple of weeks ago i heard that they'd released a handful more due to scrapping the original plan of recording/videoing the gig. it was in the royal albert hall, which i'd never been to before, and found to be characteristically grand inside. the tickets forbade bringing cameras, as most tickets do, but i didn't want to risk taking my slr so i took my little compact. this is the same compact i learnt a few days ago didn't work so well... it proved that way again, and all the shots i tried taking of the band came our a blurry mess. this was one of the only ones that didn't come out too blurred, which perversely was a long exposure balanced on the back of someone's chair before the band came on. i've since seen some awesome photos of the gig taken by david emery so i don't mind that much that i didn't have my slr, i doubt i'd have taken shots to match those.

incidentally the title of this post is a lyric from (imo one of their best songs) mr november. they played a cracking version of it as part of the encore, which involved the lead singer matt running into the crowd and climbing into the stands. check out this youtube vid.

here's the original