First night teething problems I hope. Fingers crossed for tonight.

Wednesday nights gig was rather magical I thought.

Got to agree with mixtape.

Unfortunately I was stuck upstairs surrounded by a load of old planks more interested in chatting about the new creche they have Mary in, but even that couldn't spoil it. The energy from downstairs was infectious and had me testing the integrity of my seat throughout the set. Fantastic set too, could hardly have picked better myself.

Maybe not quite as good as the Thursday in the Olympia last time around, but still very special.

How good was Squalor Victoria?? Really comes into it's own live.
My other highlights; Ada, Start a War, Secret Meeting and of course Mr November.

I thought they were bad last night. Didn't enjoy it at all.

The mix was s**te. And the horn section should be told to f**k off save for Fake Empire.

aye... very disappointing all round. matt's voice sounded awful, the overly-long and dramatic entrance was w**ky and the first three songs were a complete shambles. they came across as unprofessional and complacent, all the wandering off stage after each song didn't help. it did pick up a bit after the encore but far too late to have any real impact. shame, i love their albums but they just don't stand up live.

Just in from tonight - Bored Rigid. Unicron seemed to be enjoying himself though, clapping along like my ma at a Daniel O'Donnell concert.

Went to Wednesdays gig and it was definitely underwhelming, although Tea I wouldn't write them off as a live act. They were amazing in Whelans a couple of years ago and were astounding in the Olympia last time they came. Amazing and astounding, that's pretty good..

i just thought everything was wrong, sound, setlist, too many quiet songs, air of indifference from the band. The crowd was great and well into it but they were a pale shadow of themselves from when they last played the Olympia. I never like to complain about songs not played but if they closed with 'About Today' again on Wednesday night as they did last year I'm sure they would have redeemed themselves a great deal.

Still though, two great gigs and one average gig aint too bad.

youtube search - 'national about today spin' (i can't access youtube in work to get the URL). I'm in love with this song. This and dEUS 'Hotel Lounge' are my current - well last few months - hot new songs. Even though they are not new..

I was at the Thursday gig, great performance and every song sounded great.

I think they would have been better if they had played some more new songs or a few more older songs.

It wasnt quite as good as November in the Olympia but it was still a very good gig and performance

Unicron is right, sound was s**t on Tuesday as well .Also, Every time they spoke between songs, you couldn't make out what the f**k they were saying, just an indistinct muffling mumble...is it me or is the sound in The Olympia worsened over the last few years??

anyway...I've been a fan of The National since 'Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers' in 2003 so the way they went just massive over the last couple of years or so has really surprised me. They were the last band I thought would end up playing 3 sold out nights (more or less) in the Olympia. The music is mostly quite downbeat and introspective, a kind of slightly rockier Tindersticks, not really a clapalong band (as some people were trying to do on Tues night)... The way they've become such a huge live draw I've always found quite odd. Still and all and they were great last november but this time around they were boring...disappointing...looks like they're hit and miss as a live act ...still on record, a brilliantly talented band and Berninger is one of the best lyricists/singers out there..'I used to be/ carried on the arms of cheerleaders' (strangely haunting and beautiful image) 'I am sorry I missed you/I had a secret meeting in the basement of my brain' and so on........

Was there on Tues also and at times thought it was a blinding gig. I'm a firm believer that if you can't hear what the band have to say between songs then it's a good thing. The lead singer's on stage demeanour is, er, odd to say the least. And who the f**k was 'coach' that he repeatedly left stage to visit?