1. Runaway
2. Anyone's Ghost
3. Mistaken for Strangers
4. Slow Show
5. Squalor Victoria
6. Afraid of Everyone
7. Bloodbuzz Ohio
8. Lit Up
9. Conversation 16
10. Little Faith
11. Apartment Story
12. Abel
13. Sorrow
14. Green Gloves
15. England
16. Fake Empire
encore:
17. Lemonworld
18. Mr November
19. Terrible Love
20. Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
They opened with Runaway and I burst into tears. After spending the day finding Banksy, and then building up such anticipation; running around the house listening to The National, wandering around Brixton with Adam in the freezing cold trying to find the Academy, arriving at the venue with all the sounds and sights and people, waiting through a shite warm-up act... suddenly the moment was here. The moment that, 6 months ago I had decided I would fly to the other side of the world for, was right now. And it came with "Runaway". So yeah, I cried. After that was Anyone's Ghost, and I was really still in a bit of a numb state of disbelief and absolute pure love for a bunch of strangers on a stage. So when they played Mistaken for Strangers, which was one of my first favourites after I got Boxer and got over Fake Empire, I went properly crazy. At this point I switched out of disbelief and into mad happiness, and just when I thought I actually couldn't be more excited or happier, the played Slow Show (they call this their wedding song... apparently because of the romantic idea of the 29 years). I was by far the happiest human being on the planet for those 3 and a half odd minutes. The next 4 were of course completely fantastic, Bloodbuzz Ohio had the entire crowd singing along and going wild, which was awesome to be a part of. Conversation 16 prompted me to try and call kvg, however that was sadly unsuccessful. Little faith coming after that just gave me hope in the world. So beautiful. The next two really just built me up for possibly one of the best moments I can remember.
Sorrow. Unsurprisingly, that too brought tears to my eyes. A few months back, when I decided that I was going to make this night happen, I had been hoping that they would play Sorrow. I just felt like it was what I needed. But I checked out their previous set lists from this tour, and realised that it was pretty unlikely, because they don't play it often at all. I tried to concoct some plan in my head to somehow get them to play it, in this hypothetical situation where I actually arranged my world so that I was in London and at the show, but it all seemed pretty far-fetched, so I resigned myself to the fact that it was a pipe dream, and if I actually got to the show, I would be pretty happy with whatever they threw at me. But then, standing in the crowd in a state of absolute bliss, Matt Berninger started singing about my sorrow. And it just let me know that everything was going to be okay. It was what I was looking for to let myself know that I had the energy in me to drag myself out of the space I'm in. It was all constructed in my own head, but it was what I needed from myself to remind me of me. He sang to me, he sang for me, it was all I needed, and it was perfect.
By this point, everything else was just beyond sublime. Green Gloves was incredible. And then, as I'd predicted, they played England. In England. Ha. Amazing. "Put an ocean and a river between everything, yourself, and home". Well, yeah. Being somewhere in London, I started to see how I could be loving my life in the rain (or, snow rather). The crowd went wild. It was spectacular. And then, those familiar chords began to play, and the first song of theirs that I had ever heard and fallen in love with began to play. I really think that Fake Empire is one of the most beautiful songs ever. The whole crowd sang it, and it gave me chills. I was floating on a cloud of emotion and disbelief and pure, untainted happiness.
They walked off, but everyone went mad for long enough to (of course) bring them back. Lemonworld, another of my favourites, and by this point I just didn't know what to do with all my happiness. Then they started playing Mr November, and now the crowd is really going completely and utterly mad (seems that one is a favourite in London...). SO a few seconds into the song, Matt leaps off stage and starts walking (well, running) around the entire room, through the crowd, right past me, with everyone holding up the mic cable and loving every second. The excitement in the room was palpable. He got back on stage and played Terrible Love, with occasional steps back into the crowd. People just didn't know what to do with themselves. We had been built up to this absolute climax, heart attacks were imminent, we waited with baited breath to see what was next... And everyone put down their instruments. The guitarists each picked up an acoustic guitar and the whole band walked to the front of the stage and asked us to be quiet, and help them sing the next song. Matt turned off his mic, and they began to play Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.
It was fucking incredible.
The whole crowd knew all the words, and there was no sound other than the two guitars and 5 thousand people singing the same beautiful song. It felt like this magical intimate show played for each individual who was standing there.
I walked out of there on an entirely different planet. I still can't find the words to describe it all. It was perfect.
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