This story is featured in CityBeat's Sept. 6 print edition.
The National need little introduction at this point in their long-running existence. The band — which, as ever, features frontman Matt Berninger, guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner, drummer Bryan Devendorf and bassist Scott Devendorf — has been a fixture on the musical landscape for two decades, in the process moving from indie rock upstarts to widely renowned veterans with a rabid fan base that now spans multiple generations.
It’s been quite a ride for five Cincinnati natives who, back at the turn of the century, had modest aspirations beyond playing gigs at the Mercury Lounge while they held down day jobs in their adopted home of New York City. Flash forward to 2023: The National’s ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, dropped in April, accompanied by a tour that finds the band in typically dynamic live form.
Better yet for those in The National’s Ohio hometown, the aptly titled Homecoming music festival returns to the riverfront Sept. 15 and 16 (this time at the Andrew J Brady Music Center’s ICON festival stage at Smale Park) following a hiatus due to the pandemic. Conceived and curated with unsurprising acumen by the band’s well-connected members, the first installment in 2018 was a success on every level, delivering an impressive two-day lineup featuring the likes of Alvvays, Julien Baker, Big Thief, The Breeders, Father John Misty and Moses Sumney. And, of course, there were rousing sets by The National, which anchored each day by playing the albums that broke them to a wider audience — 2005’s Alligator the first night, 2007’s Boxer the next.
The original conception was for Homecoming to be a biannual event — but COVID had other ideas. Rumors had been swirling over the last year about the festival’s possible return, and this May the band finally announced its resurrection: “When we launched Homecoming in 2018, we were overwhelmed by the response from the community and by our renewed sense of connection to our hometown. It was such an exciting, memorable weekend and we’ve long hoped to bring it back. We’re honored to return to Cincinnati five years later and be joined by so many of our favorite musicians and friends,” The National said in a press release.
The National see Homecoming as a chance to expose out-of-town attendees to Cincinnati’s plentiful cultural pleasures. The guys also see it as an excuse to bring in a bunch of killer artists for locals to experience over a two-day span.
“There are no corporate spreadsheets involved,” Bryan Devendorf says, laughing, in a recent phone conversation with CityBeat. “It’s very much an artistic thing. It’s not an attempt to be relevant. It’s the stuff that we like. We make a list, and then make the offer. Some say yes, some say they can’t do it. We were fortunate to have a lot of yesses.”
The yesses this time include a pair of artists that influenced The National long before the fivesome formed in 1999 (iconic singer, songwriter and poet Patti Smith and indie rock legends Pavement); a band that came up with them in the NYC scene of the early aughts (The Walkmen); a set of artists who’ve made their names in recent years (Arooj Aftab, Julia Jacklin, Snail Mail, Bartees Strange and Weyes Blood); and a quartet of emergent Cincinnati area acts (Ballard, Carriers, The Drin and Leo Pastel).
The lineup is drawn from friends as well as those they admire from afar. Smith, who was originally slated to play the festival in 2020, has long been on their wish list. The admiration seems mutual.
“We’re fortunate in that we have through Aaron and Bryce a lot of connections with people that become collaborators and fans of the band,” Bryan Devendorf says. “I was blown away that we have Patti Smith and her band playing. Apparently, what happened was we did an annual event called the Tibet House benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in New York many, many years ago. Patti Smith was there with Michael Stipe, just as friends of the Tibet House organization. They were watching our sound check when we played ‘Bloodbuzz (Ohio),’ and Bryce saw Patti and Michael enjoying themselves. Afterwards, Patti actually spoke with Bryce and said to him, ‘We really enjoyed listening to you. It looks like you guys are also enjoying yourselves. Keep on doing what you’re doing.’ They were words of encouragement.”
Pavement, which has been on a triumphant reunion tour over the last year-plus, was another obvious lineup choice. The band’s early landmarks Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain had a potent impact on Berninger and Scott Devendorf when they met as students at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1990s. Berninger has long cited Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus as one of his favorite lyricists, an influence that might come as a surprise given their largely divergent writing styles.
Then there is The Walkmen, an early 2000s New York City contemporary known for their fiery live shows and a similarly lanky frontman who mixes urgent shouts with more reserved vocal tones.
“The Walkmen are hugely important for us,” Bryan Devendorf says. “That was the band that kind of showed us how to do it. Not that we’re copying them musically but more the passion and intensity that you have to bring to the performance. Otherwise, it’s just boring. I feel like we were a very boring band until we saw them play. It was like, ‘Ok, let’s do what they do. That sounds and looks amazing.’ So, we’re super-stoked to have them.”
The rest of the Homecoming lineup features artists that have emerged in the wake of The National’s rise over the last decade-plus. Some are obvious stylistic descendants, others less so.
“We don’t really have a concept,” Bryan Devendorf says of their curatorial approach to booking the festival. “I guess unintentionally we have an ethos and a sensibility which I think informs the decision making. We like people like a Bartees Strange, who is very self-made and idiosyncratic; the creativity is just next level. We like singular voices like Weyes Blood and Snail Mail, bands that have a sound or artists that are identifiable.”
Strange has long been an admirer of The National, going as far as releasing a covers record featuring National songs that ended up being his entrée to wider success through a pair of stellar, genre-jumping albums of his own material in 2020’s Live Forever and 2022’s Farm to Table.
“I remember watching them play the first time and just being like, ‘What is this band and what are they all doing with each other?’” Strange says in a recent phone interview with CityBeat. “I felt like I was falling in love with each of them as characters. Scott and Bryan on the rhythm section, and Bryan playing the drums the way that he plays the drums. Watching Aaron and Bryce on the wings playing guitar the only way they can play guitar. Watching Matt just kind of float among all of it and let you into his world in a way that not a lot of frontmen authentically do anymore. Matt is one of the frontmen that can take you on a journey. These are all things when you are an aspiring musician that you want to fall in love with. You want to see people doing music at the highest level. You want to be inspired. I remember seeing them and it just totally inspired me, because I was like, ‘Yo, this shit is real!’”
Strange has gone on to open shows for The National over the last year, a fact he still has a tough time believing.
“I feel so lucky,” he says. “I think the coolest part is getting to meet them, and then playing with them and realizing you are kind of like them. You all share this passion for music. It’s like a life-affirming, nice feeling to know that you weren’t crazy all those years wishing you were playing at Primavera (music festival) or whatever. It’s like, ‘Nah, you’re going to get to do that.’ It makes you feel like you weren’t crazy, which is nice, because I felt crazy for a long time.”
The National will again play a pair of fan-favorite albums front to back to close each day’s Homecoming festivities — 2010’s High Violet the first night, 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me the next. Bryan Devendorf finds it an interesting live challenge to revisit different eras in the band’s winding history. Asked to pinpoint why he thinks their songs have resonated with so many for so long, he singles out Berninger.
“We’re a song-based band with, I think, a generational talent writing lyrics,” he says. “To me the lyrics are the whole enchilada. That’s where it all begins, and then we all have our own little unique ways of playing and things that just kind of work. But it’s just guys who’ve grown to really like each other’s idiosyncrasies.
“I lean into Matt’s cadences and the kind of steady-rockin’ nature of Aaron’s playing from a foundational approach,” Bryan Devendorf continues. “And Bryce chugs along, but then he has these flourishes like a babbling brook. It’s all kind of a mixture, and I don’t want to step on their toes. It’s really just staying out of people’s way and keeping time but also keeping it interesting and not cliché.”
Toe-stepping is inevitable when a band has been together as long as The National. Berninger has had a particularly rough go in recent years, admitting to a bout of writer’s block that had the band’s future in doubt. One way out of the rut was to invite more outside collaborators, which began in earnest on 2019’s I Am Easy to Find and continues on First Two Pages of Frankenstein, which features vocal contributions from Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers.
The fresh voices have introduced the band to a new generation of listeners, but it also has some old-school fans pining for The National’s edgier early days. Bryan Devendorf hints that the band’s new material has some of the propulsive flair of the past while also injecting unexplored elements into their sonic approach. Things are looking promising if the two new songs released Aug. 17 are any indication of where they’re headed. “Space Invader” opens in typically languid fashion as Berninger relays an existential story about a relationship impacted by small, seemingly inconsequential decisions. Then, about halfway through its seven-minute running time, something happens — an ambient tone shift marked by Bryan Devendorf’s steadily building drums, surging keyboards and strings and an eerie, mumbling Berninger in the background as the Dessners weave dissonant guitar lines to an epic finale. “Alphabet City” is unexpected in a different way, a brief mood piece floating by on Berninger’s restrained baritone and a richly textured soundscape that culminates with a satisfying use of twinkling piano.
Bryan Devendorf is optimistic about The National’s future but admits it’s not always smooth sailing.
“I don’t know any other thing to compare it to,” he says, laughing, when asked what it’s like to play as a rhythm section with his brother for so long. “I feel freer to criticize, I guess, and that’s great because we’ve been playing together forever. Same with the (Dessner) twins — we’ve been playing together since we were 14-year-olds, so there are all these intuitive tendencies. We’ve all kind of improved in a way. We’ve been lucky since we’ve stayed together that we can refine what we’ve always done. But we obviously want to change things and stretch.”
Given the nature of the world today, the future of Homecoming is still in flux. But Bryan Devendorf — who is the only National member to move back to Cincinnati permanently — says the band has every intention of making it a regular affair.
“I guess that would be the theme — interesting music that we like, and we hope other people will too,” he says, summing up what they’re attempting to do with Homecoming. “We want to shine a light on Cincinnati and be ambassadors for the rest of the country — and the world, really.”
The National’s Homecoming Festival takes place Sept. 15 and 16 at Andrew J Brady Music Center’s ICON festival stage at Smale Park. Info: americanmary.com/homecoming.
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