The National’s Matt Berninger played Webster Hall & Rough Trade (pics, video, setlists)

The National vocalist Matt Berninger released his very good second solo album Get Sunk on Friday, and that night his solo tour stopped in NYC for a show at Webster Hall. Ronboy, whose Julia Laws sings backup on Get Sunk, opened the show (and brought out Berninger for “Disaster” during her set) and joined Berninger as part of his backing band, which also has Garret Lang, Get Sunk producer Sean O’Brien, and another Ronboy member, Sterling Laws. They played all of the new album, a good portion of 2020’s Serpentine Prison, and for the encore, they did a The National track, “The Alcott,” dedicated to Aaron Dessner. They also covered New Order’s “Blue Monday,” one of a few covers they’ve been doing on this outing (they’ve also done Nirvana’s “All Apologies,” Tom Petty’s “Only a Broken Heart,” Tom Waits’ “(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night,” and Radiohead’s “Kid A” at other dates). Berninger also had a few guests on hand on Friday night: The Walkmen‘s Walter Martin (another contributor to the new album) joined him on “Distant Axis,” Matt’s The National bandmate Scott Devendorf on “My Eyes are T-Shirts,” and Mike Brewer, who had been in Nancy with Matt and Scott during their University of Cincinnati days, on “Little by Little.” Matt stuck around NYC on Saturday, when he played two slightly more intimate shows: one at Rough Trade Below, and one at the Todd Snyder store in NoMad. We missed the latter, but you can see pictures from Webster by Ellen Qbertplaya and Rough Trade by Amanda M Hatfield below, along with video from Webster and the setlists from both. Matt performs on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon tonight (6/2), and you can pick up Get Sunk on vinyl in the BV shop. SETLIST: MATT BERNINGER @ WEBSTER HALL, 5/30/2025 No Love Frozen Oranges Breaking Into Acting Distant Axis (with Walter Martin) Serpentine Prison Silver Springs Let It Be Junk All for Nothing Nowhere Special My Eyes Are T-Shirts (with Scott Devendorf) One More Second Silver Jeep Little by Little (with Mike Brewer) Times of Difficulty Bonnet of Pins Encore: The Alcott Blue Monday (New Order cover) Inland Ocean SETLIST: MATT BERNINGER @ ROUGH TRADE BELOW, 5/31/2025 No Love Frozen Oranges Silver Jeep Inland Ocean Bonnet of Pins