Fandoms united in Chicago for the Zen Diagram Tour

In the sea of ​​sad fathers, I took in the boys and brothers who looked like they had just gotten home from work in their dress pants, tennis shoes, and classic button-down vest ensemble. It was a cloudy day with occasional rain showers in Chicago, which gave the evening's headliners a fitting welcome. The National.

Together on the Zen Diagram tour they were accompanied by two worthy openers: The War on Drugs And Lucious. The tone for the night was set at that moment The War on Drugs began and followed with their famously trippy, stimulating and surreal set. They were captivating, densely packed and overall extremely impressive to watch. The War On Drugs are the type of band that will introduce you to a sound you may not be familiar with. No matter how much practice is put into a set, I will never understand how they can play for so long without singing and know when to stop and start a new verse.

Frontman Adam Granduciel blasts through the United Center with his Bob Dylan-esque voice paired with electrifying guitar skills that will either make you want to pick up a guitar or stop you from ever trying to master an instrument again . Along with six others who joined him on stage, they rocked songs like “Strangest Thing,” “Red Eyes,” “Lost in the Dream,” and “Under the Pressure.” There was an obvious convergence of niche fan groups as I observed that many people rooted for The War On Drugs as much as they rooted for The National – these types of concert goers are professionals. I'm talking poster tubes with straps, no layers when standing in the pit, subtle but conscious merch outfits, their kids in merch and headphones… I could go on.

With their Technicolor set already in full swing, Granduciel and his band were in full swing. They were like aliens taking us to a distant star, and when the lights dimmed they were human again, constantly thanking the audience for their warm applause and organized brawling. They'll make you want to close your eyes and sway (but you wouldn't dare miss the lighting and stage design), and they'll bring joy to your ears and remind you to invest in some earplugs.

To close out the “War On Drugs” set, The National's Matt Berninger enters in his black blazer and big black frames and joins the rest of his band to build up to the Talking Heads song “Slippery People.” They jump into their set with “Sea of ​​Love”, it sounds weird at first but isn’t that what makes it good? When he's flailing around screaming and looking helpless in the most theatrical way possible, I feel at home in the band. The arena roars, shouts back as he cheers them on, mimicking the song and singing, “If I stay here, trouble will find me” and “Hey Joe, I'm sorry I hurt you.” They say, love be a virtue, right?”

As the set progresses, it's fun to watch Berninger's performance persona come through at the beginning of a song. After the song ended, he didn't talk much and often walked around shyly, as if he wasn't screaming “I'm not kidding us, I'm Mr. November” over and over again.

Berninger ran the entire stage back and forth from corner to corner until he almost fell off the edge. He once almost fell off the stage because he mistook one of the stage lights for stability. Embarrassed that he had messed up, he would often move them around him during a show and point them directly at the crowd. At one point I thought to myself, 'Thank God he doesn't have a wireless mic, he'd run all over the arena!' Well, during 'Graceless' he made it to the bottom bowl by stepping over, falling over and crawling through the crowd, hysterical laughed and asked for help at the top of the microphone.

The show was one of the most entertaining and captivating shows I have ever seen. During “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness” the band seemed to have fully manifested themselves as the audience was completely responsive and exploded with excitement during the chorus. Lucious joined the band on “Ryland” and sang the infamous backing vocals that complete the song. The duet's powerful voices mimicked the originals almost perfectly, making the song a real treat to hear live.

As I watched the band huddle together and observe each other, I couldn't help but compare it to a well-oiled circus. They have identical twins, Aaron and Bryce Dresner, who mirror each other and twirl their guitars around the band's leader, Berninger, as if he were throwing full drinks in the air and not even turning around to watch where they fell or went crazy with classics like “Bloodbuzz Ohio” and “Lemonworld.” During their encore, “About Today” was a very extended, abstract and aggressive piece towards the end of the song that had people jumping around and headbanging. Normally this is a song that makes you sit at home alone and cry.

A ticket to The National. I hate to see myself coming. I will always make an effort to see her in concert. The second time I saw it, it blew me away again. They closed the show with the sentimental “Fake Empire” and then perfectly complemented the encore with an acoustic “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks.” Berninger's voice could still be clearly heard echoing through the United Center as he sang in unison with all the fans in attendance.