Vampire Weekend, with White Williams at Liberty Hall, 9/11/08
Vampire Weekend, with White Williams
September 11, 2008
Liberty Hall
Better than: Peter Gabriel (post-Genesis)
By RICHARD GINTOWT
For the past few years, I’ve had a theory that high school kids are listening to worse and worse music. Mostly it’s because of the emo crap they’re spoonfed by Hot Topic and Warped Tour, but also because I haven’t heard as many original young bands in the Lawrence area as when I was in college. I could be totally wrong about this, but it’s fun to conjecture about, and not entirely without possibility.
Last night, the kids were out in full force to see Vampire Weekend. I spotted at least two entire families at Liberty Hall – one with a singing-along seven-year-old in tow – and plenty of chaperones with teenagers. When I tried to get to the front of the stage to snap some pictures, my overtures of “Sorry, I’m shooting for the newspaper” were met with sassy replies from teenage girls who were going batshit crazy for a band that sings about Oxford commas and how “collegiate grief has left you dowdy in sweatshirts.”
Which all goes to say: there might still be hope for our nation’s youth.
More after the jump.
Too bad about the opener though. Whereas Vampire Weekend laid the groundwork for future English-major rockers, White Williams sounded more like a young Brian Eno auditioning his future instruments at Guitar Center. Apparently keyboard technology has come a long way: it can now faithfully replicate the sounds of whales. This malarkey was set to a groovy beat courtesy of drummer extraordinaire Cale Parks (also of Aloha), but it mostly came off as a freeform Krautrock noise jam. That’s fine, I guess. I’m just looking out for the children. They’re our brightest hope.
Kicking off with the impeccable “Mansard Roof,” Vampire Weekend charged out of the gate with youthful exuberance and wobbly-legged dance moves (bass player Chris Baio was particularly loose-limbed). The nifty thing about VW is that they sound exactly the same live as they do on record, mostly because they’re all such consummate players and they don’t frilly up their songs with extra parts. They whole sound is very clean and orderly, but that didn’t stop singer Ezra Koenig from gleefully delivering each abstract lyric and third-wave-ska guitar riff.
Much has been made about VW’s Afro-pop nicking, but it’s more in the Paul Simon sense than the Fela Kuti sense. Whatever influences went into the melting pot, the stuff that came out on the group’s debut self-titled record is super fun and just smart enough for its own good. Those 10 songs all sounded perfectly fresh and invigorated last night, with a couple new ones foreshadowing another album that’s just as clever and rhythmically intricate. As long as these guys steal airtime from Fall Out Boy, the kids do stand a chance.
Critic’s bias: I dig Vampire Weekend, but it’s not like my favorite record or anything. LOL!
Random detail: Oversized, long-sleeved denim shirts (especially the ones with stripes) are back in fashion. White Williams says so.
By the way: Go see Love As Laughter at the Replay Lounge on Sunday – their new record is fresh as a daisy. And don’t go see Cut Copy. I want some elbow room and the ability to purchase alcohol.
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