Good Weather For Airstrikes

Vampire Weekend are going to be MASSIVE, and with offers beginning to flood in from labels all around the UK, a surprising (but completely deserved) write-up in Rolling Stone and a recently announced opening slot supporting the Mystery Jets on June 2nd at Bowery, it looks like they’re well on their way. No word yet on why every imprint in the US isn’t falling all over themselves to lock these kids up, but it won’t be long before VW are at the top of everyone’s must-sign list, especially if they keep putting on shows like the one last night at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

First a word about Union Hall, as it’s quite a lovely place. The wall-to-wall, fully stocked bookshelves and library decor upstairs, coupled with the explorer’s club vibe of the place, immediately established it as the perfect venue for Vampire Weekend’s highbrow brand of indie rock kwassa kwassa and frontman Ezra Koenig’s pointedly intellectual lyrics, and there were even two indoor bocce courts for the fifteen people in Park Slope who actually know how to play the game. Fireplaces, leather club chairs and Victorian couches only further add to the atmosphere of stately refinement within the venue’s walls, and I half-expected to see Miss Scarlet murder Colonel Mustard with the candlestick right before my very eyes, though it never quite came to fruition.

Downstairs was where the action was though, and Vampire Weekend took the stage around 9:45 to a packed room of eager spectators. The band got the night started on the right foot with “Mansard Roof”, a retro, keys-heavy number complete with a swelling strings section and serrated guitar riffs galore, but it wasn’t until three songs later when “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” dropped that all in attendance previously unfamiliar with the band were sonically bitch-slapped into the unavoidable realization that they were in the presence of something truly special. Other highlights included personal favorites “Oxford Comma” and “Campus”, but the huge crowd-pleaser was “A-Punk”, a high energy track featuring sing-a-long-friendly “Hey-Hey-Heys!” and “Oh-ohhh-ohs” that seems destined to be forever immortalized as the band’s debut single proper in the near future.

The unquestionable zenith of the band’s performance, however, was rousing closer “Walcott”, with its ebullient keys section and furious pacing. It was so good in fact, that I may never be able to listen to the current studio version again, as it feels flat and lifeless in comparison its live counterpart, which rounded out a near-flawless performance containing nary a dull moment. Even the three new songs, “I Stand Corrected”, an untitled number and the tentatively-titled “M79″ (”named after a certain [NYC] bus route”), were excellent and incredibly promising, the first sign of what’s to come for the band. Coupled with the 11 excellent demos that currently comprise the bands demo LP, the band looks to have more great songs than they could possibly know what to do with. For now, it sounds like the band will be self-releasing a three-track EP/7″ next month, before inevitably signing a big deal and rocketing to indie rock stardom. So yeah, see them now so you can say you saw them in the basement of a bar when they’re selling out Webster this time next year.

I chatted with the band briefly in passing after the show last night, but it was after their Mercury show at the beginning of the month that I really got to know them a bit and find out some of their background. According to Ezra, Vampire Weekend was originally the title of a “stupid” film they dreamed up back in college, in which vampires from Cape Cod killed the protagonist’s father, whose dying words demanded that his son avenge his death by going to Cape Cod and killing the vampires. Or something. I guess the movie never worked out, but they ended up taking its title as their band name (though apparently they considered shortening it to just “Weekend” at one point), and the Cape Cod focus lives on in their songwriting. None of the members are actually from the region, but Ezra professed a romantic fascination with the area, likely fostered over the course of a few summers he spent in New England as a kid. Keyboardist and sometime backup vocalist Rostam Batmanglij appears to account for a significant portion of the musical brains of the group, having some experience in scoring films, including David Wain’s upcoming comedy epoch, The Ten. Furthermore, his last name prominently features the word “Batman”, which is sufficiently awesome and noteworthy in itself. Just sayin’. Also excellent is the fact that apparently every member of this band looks like me, as I was mistaken for a band member (the drummer twice, the lead singer three times) an incredible five times merely walking from the stage to the exit of the Mercury Lounge after their April 6th show there, which could prove to be most excellent after the band’s inevitable ascent to indie rock prominence in the coming months (”Yeah, I’m totally their auxiliary percussionist, shall we go back to my place?”).

Alright, now I’m just rambling. Long story short: Vampire Weekend are fucking phenomenal, you should do everything in your power to catch them in New York this summer, great live show, they write nothing but hits, etc, etc, hear more songs at their MySpace or get at these mp3s below.

MP3s:
“Oxford Comma” - Vampire Weekend ((highly recommended))
“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” - Vampire Weekend ((highly recommended))
“Walcott” (Insane Mix #2) - Vampire Weekend

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 28th, 2007 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Live Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.