The National, The War on Drugs and Lucius Begin Zen Diagram Tour in New Hampshire
Photo Credit: Dominic East
Last night, Sept. 12, the long-awaited Zen Diagram tour went off with a bang, bringing co-headline acts The War on Drugs and The National and featured guests Lucius to Gilford, N.H.’s Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion for an unforgettable outset. Through the course of the evening, each of the venerated indie innovators delivered sets spanning their expansive catalogs, showing the same love to longtime favorites and prized new entries. A highlight of the Granite State show was some live crossovers between The War on Drugs and Lucius, who highlighted recorded collaborations from recent years.
Lucius kicked off the festivities with a new song, debuting an a capella track titled “Zombies” before running through familiar cuts like “Tempest” and “Nothing Ordinary” from their debut album Wildewoman, the 10th anniversary of which the band has been celebrating through the year. After the soul-stirring Good Grief album closer “Dusty Trails,” the band welcomed The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel to the stage for the first U.S. performance of their recent collaboration “Old Tape,” then wrapped their opening set with the 2014 live staple “Genevieve.”
The War on Drugs assumed the spotlight next and launched into a captivating “Brothers,” drawn from the neo-psych outfit’s 2011 project Slave Ambient. The group then channeled this energy into the 2014 Lost in the Dream standout “Burning,” which it shared as the lead single for the Live Drugs Again collection that landed on streaming services today. Further essentials like “Pain,” “Harmonia’s Dream,” “Under the Pressure” and an extended, improvisatory “Strangest Thing” ensued en route to the anthemic closer of “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.” For this final cut, the ensemble invited Lucius back to the stage, reprising their roles on the rapturous title track from The War on Drugs’ acclaimed 2021 studio album.
Last and certainly not least came The National, which set a high bar by kicking things off with an expansive run of 2013’s “Sea of Love.” The set that followed featured a balanced collection of 19 songs from throughout the band’s 20-year discography, highlighted by such thrilling entries as “Space Invader” from 2023’s Laugh Track, “Tropic Morning News” from 2023’s First Two Pages of Frankenstein, “The System Only Dreams in Darkness” from 2017’s Sleep Well Beast, “England” from 2010’s High Violet, “Abel” from 2005’s Alligator and “Cherry Tree” from the band’s 2004 debut. After closing with the 2007 standout “Fake Empire” from their breakthrough album Boxer–conspicuously absent until that point–the band wrapped up the sprawling program with an encore of “Mr. November,” “Terrible Love” and “About Today.”
Tonight, the Zen Diagram tour will touch down in New York City with a performance at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium. The bands will continue to play nearly every night through Oct. 10, assuming the spotlight in 17 further cities across North America. Read more on the tour here, and find tickets at americanmary.com, thewarondrugs.net and ilovelucius.com.
