“The Zen Diagrams Tour” is the official designation for the co-headlining pairing of the War On Drugs and the National, with Lucius as openers, that came to the Mann Center amphitheater on. But it might be called “The Dad Rock Show” since both bands have been saddled with that rather amorphous signifier with snarky connotations, and the National, with its keen sense of irony, have capitalized on it by selling “Sad Dad” merch.
The Venn Diagram of the two bands includes plenty of overlap beyond the dad-rock associations. Both bands are masters of meticulously crafted wall-of-sound sonics, with shifting layers of guitars, keyboards and horns from seven-piece touring configurations. (The Drugs added its seventh member, Eliza Hardy Jones on keyboards, guitars and backing vocals, in 2021; the five-piece National tours with two horn/keyboard players.) Onstage, the frontperson roams while six of the seven band members remain fairly static, locked into their functions in the larger machine.
Both bands craft songs that are patient and cathartic, with arcs that slowly grow (the Drugs’ “Pain” and the National’s “Tropic Morning News”) or sharply ratchet up (the Drugs’ “Come To The City” and the National’s “Space Invader”). Both brought out Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius for a cameo (they reprised their prominent role on the Drugs’ “I Don’t Live Here Anymore” and sweetened the National’s “Rylan”).
Both bands have grown from narrower indie-rock fandom to a wider general audience, and the Philly crowd seemed a healthy mix of genders and ages. Although the National comes on last throughout the tour, the popularity metrics of the two bands seem similar, and they could have alternated headlining spots night to night. (And having hometown heroes the War On Drugs headline Philly would have seemed apt.) Actually, either might have headlined the Mann’s large amphitheater alone if they were promoting an album of new material. (It was the release week of the Drugs’ Live Drugs Again, although that seemed simply coincidental; the National played Philly right after The First Two Pages Of Frankenstein came out in April 2023, although not since the release of its swift sister album, Laugh Track.)
The near-capacity crowd seemed equally invested in both bands, although hardcore fans of one are not necessarily hardcore fans of the other. The slight attrition visible after the War On Drugs set was likely attributable to weeknight hours and hometown boosterism as much as to general preference, and it might have been equal had the headlining order been reversed.
Incidentally, both bands have superstar pop cred: If you look hard, you can spot the Drugs’ Adam Granduciel in the credits for Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter, and the National’s Aaron Dessner is easy to find on the last four Taylor Swift albums as a producer, player and co-writer, and she returned the favor by guesting on Frankenstein’s “The Alcott.”
On the other hand, the War On Drugs and the National are very different bands and a good portion of the Venn Diagram does not overlap.
The War On Drugs started as the sun was setting at 7:20 pm. (Traffic and parking precluded me seeing Lucius’ set, unfortunately: I love its new single, “Old Tape,” not only because it features the Drugs’ Adam Granduciel.) They began with “Baby Missiles” from 2011’s Slave Ambient, immediately striking a repetitive groove that was unfortunately muddied by a mix that rendered the individual parts indistinct. A large part of the thrill of the War On Drugs live is witnessing, and hearing, how each instrument locks meticulously into place: the guitars of Granduciel and Anthony LaMarca, the keyboards of Jones and Robbie Bennett, the baritone sax of Jon Natchez and the rhythm section of bassist Dave Hartley and drummer Charlie Hall. Eventually, however, the gauze seemed to lift, and all was clear five songs in for “Harmonia’s Dream,” which slowly grew from a gentle, ambient opening to an extended motorik drive, downshifted for a midsection, then kicked back in a higher gear to end its 10-minute journey.
While Granduciel’s vocals, with their echoes of ‘80s-era Dylan and Petty, give the songs a heartland Americana vibe, his fondness for the krautrock of bands such as Neu!, Can and Harmonia elevates them. They are dense with detail, willing to detour, but full of propulsion; they sprawl, surge and soar, often segmented by a Granduciel guitar solo. The Drugs’ 80-minute set contained 11 songs, no encore, with five songs from the decade-old Lost In The Dream, including thrilling highlight “Under The Pressure.”
While Drugs songs expand outward (perfect for the open-air amphitheater), the National’s become increasingly intense; they’re more in-your-face, often literally, given singer Matt Berninger’s penchant for roaming into the crowd, tethered by a long mic cord that took him as far back at the soundboard during “Graceless,” or yelling the lyrics to end “England” and “Mr. November” (both highlights).
The National’s 100-minute set, including the encore, contained 19 songs from throughout its long career. The band’s songs are more lyrics-forward than the Drugs’: Berninger’s resonant baritone is at the forefront of the mix, and he writes memorable choruses that tend to ruminate on a phrase as the band builds behind him (“I still owe money to the money to the money I owe” on “Bloodbuzz Ohio”; “It’s a terrible love, and I’m walking with spiders” on “Terrible Love”). Berninger is a dynamic frontman, pacing the stage, gesturing to punctuate lyrics, grabbing fans’ phones and taking selfies. He bantered with a kid in the front who had a sign noting it was her first concert. (“Did your dad bring you? You have a cool dad,” he said. Dads rock, indeed.)
The thrills often come from the way the brothers Dessner and Devendorf artfully shift the dynamics. Drummer Bryan Devendorf, wearing a War On Drugs T-shirt, gave “The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness” a complex Bo Diddley beat (although that sounds like an oxymoron), reinforced by his brother Scott on bass. Aaron and Bryce Dessner, identical twins dressed identically in black T-shirts under black jackets, with baseball caps pulled low, bookended the stage and often mirrored each other by stepping forward to pair for guitar crescendos to end songs, such as the insistent chords to close “Don’t Swallow The Cap” or the pealing feedback that concluded a cathartic version of “Day I Die.” Only occasionally did they differ, such as on “Light Years,” when Aaron played piano and Bryce used an EBow. And the horns concluded “Mistaken For Strangers” and “Fake Empire” with thrilling fanfares. The National knows how to layer elements to a climax.
The Zen Diagrams Tour wasn’t a battle of the bands. The National got a bit more stage time, but the War On Drugs’ set was the first among equals. And it wasn’t only dads who went home happy.
—Steve Klinge; photos by Chris Sikich
