Hanging chandeliers, lights that make you feel like you could have a visually-induced seizure at any moment and Afro-Caribbean beats that are impossible not to dance to? Yup, TWJ was at a Vampire Weekend show in Lifestyle Communities Pavilion last night in Columbus, OH.
VW’s lead singer Ezra Koenig and bandmates were in fine form for this show. They entertainingly bounced from material off their debut self-titled EP to their most recent release Contra, and had a packed house at the LC bouncing, waving arms and smiling broadly.
Koenig managed to say “Thank you, Columbus” after each song the band played on Monday night. The songs the audience heard were played more or less the same as you’ve all heard on the albums, but since Vampire Weekend’s music is so damn energetic and happy no matter what the lyrical content suggests at times, the show was loads of fun throughout.
Favorites through the night were back-to-back renditions of “Mansard Roof” and “Oxford Comma,” which the crowd went nuts for. The band did a three-song encore, which began with a somewhat mellowed out version of “Horchata” and ended the night with the audience screaming the words to “Walcott.”
The backdrop for the entire show was the cover of the attractive, polo-shirted blonde on Contra‘s front cover, and during some songs the light work (done, according to Koenig, by a dude who just recently became employed by the band) made the lovely girl look like she had demon-glowing eyes. Why? I have no idea. But it was cool.
Overall, a wonderful show that had everyone singing and dancing until the roughly 85-minute set was up. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.
“Horchata” By Vampire Weekend (From Contra, out now on XL Records)
–Sean
