Saw them at LouFest. Had missed them at Bunbury. Played a fine set. Lead singer sorta makes love to the mike while he is singing. Women loved him & band. I enjoyed the set, even though these guys are not quite my cup of tea.

Posted by Paul in KY on Tuesday, 09/10/2013 @ 12:55pm

One can only hope that the progeny of Matt Berninger and his mike will be musically talented.

Posted by Ray on Wednesday, 03/13/2019 @ 18:04pm

I'm very interested to see if The National eventually gets nominated, and if so, gets inducted. Their mainstream recognition is basically nil, but they've made one critically acclaimed album after another for 15 years. They are consistently great while refreshing their sound with each iteration. Can such an artist without mainstream success get in?

Posted by A-Killa on Thursday, 07/11/2019 @ 16:58pm

Well, A-Killa, their chances just went way up due to that Taylor Swift connection. Aaron Dessner co-wrote 9 songs on Folklore and 11 on Evermore (one with Bryce).

By this point, they are a festival headliner and could play arenas.

Posted by Casper on Sunday, 02/21/2021 @ 14:05pm

After Trouble Will Find Me and Sleep Well Beast, their stock went up significantly. Radio play is mostly insignificant now anyway, the mainstream influence is strong through streaming, film placement, and as has been noted, collaborations. They have huge critical acclaim, some grammy's in hand, and huge influence on a broad array of younger acts. I think they're almost a lock, maybe not right away, but by 2030 or so.

Posted by Hankd113 on Monday, 07/18/2022 @ 13:03pm