The National Live in Amsterdam — Sleep Well Beast Tour

25 October 2017 · Amsterdam

Stage lighting cuts through the dark in sharp blue beams, crossing over a band mid-performance beneath a massive LED screen running abstract visuals. The National on the Sleep Well Beast tour: five musicians spread across a wide stage, the crowd silhouetted in the foreground, one phone held up to record. The screen does as much work as the light — abstract, high-contrast imagery filling the upper half of the frame while the band anchors the bottom. Indoor concert photography at its most atmospheric, where the visual production and the performance are inseparable.