Vampire Weekend’s California Tour is a Hot Ticket and a Great Show

Vampire Weekend is currently on a California tour to promote their new Album, Contra, due out January 12th here in the states. I caught up with these cats in Long Beach last night and the show was on hit. If you like polished bands that sound like the record then this is your band for sure...

So...Vampire Weekend is one of those bands that is insanely huge on blogs like Pitchfork, the Hype Machine, and magazines like Rolling Stone, etc. Bands always come around that just make journalist get all warm and fuzzy and nothing done by such a band could change that fact once the train leaves the station. Vampire Weekend seems to be one of these bands. They are total music nerds who met at Columbia University and borrow from genres that you don’t know so you think that they are the most original thing you’ve ever heard. Well, to me, this is what its all about. Study up on all kinds of music and know exactly what you are borrowing from where and why you are doing so. Then mix and match them and put your style into it and it becomes your “own thing.” Vampire Weekend has done a good job of mixing genres and their music has enough elements to keep it different from the norm here in the US without ever straying from the fact that they are insanely pop and pop only. So...how are they live? Brilliant. They sound great. Very tight. The drummer, Chris Tomson, has tons of energy and plays with a percussionist’s sense of musicality. (He also came out sporting a 90’s, Chris Webber, Warriors jersey, which basically gave me an instant bias that these guys were tight.) Chris Baio, bass, had solid energy and undeniable groove. The keyboard/guitar man, Rostam Batmanglij, plays the bulk of the ear candy and seems to be musical director. The front man, Ezra Koenig, sings great. He goes for all of the big notes just like the record and plays all of the licks note for note like the record and he dances and woos the girls in the front with his 15-year-old-boy face. Pretty much all you could ask for from a pop band. If you like the first record you’ll love the show and the second record sounds like it’s going to be a little different, but just as good.