The National Grass

I don't know why I went to see The National. Well, because I had a free ticket. (Note: the picture above is not from the Seattle show yesterday--I tried to find a real picture from the show but all Seattle news sources failed me. But that's pretty much what the dude looked like.) I know the songs of The National just enough to be annoyed that I don't know all the lyrics to the good songs, which are sort of hard to tell apart. I spent all day watching football and hoping it would rain and I wouldn't be able to go, because the show was outside.

I planned to stand up (and rock out!) but of course once I saw that sitting was an option I did that. I sat far to the front but off stage left, in the area that young mothers stood and danced with children up past their bedtime. The light show strobed the intermittent puffs of smoke from the interior of the gently rocking crowd, almost like people in a movie theater. Really the best part was the smell of grass (the kind on the ground) in the park and the lowering darkness that made people less and less distinguishable until they were avoidable shadows.

Luckily The National have a song just for my mood (not to mention post-9/11 America): "Afraid of Everyone." I think part of it goes: "I'm afraid of everyone, I'm afraid of everyone / They're the young blue bodies / With the old red bodies / I'm afraid of everyone, I'm afraid of everyone." I need to get those lyrics straight for the next time I try to enter society for the mutual enjoyment of music.