The National unleashed the holy grail unto fans yesterday. "Guilty Party: Basilica Hudson" is a film by La Blogothèque directed by David Ctiborsky, documenting The National's two July 2017's shows in upstate New York where they debuted Sleep Well Beast with a handful of special guests.
Situated on a circular stage at the gorgeous Basilica Hudson, the film really emanates the feel of the evening with hues of blue dominating the visuals. The camerawork dances around the band to give the viewer a shot that makes the experience as close to a front seat view as you can get.
The shows debuted their seventh studio album, Sleep Well Beast, in its entirety. The album had its official release a couple months later in September. All 12-tracks were performed in chronological order, and almost every song had some help from friends of the band.
Available for free on The National's YouTube page, this is a film you can't miss, so it's earned a spot on setlist.fm's "Concert of the Day" pedestal. Check out the flawless setlists below, which only further supports our praise.
July 14, 2017
The first night of the back-to-back concert celebration. They began with album opener "Nobody Else Will Be There," featuring viola player Nadia Sirota. On "Day I Die," the band was accompanied by So Percussion, an American percussion quartet based in NYC. The third song introduced the third guest of the night - Mouse on Mars followed by an introduction to musician and composer Arone Dyer.
All four popped up throughout the set, performing on songs like "Walk it Back," "The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness," "Empire Line" and more. Dyer assisted with the live debut of "Born to Beg."
The last song of the album, "Sleep Well Beast" featured all the special guests PLUS Buke and Gase (Dyer and Aron Sanchez) for a grand ending of the album. The National stayed to perform four other songs by their lonesomes. They did hits from their catalog like "Bloodbuzz Ohio" and "Fake Empire.
The encore carried two beloved cuts - "Mr. November" and "Terrible Love."
July 15, 2017
The second night had an identical Sleep Well Beast performance, featuring all the same friends helping on the same songs. For both nights, songs like "Empire Line" and "I'll Still Destroy You" featured a greater ensemble with So Percussion, Mouse on Mars, and Sirota ALL backing the band.
This night differed, however, in the setlist length. The prior night carried 18-songs while this show had a whopping 21-song setlist. After performing the album, they played six songs from past albums, the first two were deep cuts. "Wasp Nest" and "Son" were performed for the first time since 2014.
They also did "Apartment Story," "Hard to Find" and "Sea of Love." The encore remained the same as the previous night, but they added one more lick to wrap it all up - "Pink Rabbits."
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Now that you have the setlists on deck, watch the La Blogothèque produced film below.
The National are calling on fans to support their touring crew via a GoFundMe Page: "Our crew are the lifeblood of our touring operation and have become family through the many years we’ve worked together."
