An Embarassment of Riches: The National, Modest Mouse and REM at lovely Lakewood

My mind is still reeling from the awesomeness of last night's show at Lakewood Amphitheater. The beginning of the awesomeness was in the decision to take the bus, rather than drive, even though it meant about an extra hour of travel on the way home and a somewhat sketchy 3 mile walk for the final stretch to my door at 1 a.m.


Somewhat of a side note: I got on the bus outside of the Five Points station, headed for Lakewood and sat next to none other than Jess B. I guess I can avoid the Whitefield reunions all I like- they find me anyway. But it was a surprise and treat and rather than make it awkward by asking her if I could take a picture, I just snuck one while she was on the phone, for the official record. (Is that weird?)



Anyway, Jess confirmed that I was headed in the right direction and while I have a feeling I could have found a bus that would have dropped me a little closer, the walk was pleasant enough.

The National was starting their set just as I came through the gate. I found a spot on the lawn and decided the trip was already worth it. The following mini-vids are from my cell phone and are irritatingly short. Also, from where I was sitting on the lawn I could see the band, but my phone could not, so instead of actually seeing the band, you get to see four brilliant shots of people walking around with the National Playing "Apartment Story" in some invisible background.

The National Played for about 45 minutes. I would have been happy to have heard them go on for much longer. For an opening band, their sound filled the amphitheater as well as any.

They got some mixed reactions for their announcement of their "Mr. November" t-shirts, featuring a portrait of Barack Obama on the front. They explained that these were for sale at the merchandising stand ($30) and 100% of the proceeds would go to Obama's campaign.

The base player followed this statement up with the comment, "So, for all you Republicans out there, buy one of our other t-shirts. We won't give any of that money to Barack."

Once the first set was over, I walked around and saw a sign offering upgrades from lawn to reserved seating for $5, so I paid my $5 and traded in my ticket for an actual seat from where I could actually see the stage. huzzah.

Modest Mouse was great, although I wondered if the venue was somehow a little too big for them. The sound came out a little muddled somehow, but I was reminded of how much of their music I really like, including a few songs I hadn't heard since the end of high school.


At pretty much 9pm on the second, R.E.M. took the stage. I have to admit I wasn't expecting anything approaching the spectacle that followed. R.E.M. for me is one of those bands that I feel like I have heard all my life and have always known were "great" and even gotten into a number of songs here and there, but started to think were maybe overrated somehow.

That thought was very wrong. Much like the recent Rolling Stones concert video, this show proved that phenomenal performances have absolutely no age criteria. Apart from their legendary status, this was simply an excellent show.

These final two videos prove that I am no Scorcese and that my cell phone was not intended to record concerts. I apologize for the horrible horrible sound quality, but hope that it at least gives some rough idea of the feel of this performance.