Unforgettable And Inimitable: Neon Trees At The National

by | May 23, 2014 | MUSIC

I’ve never been to a show at The National at all like Neon Trees’ concert last Tuesday night. Sure, every concert is unique, just as every band and song is unique, but if you were lucky enough to have witnessed the pure spectacle of Neon Trees’ performance on Tuesday, you know exactly what I mean when I say it was truly unforgettable and inimitable.


I’ve never been to a show at The National at all like Neon Trees’ concert last Tuesday night. Sure, every concert is unique, just as every band and song is unique, but if you were lucky enough to have witnessed the pure spectacle of Neon Trees’ performance on Tuesday, you know exactly what I mean when I say it was truly unforgettable and inimitable.

It’s definitely a pivotal time in Neon Trees’ career, with Tyler Glenn coming out publicly last month and, more importantly, the band experimenting with a new sound on their new record, Pop Psychology. As the band discussed with us last week, they went in a new direction with their sound and set their aims at a pure pop record. You won’t find songs like “Animal” and “Everybody Talks” on this record, but the songs are as strong as ever, with melodies that do the pop genre justice enough to make us almost forget about artists like Selena Gomez and Jason Derulo. The best part about this new direction is that it fits in perfectly with the rest of their catalogue, while still being distinctive enough in its own right. Seeing the band live in concert not only proved that this new direction is the best step forward for the band, but also that the music world definitely has no one else quite like Neon Trees.


Photo by Anna Lee Photography

Nightmare And The Cat hit the stage first as people still made their way into the show. The British-American quintet’s short set was highlighted by lead singer Django Stewart’s slithering swagger and guitarist Samuel Stewart’s fascinating guitar work. Claire Acey, the band’s “jack of all trades,” added a great depth to the band with her complimentary guitar parts, auxiliary percussion, and back-up vocals, but the band could and should utilize her more to add more to their songs. Nightmare And The Cat’s musical style goes all over the place from song to song (and sometimes mid-song) and while that can sometimes be a benefit, here it sounds disjointed and unfocused. This might be exacerbated by the fact their songs on a whole run pretty long, to the point of making the audience forget about the great melodies that the song began with. Overall, Nightmare’s set was good for an opening set, but the band clearly has a ways to go before they’ll be confident headliners. They’re capable of it, but just aren’t there yet.


Photo by Anna Lee Photography

The surprisingly popular Smallpools followed with a great opening set that saw the crowd moving to every beat of the drum. Surprising is probably not the right word, because Smallpools is a very talented band, but it’s definitely rare to hear an opening band get the reaction that Smallpools did here. The band did play at The Camel for the birthday part of XL102’s Tamo back in December, but that doesn’t normally equate to instant recognition from a packed house at The National. The audience was familiar with virtually every song and infatuated with the more popular ones like “Dreaming” and “No Story Time,” making their already great set just fantastic. Smallpools is almost the perfect band to open for Neon Trees, with a style of pop rock that’s not identical, but has some very valid comparisons. If you haven’t checked out the Los Angeles quartet yet, it’s a perfect time to start, as their first album is set to drop sometime this year. A great set from a great band that hopefully will get some (deserved) success with their next recording. Oh, and for those wondering, the smalldogs did make an appearance.

After two opening sets, a curtain dropped from the lighting fixture as stage hands quickly transformed The National’s modest stage into the closest it has ever been to a true stadium show. The amount of times I’ve attended a concert at Richmond’s favorite venue is innumerable at this point, but none of those shows has ever come close to the pure spectacle of Neon Trees‘ show last night. A huge platform stage was set up for the showman to wow his audience (with accompanying steps leading to the forefront of the stage) and was flanked on both sides by smaller platforms for the drums and auxiliary musicians. A crazy amount of light fixtures provided the background for this show, while video screens adorned practically everywhere gave definition to each song. Even the band themselves were decked out as colorfully as possible, making the entire show visually stunning through the night. As the curtain dropped during the first song (after Tyler Glenn made his silhouetted entrance to a deafening roar), it was pretty evident that everyone involved with the planning and execution of this show definitely deserves more recognition than they’ll ever get.

Neon Trees went through their three album catalogue of songs for the next ninety minutes, naturally highlighting the songs from their new album. Despite only being a month old, the Richmond crowd was pretty familiar with the new record, specifically songs like “Love In The 21st Century” and “Text Me In The Morning.” Of course, those songs didn’t get the reaction “Animal” did when it was played early into the set, but for a song that was all over radio, television, and cinema, it’s understandable. Tyler Glenn made a play for the best front man in music as soon as he set foot on the stage, almost as if he was trying to prove something to himself as well as us. In fact, with his personal life in the spotlight, it seemed like this show, as I’m sure many others on this current tour, was the vindication of someone crippled by a lack of self-esteem at times. As he relayed to the crowd his memories of being unpopular early in life, he was beaming with pride to announce that he “feels cool right now.”


Photo by Lisa Hodges

In the middle of the set, drummer Elaine Bradley stepped out from behind the drums a few times for duets with Tyler, showing off something the band definitely needs to employ more. The set dipped in towards the end with a few too many slower songs (surely designed to give Tyler somewhat of a rest) and “1983” was surprisingly absent throughout the night, but the band’s fantastic cover of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” followed by their lush new hit “Sleeping With A Friend” ended their set on a high note while Tyler crowd surfed amongst his adoring fans. The band’s encore was all over the place with a cover of the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?” to start things off, behind a giant foam brain that appeared out of nowhere between sets. “Everybody Talks” had a false start next thanks to Tyler’s genuine surprise at guitarist Christopher Allen’s choice of a Barbie shirt that was hidden behind a jacket most of the night. “I’m the gay one, but you’re the one wearing a Barbie shirt,” quipped the front man before ripping into the band’s biggest hit. The night closed out with the new record’s best track, the extremely personal “First Things First,” which seemed to highlight Tyler’s personal vindication even more.

Taking into account the stage set-up, the band’s energy, and the honest vulnerability of Tyler Glenn, it’s somewhat dismissive to just call this show “unforgettable.” It was a truly remarkable experience, and while it wasn’t before thousands upon thousands of people in somewhere like the Verizon Center, you’d never be able to tell from the distinctive stage setting and the thunderous cheers of the crowd. I’m not saying this is the best concert The National has ever seen, but I’m sure for everyone in attendance last night, there will never be another show quite like this one.

Words by Doug Nunnally
Photos by Jeff Moore unless otherwise noted

Marilyn Drew Necci

Marilyn Drew Necci

Former GayRVA editor-in-chief, RVA Magazine editor for print and web. Anxiety expert, proud trans woman, happily married.




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