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The National Bring Out Lauren Mayberry For ‘I Need My Girl’

Performing at Treasure Island Music Festival over the weekend, brooding rockers The National surprised and delighted fans by bringing out CHVRCHES‘ Lauren Mayberry for a surprise duet of their stunning 2013 track, I Need My Girl. Coming out on stage to rapturous applause, the pair delivered the sombre track like the true frontpeople they are; both commanding and controlled, and both acting like it isn’t a huge deal that this was happening.

The added presence of female vocals, let alone Mayberry’s, was a welcome addition to the forlorn track and added even more of an emotional side to the performance. Mayberry, who normally sings over high intensity electronic beats, sounded perfectly at home on the stripped back, almost skeletal track and was the perfect accompaniment for The National’s Matt Berninger‘s deep voice. You can see fan footage of the whole song below, and prepare yourself for some goosebumps.

It’s been a little while since any new material from The National. Aside from a surprise release of a track called Sunshine On My Back earlier this year that was leftover from their last recording sessions in 2013, we haven’t heard any new stuff from the band since their Trouble Will Find Me album of the same year. However, although frontman Berninger has been busy with his EL VY side project, the band also debuted a new song over this weekend at a charity concert for Guatemalan schoolchildren foundation, Cooperative For Education. The charity was founded by Matt Berninger’s cousins so perhaps he was just doing the right thing by his family, but nevertheless it has got us extremely excited for new material from the band hopefully in the very near future!