It’s been a long hot minute since I’ve seen Vampire Weekend. In fact, this will only be the second time ever!
I was very interested to see how a post-pandemic show would go at an infinitely larger venue. Ezra seemed absolutely blown away at both the size of the crowd and the unique beauty of that particular venue. He also noted that it’s been awhile since they’ve played in the area. So, apology accepted. Again, this was another band that I couldn’t really imagine playing a place so large, but the fans were there, including myself. And once I snagged a closer seat while the opening band was on, I was excited for the rest of the show! Cults is a band I’ve never heard of, and while they sounded nice, almost all of their songs sounded the same in that moment. Possibly worth checking out. We’ll see.
It’s also worth noting that when I saw Vampire Weekend last, it was with my sister at a pretty tight venue in the dead of summer. And they played almost none of the hits that her and I were most familiar with. She’ll point that show out as one of the worst she’s ever attended, but that just means I’m a better sister than her given all the bad shows I’ve gone to for her. This time around I confidently knew more than half the setlist! It helps that I listened to the new album all the way through unlike their last release. That doesn’t mean “Capricorn” was any easier to get through.
When the show first started, they had a huge cloth banner with their name on it and the three remaining members out front and center with blinding lights straight down on their heads. After just a few songs with that set-up, the banner dropped away to reveal a massive cave-like set piece and four additional musicians! At first I was kind of put off by the addition of these extra musicians, but man were they multi-talented! I also came around to the fact that this means that they are playing all of the intricate parts of their songs live and not with some pre-recorded backing. So that really was cool. I was the biggest fan of the guy who mainly played the violin – he can get it!
I was thrilled to get to hear “Cousins” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” along with “Diane Young,” “Oxford Comma,” and “A-Punk.” Those are the oldies and their besties. The only one that didn’t get love and I saw was played on other tour stops was “Holiday.” Pretty bummed about that. I’ve grown to really like “Harmony Hall” and “Sunflower,” and I was even totally onboard with some of the newer songs like “Classical” and “Ice Cream Piano.” The encore was maybe the most strange encore I’ve ever stuck around for. They ended up playing snippets of a bunch of fan-requested cover songs. My personal favorites were “Human” by The Killers and “1979” by The Smashing Pumpkins. So random, but an overall great show!