**While posting this yesterday my blog went into error mode and I lost my entire post :-(**
I have been lucky enough to catch Vampire Weekend 3 times this year. My first time was at their memorable album release show at the Bowery Ballroom. The second time was at the epic, memorable rainy Central Park summerstage show. Before the Bowery Ballroom show back in January I actually met the band and got to chat/take photos with Ezra and Chris Baio. Mr. Baio was kind enough to invite me to the show at Terminal 5, and he also included VIP passes for me and my friend. I couldn’t believe how generous he was! I made a 3 hour busride from my college campus in order to catch the show in NYC and it worth completely worth it!
Me and my friend Al arrived just in time to catch the opening band The Teenagers. The French band is one that I only knew from their songs “Homecoming’ and “Starlett Johansson”. Both those songs were a pleasure to see live, and the band allowed 2 crowd members to dance on stage, and another 2 girls to sing along. They played a short set barely passing 25 minutes leaving me wanting more.
After 45 minutes Vampire Weekend came on with Jay-Z’s Roc Boys playing in the background. Totally badass huh?!? They started it off familiarly with “Mansard Roof” and continuing on with a set heavily based on their first album. The crowd was dissapointingly dead for the first half of the show. Ezra took noticing telling the crowd “That was the first half of the show. The second half will have you guys moving a lot more, right? We will start you off slowly.” Right when he said that I knew the irresistable A-Punk was on its way, and it set the crowd off its a dance frenzy. M79 and Oxford Comma as usual recieved some of the biggest reactions. Vampire Weekend made note that this is their last tour for their debut album, hinting that there is a new album in the works, and that they are a bit tired of playing the same songs. To keep things fresh they included the non-album GEM “Boston”, Nick & Norah highlight “Ottoman”, and new songs “Little Giant” and “White Sky” which were both changed a little bit to add to their already amazing quality.
They came back for an encore with the super cool cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Everywhere” that has been stuck in my head 2 days after the show. They ended properly with Walcott putting a smile on my face because it will always be their set closer, hopefully as long as they tour. After the show I had the pleasure of meeting the band and got a photo with drummer Chris Tomson. While leaving I realized this would be the last time I probably got to hear the full album in its entirely live, but I guess by the next tour I will be ready to hear a mix of both old and news songs. The show was something I needed after a pretty shitty November. It was totally worth the 3 hour bus ride I made back and forth. There is no doubt in my mind that Vampire Weekend are one of my favorite new bands, and for good reason.
**Photos and Vids Below**
Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac Cover)Ottoman
[mp3] : Vampire Weekend – Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
[mp3] : Vampire Weekend – Ottoman
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