Vampire Weekend on stage at the Metro Photo: oceansneverlisten
Vampire Weekend is a band in demand. On the afternoon of the gig I ended up with a spare ticket at late notice due to illness. After offering it for sale on Gumtree the phone didn’t stop beeping all night.
While it’s a youngish crowd that filed into The Metro, it was not as hipster as I imagined it would be.
“Cousins” kicked off the gig and the crowd were into it straight away.
With two albums of infectious, smart pop songs under their belt, Vampire Weekend looked to be having fun. They apparently arrived in Sydney just in time from snowy New York to play the Big Day Out on the hottest ever day to hit the city.
Lead singer Ezra Koenig tells the crowd their decision to play in shorts caused some controversy, which I have a feeling they would have enjoyed.
For this is a band that likes to zig when everyone else zags, adopting a preppy look and literary eccentricities that knowingly and wryly permeate their lyrics in a way that is sometimes at odds with the more upbeat musical direction of their songs.
They somehow pull off the trick of genre mashing with a lightness of touch that makes it look easy while mostly keeping the music accessible. And it is the simpler arrangements like “Oxford Comma “that are the crowd favourites, seemingly to the amusement (wry, of course) of the band members who exchange looks (knowingly, of course).
“Walcott” is a close to perfect closing number being a real stomp and sing along song that demands to be heard live. The band knows it, saying they always finish with this one, and so the crowd leaves happier and more energised than when they arrived.
Let’s hope they are back soon to tour their third album due out later this year.
