Vampire Weekend - Wexner Center, 2/14

Here's my Vampire Weekend live review running in The Other Paper today. I had no time to write this, so it's not my best work, but it should at least give you a taste of what the show was like. Oh, and the buzz doesn't appear to be slowing down. VP graces the cover of this month's Spin.

(Photo from the show by Kim Rottmayer of Picturethesound.com. View the full set here.)

"All the hoopla over Vampire Weekend, this year’s most talked about buzz band, is a bit baffling. While it’s not every day that a band plays Afropop-influenced, danceable indie rock in sweaters, this stuff probably won’t blow your mind. And that’s important to remember, because it’s not supposed to. Vampire Weekend just writes simple, fresh-sounding pop songs, and it does it well.

The Columbia grads perform the songs pretty well, too, as they showed the sold-out Valentine’s Day crowd at the Wexner Center last Thursday. For the women who were without dates that night, singer Ezra Koenig seemed to fill the void in a pinch; the girls were swooning. Must be the sweaters. Koenig also flattered the crowd with compliments about Columbus, particularly its impressive but under-appreciated population, and it came off as genuine rather than pandering.

The show didn’t reveal a whole lot more about the band than its self-titled debut has already shown. Most of the renditions were faithful to the album, without many surprising flourishes. And since Vampire Weekend only has one full-length record that clocks in at 34 minutes, the show was less than an hour with no encore. So in typical Vampire Weekend fashion, this wasn’t a knock-your-socks-off performance, but it was good enough that I caught myself with a goofy grin on my face several times. They’re just so darn likable.

Drummer Christopher Tomson carried the show with his contagious enthusiasm and mix of rock and world rhythms. On some songs the beats themselves served as the hooks. Each hit was nice and high in mix, too. Keonig’s clean, sprightly guitar playing with lots of tremolo was a nice counterpoint. All four members were politely energetic, which is more than I can say for the crowd. There were a few people on the Mershon stage’s black box going nuts the whole set, but most everyone was hesitant to move around too much until the last song, “Walcott.”

The band threw in two non-album tracks that bode well for Vampire Weekend’s future. “Boston,” a demo song the band has now dubbed “Ladies of Cambridge,” was more punky and frenetic than any other tune--like “A-Punk” with more balls. (It’s relative, though, in the context of Vampire Weekend. The up-tempo track still didn’t have a hint of fuzz or distortion.) Hopefully it finds its way onto a b-side or the next album. Another untitled new track was also surprisingly upbeat, and Koenig attempted to squeeze as many words as possible into the song. Breaking it down to half-time later in the tune was a nice touch.

Vampire Weekend didn’t phone it in for any song. “A-Punk,” “Oxford Comma” and “I Stand Corrected” all rang true, and the live arrangements left the songs courteously uncomplicated. For Vampire Weekend, simple really is better.

Sam Rosen kept things simple as well, but with a muddy, distorted, percussive guitar carrying each song, though not very well. None of the songs had much of a hook; whenever I anticipated a welcome change-up coming, it usually devolved into more banal guitar licks. The lyrics similarly felt like streams of consciousness haphazardly set to the music. Rosen’s stage banter also was particularly awkward, especially when he laughed loudly after most of his comments as the crowd stayed silent.

Vampire Weekend has a stint coming up with the Walkmen in March--now that would have been a better lineup."

Vampire Weekend

At this point in Vampire Weekend’s early career, the four boys from Columbia University are known for a few things. One, the sweater-clad, Ivy League crew looks the part. Two, the band injects Afropop influences into its indie pop tunes, garnering multiple comparisons to Paul Simon’s Graceland before VW’s eponymous full-length has even debuted. And three, in the era of here-today-hated-tomorrow buzz bands, the fledgling foursome is known just for being known.

To be sure, Vampire Weekend’s world music influences shouldn’t be overlooked. The band’s signature song, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” which refers to Congolese soukous music, could also double as a style the band has created--though the band prefers “Upper West Side Soweto.” In the tune, singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig’s playfully heady lyrics rhyme “Louis Vitton” with “reggaeton” and “Colors of Bennetton.” The song isn’t technically kwassa kwassa, but it and other tracks do elicit plenty of comparisons to Afrobeat and even calypso, especially rhythmically.

While the intentional multicultural touchstones are impressive, the band’s real talent lies in how seamlessly the foursome integrates these globe-trotting styles into what is essentially indie rock and New Wave pop. “A-Punk” uses a guitar lick similar to the intro of Bloc Party’s “Helicopter,” but Koenig has taken the angular guitar and tediously smoothed it out with a padded mallet. It’s as if each short and snappy track on the album has been dipped in paraffin to soften any sharp edges. The bass lines bubble underneath bouncy drumbeats, and keys, organ, harpsichord, strings and flute add some more cushion. Koenig usually employs a collegiate croon, but he bleats about on “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” and apes Sting, complete with faux-British overtones, on “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.” Where Yeasayer’s ’07 album, All Hour Cymbals, used world music to create trippy concoctions, Vampire Weekend takes similar influences to produce expertly crafted pop songs with stamina.

I’ve yet to see Vampire Weekend live--though the Wexner Center is bringing the boys to town Feb. 14--but I imagine Koenig singing with a smirk on his face. “Oxford Comma” references the debate over whether to include that last comma in a list of three items: “Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma? I've seen those English dramas, too. They're cruel.” (The fact that keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij interned at the Oxford English Dictionary one summer adds another layer of meaning.) Then later, in the same song, Koenig name-drops the king of crunk: “Why would you lie about anything at all? First the window, then it's to the wall. Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth.” The band also reveals its inner prepster love of patterned fabric on “M79”: “No excuse to be so callous. Dress yourself in bleeding madras. Charm your way across the Khyber Pass.”

It’s probably no coincidence that “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” is the album’s last song--a clever inward jab at the ephemeral quality of bands-of-the-moment like Vampire Weekend. But with tunes catchy enough to snag the sweater these Cape Cod vacationers inspired you to drag out of the closet, the band just may stick around.

mp3: Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
mp3: Download the Daytrotter session here