The National Performs On ‘Late Show’ At Request Of David Letterman

Last night’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert episode featured an appearance by former host David Letterman. For his first return, Letterman personally requested The National perform as the musical guest.

During his chat with current Late Show host Stephen Colbert, Letterman discussed some of the memorable musical guests that appeared on the late-night talk sure while he was host. Letterman mentioned Green Day, Foo Fighters and The National when recalling past performances at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City.

The National made their television debut in 2007 when they were musical guests on The Late Show With David Letterman. Regarding helping to book The National on last night’s episode, Letterman told Colbert:

“Let me tell you about The National. This is the second time in my life that this is happening here tonight and I’m thrilled about both occurrences. When we were talking about being on the program, the question came up, ‘What about music?’ We were talking about names, and I said, ‘What about The National?’ Because I had spent some time with them recently and been to a show recently and had just really fallen in love with their music. It’s tremendous.

“[The response was] ‘They’re on tour.’ Oh, OK, too bad they’re on tour. Somebody said, ‘Well let me check’, and got in touch and, ‘You know what? They’re gonna leave the tour and come and be on the show.’ Because for a band TV money is really more interesting. So I was really really touched by that.

“They did two shows in Mumbai last night but they’re here. This happened – and I’m so pleased – this happened one other time with Foo Fighters. So tip of the hat to Foo Fighters. When I came back from the surgery they were doing a concert in South America someplace and again they went way way out of their way to come and be on that show. So those two groups, I’ll love them forever.”

The National recently wrapped a run of shows that concluded with three shows in Texas (not Mumbai as Letterman joked). Their performance on Monday’s The Late Show was of the song “Space Invader,” which appeared on The National’s recently released album, Laugh Track.

View The National’s Late Show appearance below: