Scott Devendorf of The National performs at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on April 26, 2014. Roman Gokhman/STAFF.

This story originally appeared in the Oakland Tribune.

Cincinnati-via-Brooklyn alt-rockers the National were two shows away from finishing their current tour when they arrived in the soggy Bay Area Sunday afternoon to play the second and final day of the Treasure Island Music Festival. The band drove from Pomona to Treasure Island, bassist Scott Devendorf said during a brief one-on-one interview in a quiet corner of the festival grounds overlooking San Francisco.

Are there any bands that you want to see if you have time?

Scott Devendorf: “Well, who I wanted to see I missed. I wanted to see The Sea and Cake. I will see Broken Social Scene, Surfer Blood. She & Him I’ve never seen and this is pretty good. It’s a whole band!”

It’s a whole band and if you go up close you’ll see it’s very predominantly male in the front of the stage.

Scott Devendorf: “For obvious reasons (singer and actress Zooey Deschanel).”

You had told me before that your live shows are rougher, more visceral than your records. Can you tell me more about that?

Scott Devendorf: “By nature our recorded stuff is very careful and precise. We try to break out of that but it’s a very layered sound. The way it translates when we are playing live lends it to be more visceral. Also I think the tension and the energy and this sort of catharsis thing happens with the songs.”

There’s more of you on stage as well, right?

Scott Devendorf: “Yeah, there’s eight dudes. There’s the band and there’s Ben Lanz and Kyle Resnick, who play trombone and trumpet. And then Padma Newsome, who does composition for the records but on stage he plays keyboards and violin and stuff.”

If you don’t mind I’ll just jump around with these questions because this cold is affecting my brain. Is there anything you want to bring to this audience tonight that is not necessarily all your fans?

Scott Devendorf: “That’s a good question. We’ll be trying to keep people warm, I guess. (laughs). I hope people like it. We try to adjust to different places. Outdoor festivals are unpredictable because of the weather.”

There’s been a trend the past couple of days I’ve noticed with performers stripping down to their T-shirts despite the cold. You guys don’t have that plan, do you?

Scott Devendorf: “Uh, no. I have the opposite plan (laughs). I plan to layer on clothes. Actually, though, I do get pretty warm when I play so this is probably the perfect temperature for me and my brother (drummer Bryan Devendorf).”

Have any favorite memories of San Francisco, or favorite experiences?

Scott Devendorf: “We’ve been here for a bunch of shows and we (he and lead vocalist Matt Berninger) lived here for about four months. We were working and doing an internship. We lived near Post Street, near the Tenderloin. It was kind of (epithet) at the time; probably still is. When we were in school (University of Cincinnati); we did an internship here for graphic design stuff. We were working down on the Embarcadero. I love that city and the whole history of it.“We had a couple of friends here and spent Halloween in the Castro once, which was (epithet) awesome as hell.”

Are you going to have time to cross the bridge (to San Francisco) at all?

Scott Devendorf: “My wife is here and we’re staying tonight. She’s flying out early. It’s her birthday today and we’re gonna go out and hopefully enjoy the city for a few hours.”

Happy birthday! I saw a photo of you guys with the President (Obama) that you had Tweeted recently. I noticed you were standing closest to him.

Scott Devendorf: “Yeah, that was pretty rad. It worked out oddly. Usually I’m a background kind of guy. They were like, ‘Everybody line up,’ and he’s like, ‘What’s up?’ and put his arm around me. I was pretty psyched.”

What were you meeting with him for?

Scott Devendorf: “We were in Madison, Wis., and we were planning a show. His team, I guess, had contacted us and said he was going to be there and give a speech about getting people to vote in November. They asked if we were interested (in attending). Then they were like, ‘Can you play a few songs?’ We were like, ‘Sure!’ So we went and played a couple songs at this rally. There were 30,000 people. It was wild. Totally surreal.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.