Watch The National Debut a New Song at Their Inaugural Homecoming Festival

The National performed a brand new song, “Light Years,” over the weekend on the second night of the band’s inaugural Homecoming Festival in their native Cincinnati.

The two-day Homecoming Festival lineup was curated by The National and it also featured performances from Father John Misty, Alvvays, The Breeders, Julien Baker, Feist, Future Islands and more. The National headlined both nights of the festival, with the first night seeing the band perform their 2007 album Boxer in full.

The band’s show on Sunday night was a more traditional National set as they performed the hits and when they returned to play an encore, they opened with their brand new track, “Light Years.” The song is a slow and steady piano ballad with hints of melancholy slide guitar as frontman Matt Berninger laments his immense distance from his lover.

Berninger recently collaborated with Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES on their recent single, “My Enemy,” and Berninger also recently teased more collaborations when discussing the The National’s next album. Berninger told NME, “I don’t know what form or when this next album is going to come out, but we’ve been doing some other really interesting collaborations with people too. It’s all way more than halfway done.”

Watch The National’s performance of “Light Years” below, listen to their 2007 Daytrotter Session further down and read Paste’s review of the band’s latest album, Sleep Well Beast, right here.