The National at the Wiltern (May 22, 2010)

Most often, I listen to The National in private — and it’s my most intimate hour. Last night at the Wiltern, it was anything but — and yet the concert was, in a word, dreamy. I can listen to The National forever and ever — and I do and will.

Photo: jasonz

Below is last night’s set list (one extra song than Friday’s show!). Plus, a notable lyric to each:

1. Start a War
“We were always weird, but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now”

2. Mistaken for Strangers
“Arm in arm in arm and eyes and eyes glazing under”

3. Anyone’s Ghost
“But I don’t want anybody else / I don’t want anybody else”

4. Bloodbuzz Ohio
“Stand up straight at the foot of your love”

5. Afraid of Everyone
“Your voice is swallowing my soul, soul, soul”

6. Brainy
“You might need me more than you think you will”

7. Baby, We’ll Be Fine
“I’m so sorry for everything”

8. Slow Show
“You know I dreamed about you / for twenty-nine years before I saw you”

9. Squalor Victoria
“This isn’t working, you, my middlebrow fuck-up”

10. Little Faith
“All our lonely kicks are getting harder to find”

11. Conversation 16
“I’m a confident liar”

12. Apartment Story
“Oh we’re so disarming, darling, everything we did believe”

13. Green Gloves
“Now I hardly know them / And I’ll take my time / I’ll carry them over, and I’ll make them mine”

14. Abel
“Well, you better hold my hand through this”

15. Sorrow
“Sorrow found me when I was young”

16. England
“Can someone send a runner / For the feeling that I lost today?”

17. Fake Empire
“We’re half-awake in a fake empire”

ENCORE:
18. Runaway
“What makes you think I”m enjoyin’ being led to the flood?”

19. Lemonworld
“Losin’ my breath”

20. Mr. November
“I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders”

21. Terrible Love
“It takes awhile to settle down / My ship of hopes”

(Would have loved “Santa Clara” or “Ada,” too.)