GIG: The National Announce Auckland Show

The National are Aaron Dessner (guitar, bass, piano), Bryan Devendorf (drums), Matt Berninger (vocals), Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryce Dessner (guitar).

Since The National’s last visit to New Zealand in 2007, the band have been very busy. Aaron and Bryce Dessner produced ‘Dark Was The Night’, a 31-track album to benefit the Red Hot Organization. The album featured contributions from Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer, and many others. It has so far raised close to $1,000,000 USD. This allowed Red Hot to make donations to many AIDS charities, including an emergency grant of $150,000USD to Partners In Health in Haiti, right after the earthquake.

The National also supported Barack Obama's presidential candidacy in 2008. In July of that year, the band designed and sold a t-shirt featuring Obama's image above the words "Mr. November," a reference to both their song from Alligator and the month of the U.S. presidential election. Their song "Fake Empire" was used by the Obama campaign at many high-profile events during the election including as part of a video shown in Grant Park prior to Barack Obama's victory speech on election night.

And following the endless months of touring time came to look at doing some new recordings. Seeing potential in a decrepit 1920’s garage that lay behind Aaron Dessner’s old Victorian house the band set about building their own studio. “Aaron’s Garage” providing the perfect space for capturing all the spontaneity and roughness with the freedom to tinker until they were satisfied. And hence the latest album ‘High Violet’ was born.

Their 2007 performance was mesmerising and one of the most talked about shows of the year.

Secure your spot by signing up for presales at www.powerstation.net.nz asap!

Gig Details

• The National on Wednesday 12th January, 2011 at The Powerstation, Auckland
• [Update] Second gig added Thursday 13th January, 2011 at The Powerstation, Auckland

Sign up for presales at www.powerstation.net.nz

Tickets on sale 30th September from Ticketmaster & Real Groovy unless sold out via presale.