Ally Pally is surely one of the worst venues in London, what with being somehow in the middle of nowhere, terrible acoustics, and poor crowd control. But yet. Here we are with The National, and I will forgive them this sin. It’s an absolutely barnstorming set that is nevertheless marred by frustration as I leave. A couple of songs in, Bryce Dessner announces how happy they are to be back in London, for two nights, and will not be repeating a single song. The setlist they choose for tonight is full of the heavy hitters, and it’s saddening to look at the next night’s setlist later to see how much more exciting and unpredictable the resultant choices are. Still. Let us enjoy what we are given. At the top of their game, dancing from era to era, still pulling out Cherry Tree as a nice surprise, Pink Rabbits for the first time for me, and a lot of favourite new songs like Smoke Detector. The unplugged crowd singalong Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks is always genuinely moving. The only real shame of the night itself is the piss poor illustrations being drawn in realtime on the side screens, which I spend most of the night trying to keep out of my eyelines.