The National Live in Concert — Amsterdam

25 October 2017 · Amsterdam

Guitarist centre stage, lit from below by floor monitors, the rest of the band spread wide behind him — brass section to the left, a second guitarist working the right flank. The LED wall fills the back of the stage with fragmented abstract visuals in purple and white, large enough to swallow the room. Stage lighting is the whole story here: the figure in front is half-silhouette, half-face, caught in that narrow band where the floor wash meets the screen glow. The National's Sleep Well Beast tour brought a production that treated light and image as instruments in their own right.