If you reside primarily in the digital world and read too much music criticism, you could be forgiven for thinking there are passionate protests outside Vampire Weekend shows -- a mob of angry professorial types clutching picket signs decrying the band's "classism" or "cultural tourism."
Here's what I saw Saturday night at Starlight Theatre: A large crowd of people singing and dancing and not giving a single flying fuck about what Vampire Weekend "means." In other words: A fun show.
This is, after all, a pop band that makes pop records -- good ones, I'd say. Perhaps you disagree. Perhaps you seethe at the mere mention of their name. (Boat shoes don't belong in rock and roll!, etc.) Or maybe you've ignored the vitriol, given them a fair shake, and simply don't like the music they're making. Fine by me. But a lot of people do love this band, and it's not hard for me to see why: They write catchy, playful songs and they perform them enthusiastically.
Opener Beach House does not write catchy, playful songs in the mold of VW, but their latest, Teen Dream, which I consider one of the finest albums of the year, is loaded with gorgeous, melodic, moody tunes. Onstage Saturday, they struck a distinct mood, performing more or less in the dark, illuminated only by occasional blue and purple hues. For someone unfamiliar with Beach House, I can see how this might come off as uninviting, but as a person who's spent an inordinate chunk of 2010 listening to Teen Dream on headphones, it felt exactly right. It wasn't somber or overly serious; it was just dreamlike.
Singer Victoria Legrand's husky purr is one of the most beautiful sounds in popular music today, and she self-assuredly led the band (technically a duo, but a quartet live) through some of Teen Dream's highlights: "Walk in the Park," "Take Care," "Silver Soul." As she hammered away at her keyboard, her ridiculously perfect hair would fall over her face, adding yet more distance between Legrand and those of us who have immature, unreasonable -- sad, really -- hopes to one day wife her.
After Beach House's set, the lights went up, and I readied myself to feel like an old bag of shit. But age-wise, the crowd was a healthy mix. Plenty of hoodied high-school kids, but also some dads, little kids, and twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings on dates. "Vampire Weekend is a pretty solid date, as dates go," my plus-one noted.
The lights dimmed, the crowd roared, and the DJ Khaled song "
All I Do Is Win" blared over the PA system as
Vampire Weekend rushed out to their instruments, dancing excitedly and striking a pose during the silence after the line "Everybody's hands go up." It was funny and charming, and it set the party mood that would prevail for most of the show.
I saw VW in 2008 at the Metro in Chicago, right when they were exploding. They played a tight set, but they hadn't yet grown into the confident, charismatic group I saw on Saturday night. Handsome frontman Ezra Koenig in particular seems to have been taking stage banter classes; he was humble and witty and excited to be there, and you can't ask for much more than that. After "A-Punk," during which two kids crashed the stage and danced harmlessly, Koenig sincerely congratulated them, commenting that they "seemed like good guys."
The band only has about twenty songs, and they played damn near every one of them, plus "I'm Goin' Down," a Springsteen cover. (It wasn't very far off from
this version.) There were little things, like a sustained organ chord on "Bryn," that varied from the recordings, but for the most part VW played the songs faithfully to the albums. I prefer a little more recklessness with my live shows, but there's enough zip and bounce in their songs that it never got boring.
According to my sources, the members of Vampire Weekend were spotted on the Plaza Friday night at a screening of The Social Network, the controversial new flick about the creation of Facebook. Halfway through the set Saturday night, I gazed out into a sea of iPhones documenting moments destined for the web, and it dawned on me that, like Facebook, VW has created a thing that taps into the millennial zeitgeist. Like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, they may be Ivy League elitists. Or they may be geniuses. Or they may be both. But they do seem to be blowing a whistle a hell of a lot of people can hear.
Critical Bias: I like catchy songs, and am not offended by wealth.
Random Detail: Haven't seen a merch line that long all year.
Note: Apologies to the Very Best. It's just very difficult for me to get out to a show by 8 p.m.
Setlist:
Holiday
White Sky
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
I Stand Corrected
M79
Bryn
California English
Cousins
Taxi Cab
Run
A-Punk
Blake's Got a New Face
I'm Goin Down (Springsteen cover)
Diplomat's Son
I Think Ur a Contra
Campus
Oxford Comma
Encore:
Horchata
Mansard Roof
Wolcott
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