Perhaps more so than any band currently making music, Vampire Weekend has found universal acclaim, both winning the hearts of indie bloggers everywhere and beginning to reach newfound mainstream success by bagging a Grammy this year. The group has largely found success by honing a sound unique within the current musical landscape, although some have begun to follow the trend of their uptempo, African-beat oriented, lighthearted indie pop. Over time, the band has become one of live music’s most sought after acts, and their perfectly executed set is a good indicator of the reason.
We all know you sholdn’t judge a book by it’s cover, but if we were going to, frontman Ezra Koenig does a pretty good job of looking the part for the music his band makes–all boyish good looks and charming smiles. Vampire Weekend’s songs might best be described as undeniable. If you hear them a few times, they’re bound to stick, and there simply isn’t much to dislike. I say it almost every piece I write about the band, but I still haven’t read it elsewhere, so I’ll keep saying it: the group sounds a lot like a modern indie pop take on Paul Simon’s Graceland, a record that I find similarly irresistible and compelling.
Live, the group has their songs down to a perfect science. Each note, beat, and guitar flourish falls perfectly into place. Often, Koenig ceases playing guitar altogether to gesture along to the unfolding patterns of his songs, something like the conductor of a symphony, his guitar pick a tiny baton. Guitarist Rostam Batmanglij clambers around the stage restlessly while bassist Chris Baio keeps things pretty cool and collected and Chris Tomson works intricate drum patterns. Altogether, the four-piece operates like a high-functioning piece of machinery in perfect sync.
Last night, the first of two sold out nights at Stubb’s in Austin, Vampire Weekend’s setlist looked like a veritable best-of, featuring songs from across their discography: “Oxford Comma” from their eponymous debut, “Horchata” and “Giving Up the Gun” from Contra, and “Ya Hey” among many others from their most recent and well-loved effort Modern Vampires of the City. Stubb’s was unsurprisingly as packed as I’ve ever seen it, with a solid crowd extending all the way to the entrance gate. The band will do it again tonight and will be back in the area for Houston’s FPSF at the end of May.
Earlier in the evening, Wild Cub opened the night with a set of similarly minded upbeat indie pop. The group brought a ton of energy and delivered a physically and aurally engaging set. Although recorded the band has a refreshing lightness akin to a spring breeze, the live set featured more explosive sounds such as additional percussion by frontman Keegan DeWitt, who belts out lyrics emphatically. The group hails from Nashville, but there’s no Americana to be found here. The wild in this cub is something modern and sleek, something evolved in an urban wilderness rather than the roughly hewn from the roughness of the forest. The group will share the stage again with Vampire Weekend, and they’ll play an instore at Waterloo in about an hour-and-a-half, at 5:00PM.
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