Before we begin, a word of advice: Do not drive to the Roxy. You won't make it in time to see the opening band.That said, you may not want to see the headlining band when you get there, either. This is by no means a comment on the quality of Saturday night's headliner and the subject of this column, The National. Although the band excels in technical skill, stage presence and songwriting quality (at least on its more recent releases), the men from Cincinnati were short-changed by the Roxy's dreadful sound system.

The club, located in Boston's theater district, is truly a club: Marie Antoinette décor, luminescent Plexiglas paneling and an audio setup that sounded throughout much of the concert like a 1990 Corolla had pulled up on the dance floor with a ghetto-blaster in the trunk blaring thumping bass. I can only imagine how opener Thomas Bartlett (who performs quiet acoustic music as Doveman) fared under a sound system that smothered vocals and more delicate instruments with bass and drums. Incidentally, Bartlett joined The National onstage for the band's "Apartment Story" with a barely-audible accordion, while longtime National sixth-Beatle Padma Newsome (of the indie chamber ensemble Clogs) joined on the likewise inaudible melodica. Newsome, who has appeared on many of the National's albums, is a major sonic element of the band's latest album, orchestrating many of the songs and playing violin and keyboards in the studio as well as on stage. When I saw the band in Louisville this summer, Newsome was almost like the star of the show; Saturday night, he seemed like a curiosity, positively shredding on violin but to no avail.

The National opened with "Brainy," off their latest release, Boxer. From the moment the music started, lead singer Matt Berninger staggered around the stage with a dazed look, closing his eyes and throwing his head back, taking breaks in between songs to comment on the band, and at one point, asking for an audience member to bring him a drink from the bar. Berninger's voice is another major asset to the band's sound. Live, he transitions deftly from screaming to his trademark baritone during more up-tempo songs, while remaining melodic during the band's ballads.

The show ended with one of their slower, melodic songs: "Start A War," also off Boxer. A performance of the song can be found on the popular French music web site www.blogotheque.net; while in France last year, the band met with filmmaker and Blogothaeque contributor Vincent Moon to film one of the site's popular "Takeaway Shows."

Berninger said in an interview with the Justice that, "[Moon's] really smart. His idea was to take a band out of context, like a stage or a video, and have them sit around a table, or walk down the street-he put the Arcade Fire in an elevator. He usually only does one take. I think it's more interesting for him and [the video's] a more interesting thing to look at when it's more raw like that."

It's internet presence like their film on Moon's site that has handed The National much of its success, Berninger said.

"There's this community of people talking about music more than ever before, and I think it's a great thing, for us and for music in general," Berninger said of the blog world. "It's no longer controlled by the big radio and big labels, or just a few magazines and radio stations; [music is] now much more democratic. .more people are listening to more music. I think music is healthier. With regard to our band, I don't know if people would have heard much about us if it hadn't been for blogs."

Those unfamiliar with the band's music or blog reputation might have been perplexed by their sold-out audience at such a posh Boston club. The muffled audio reduced the nuances of the music to an extreme degree. Fortunately, the band closed the encore with "Mr. November," a crowd favorite from their 2005 album, Alligator. The song is well-suited to charging drums and guitars and, as Berninger woozily threw the microphone stand aside in a fit of solipsistic stage-gesticulation, ended the show on a positive note.