The National Tickets

I have a large bias with them being my favorite band of all time full disclosure. That being said, they are putting on the best shows they've ever done and consistently. The new albums are tight, intricate, and gorgeous. The sets are near 30 songs now with variations night over night providing a display of their new works along with a few deep cuts for the hyper dedicated followers. Now is the most accurate time to get into them and discover their vast discography.

The National are amazing. Seen them everytime they're in town.

Good enough show but not impressed with the stage lighting. No spots on the lead singer or guitar players. Drummer totally hidden from view. Wonder if dubbed in sound?

One of the best rock show I have ever seen. Great songs. Energy. Bests musicians

I’ve been a fan for over a decade and love going to concerts, yet somehow I kept missing their shows over the years. Not this time, and I’m so glad I caught them live. They put on a stellar performance, playing non-stop for 2 and a half hours. They sound even better in person than in the studio, there’s so much raw power and passion packed into every song. Matt has a wonderfully hypnotic deep voice that one could just listen to forever, and so highly trained. Isn’t afraid to scream and really belt it out on parts that call for it, and you can tell he can manage to do this amazing feat all without damaging his vocal cords, like a total pro. It was one for the books, a night I’ll always remember fondly.

As usual, The National delivered an amazing show. I would see them every weekend if I could.

Long story short, The SDCCU amphitheater at San Diego State University is a wonderful open air venue for about 4,500 people, and The National is a pretty cool band. But there is more to the story, because this was a highly unusual concert for a couple of reasons. First, The National's current tour including this concert, was ostensibly in support of their album "First two pages of Frankenstein", which had been released in April of this year. When that album came out, I really liked it; I looked to see if they were touring, and it turned out they had just scheduled this event in San Diego on November 11th, so I got tickets. Then about a month ago, they released another album: "Laugh Track", with virtually no advance notice, and at this concert, they ended up playing some songs from each of those two albums, as well as a lot of songs from much earlier albums I wasn't familiar with at all, but as a result, they left out some of my favorites from the Frankenstein album that they had been playing at earlier shows, which was really what I had wanted to hear most, and which was kind of annoying! The good news is that, thanks to the Setlist.fm website, I can now see their entire setlist from this concert and I can find and listen (on Spotify) to the songs they did that I liked but was unfamiliar with, so that's pretty cool. The second really odd thing that happened at this concert concerned the opening act. Both my tickets and the promotional materials for the concert indicated that it started at 8:00 p.m., and since we had reserved seats, we felt comfortable getting there at about 7:50. Neither The National nor Ticketmaster had advertised that there was an opening act, but it turned out that there was: a band called Hand Habits. Here's the odd thing: Hand Habits apparently came on stage just in time to END their set at 8:00 p.m.; my friend and I caught their last two songs before their set ended, as did lots of other people entering the venue when we did! Meanwhile, during the Nationals performance, Matt, The National's frontman, made a point of thanking them at least four different times for performing, which was strange considering you had to be at the concert well before the starting time to hear their set at all!!

Love everything, the place, the band, the atmosphere of all

Loved this band for a long time. Before anyone in Cali was familiar. I think this live was perhaps not their best performance (vocally) on every song but it still resonated. Maybe Illness, age, or last leg of the tour. But 96% was on point and the show and energy…still AMAZING! No one compares lyrically, poetically. Even with intermittent cracking, Matt’s unique tone and the band’s undeniable talent can not be ignored. This band lifts me up. They make me smile. I will see them again! And next time….the best surprise…would be T.Swift and Bon Iver joining on stage.

Great music and they played a long time. Love how he came out into audience.

The National is one of my favorite bands. They really brought the rock! The venue was perfect and it didn’t seem like there was a bad seat in the house.

I saw the National in both LA and SD this year. I expected the show to be identical, but these guys went deep into the catalog for the San Diego show, which was refreshing. Even the merch was different from the first leg of the tour. While I was anticipating some of the new songs off of their newest album last track, it was a pleasure to get a good mix, and to see it done with such energy, considering this was the tail end of the tour. It was a memorable experience.

The band sounded great, but Matt was clearly wasted and it affected his ability to sing. To his credit, he remembered all the words and finished every song, but it sounded a bit too much like drunk karaoke. Several of the songs sounded like they were being sung by Barney from The Simpsons. As someone with alcoholic friends and family, it was hard to watch. I would definitely see them again, but not until he’s sober. One can only hope.

My son and I saw them at the same venue six years ago (his first concert ever), and this time was even better. They played so many of their best songs old, new and in between.

Favorite venue, first time seeing The National, all I can say is WOW! They came out with everything they had and played for almost 2.5 hours, just amazing. Loved it, love my tour T, can't wait to see them again!

They were amazing live! The energy in the show was awesome. I highly recommend seeing them live! It's worth it!

The sound mix was terrible- way too much base-like a cheap subwoofer. Couldn’t hear the singing or words, and it was so loud it hurt our ears. We had to leave after about an hour and by the looks of it so did many others. I love their music and was so disappointed not to be able to experience it properly.

It was convenient and easy to park at the Performance Arts Garage for a .2 mile walk. It’s a better location rather than parking at any other lots towards Market where the streets don’t feel as safe or as filthy. Once the venue opened at 7pm the crowd lines moved fairly quick and security went quick. We grabbed our seats upstairs at the Loge section which was a great view at the front row. Then went to get our merch early and lines were short. A great intimate venue overall.

I was excited to see The National after seeing them twice at the Berkeley Greek but was sorely disappointed. The sound mix was truly terrible and I left halfway through / just couldn’t stand it. I tried different locations around the venue and it was the same bad mix. Vocals indiscernible and the guitar a mush. It wasn’t the venue at fault as I’ve seen many bands there and found no problems. Don’t these guys bother with sound checks. Awful waste of time, money and opportunity.

The National is a fantastic band and the music was great. Unfortunately, Matt's voice was off - I couldn't tell whether he was sick or they have just been performing too much recently. I would still see them again.