Vampire Weekend
Liverpool Carling Academy
October 30th
This shouldn’t be happening. It’s raining beer, macho men are dancing like lunatics and there are more screams, dancing and sing alongs per second than your average Pigeon Detectives gig. The fact that four Ivy League educated, Louis Vuitton name checking Upper East side New Yorkers are turning a late October Liverpool crowd into raptures is just mind boggling. Mind boggingly brilliant.
At the start of 2008 Vampire Weekend featured on more ones to watch lists than MGMT, Late Of The Pier and Duffy combined. They were always going to make it big, but it was assumed in many corners that their success would be huge in the indie world but that the Afro-beat influences and stuffy appearances would perhaps prohibit them from conquering the Radio 1 populist market. Even in the queue tonight a man in front of Gigwise says to his friend,
“The albums pretty chilled out isn’t it? Lots of africanny (sic) bongo’s on it as well. But there’s some straight up indie rock stuff on there too, that’s why I like them.”
Heaven forbid an influence from beyond the Granada TV region infiltrates your record collection! He has a point though, at their very essence Vampire Weekend are an amazing rock band with hooks and melodies that have infected and impressed everyone with the good fortune of listening to their self titles debut album this year. Now on a victory lap of the country following a superb festival season Vampire Weekend are cooking with gas, they know what works, when to let the crowd sing and just how to whip up a frenzy.
Opening with ‘Mansard Roof’ is a perfect start with it’s military drumming and Ezra Koenig’s sweet vocals permeating the whole room. Other big hits like ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ and ‘Oxford Comma’ are brushed by with stylish aplomb and the atmosphere is reaching boiling point. As each song bets better the crowd get louder until the likes of ‘Campus’ , ‘Bryn’ and in particular ‘Blakes (Got A New Face)’ are bellowed back stage-wards at ear ringing volume. Every single word of every song is etched on the tongues of the crowd, just waiting to be spat forwards in a gust of fun and frivolity. When ‘A-Punk’ drops flailing limbs and nodding heads are all that can be seen. A really magical moment.
It’s not just a greatest hits set though. New song ‘Ottoman’ hints the band will have no problem following up on album number two. For a band who have been playing this material for over a year now Vampire Weekend show no signs of flagging nor tiring of the songs. The energy and intensity of the music is infectious and whilst crowd and inter band banter is kept at a minimum the crowds fun levels never drop below very high.
Ending with a two song encore of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ and the brilliant ‘Walcott’ Vampire Weekend leave the stage with a knock out performance under their belts. The band most likely to have achieved so much more than we ever thought they could.
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