Vampire Weekend @ Wolverhampton Civic Hall, 26th November 2010
This is the first time Vampire Weekend have played the main Civic Hall in Wolverhampton. Lesser bands would have found it a challenge, on this grim and frost bitten night, to create the necessary sense of fun for a set of sprightly, Afro/ indie. No such problems existed for Vampire Weekend tonight. From the kick off they were a riveting act, causing a lot of skanking and beer chucking in equal measure. I’m pretty sure they started off with the calypso sounding ‘Holiday’ and then charged on with irrepressible energy through ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ and ‘Cousins’. I must admit that I only own Vampire Weekend’s first album, but the tracks from the second, more synth heavy album sounded great too.
I particularly enjoyed the mid set rendition of ‘Taxi Cab’ which brought the pace down from the frenetic to a more reflective mood. The band brought out a double bass, zylophone and harpsichord sounds for this mysterious number. Unfortunately a lot of the audience seemed unequipped to appreciate a track that wasn’t a million miles an hour with an ‘ay, ay’ chorus. Call me a musical snob, I freely admit it. I just don’t understand why you would pay to watch and listen to a band and then talk through a song, looking at your mate’s phone.
Vampire Weekend have managed to coax the unusual bedfellows of indie and Afro pop together and made a joyous union. Having said that, I am pretty sure that a lot of their influence comes second hand from African/pop marriage albums such as Graceland by Paul Simon rather than direct from Amadou and Mariam et al. Many seem also to have overlooked the influence from The Police’s world music/pop mix albums like ‘Zenyatta Mondatta’, particularly the influence from Sting on Ezra Koenig’s intonation and from Stewart Copeland’s poly rhythms on the drums. No doubt because it’s not cool to be indebted to The Police. This is not underplaying Vampire Weekend’s unique sound in any way. They are far more than the sum of their influences. Any band that can pull off pondering such un rock ‘n’ roll topics as architecture (‘Mansard Roof’) and grammar (‘Oxford Comma’) in a rock ‘n’ roll way must be doing something right.
Many of the band’s tracks come across as having a lot more ‘punk’ energy live than on record and they get a few great sing alongs going. This includes forcing the crowd into falsetto singing for the high bit of ‘Blake’s Got a new face’ which was really funny to hear (and attempt). They have also perfected the art of structuring a set list, ending with a really apt ‘leaving track’ in ‘Walcott’ with it’s refrain of ‘don’t you wanna get out of cape cod tonight’. Vampire Weekend manage to bring a bit of cheer and style to a dreary evening in Wolverhampton and seem to really enjoy themselves too. Perhaps they’ll write a song for Wolves on the next album.
Review – Adam Moffatt