The National announce special Manchester show for this summer

The National have announced a special show in Manchester for this summer – tickets will be available from here.

The band last performed in the UK as part of their ‘I Am Easy To Find’ tour in December 2019, and are set to return with appearances at All Points East in London and Connect Festival in Edinburgh this August.

Last week, they confirmed a run of 2022 North American headline dates. “The last couple years have given us ample time for reflection and rejuvenation,” they wrote to announce the concerts. “Summer 2022 is a time for reunion.”

Today (April 4) Matt Berninger and co. have shared details of another performance on these shores. They’ll host a show at the Depot Mayfield venue in Manchester on Saturday, August 27 with their 4AD labelmates Dry Cleaning featuring as the opening act.

Tickets go on general sale at 10am BST this Friday (April 8). You can purchase yours from here.

Fans who are signed up to The National’s Cherry Tree online community can access a pre-sale at the same time on Wednesday (April 6). See the announcement post below.

Last month, the group’s Bryce Dessner revealed that The National’s forthcoming ninth studio album harks back to their “classic” sound, as well as having “a lot of energy in it”.

“Maybe it’s like bursting out of the closed doors of COVID or something? I don’t know. But we’re excited and I would think it would be imminent at some point,” he explained.

“We do have a concert scheduled for next summer. By then it will have been the longest period of time, I think, by times two, that we’ve ever not played a show. So even right now, we’re at two years, fully two years since the last National show, which is in 20 years the first time we’ve ever done that long.”

Back in 2019, frontman Berninger told NME that the band had some “rockier” songs from their last record that they may “get out of the freezer”.

Drummer Bryan Devendorf then told NME in 2020 that he wanted The National’s next studio effort to be a “stripped-back rock record” in a similar vein to IDLES.