Vampire Weekend Impress at The Fox Theater in Pomona

All Photos by Flavia McBride 

 

Two days before thousands of people swarmed to Indio, CA for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, a seemingly endless line of ticket holders weaved their way around the circumference of The Fox Theater in Pomona to see Vampire Weekend perform a sold-out show. 

The five piece band from New York recently released their sophomore album Contra to rave reviews. The album even hit number one on the Billboard 200, and it was clear that fans at The Fox Theater had Contra in constant iPod rotation since its release. 

Vampire Weekend opened with "White Sky" and the room instantly erupted with energy that would hold throughout the entire performance. The audience danced, sang, and cheered along to favorites like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "One (Blake's Got A New Face)" and "A Punk".

The mood quickly became relaxed for a calm and stripped down performance of "Taxi Cab", but picked right back up for "Run" during which the eyes of the woman pictured on the giant backdrop (and Contra album cover) lit up like lasers. 

 

Frontman Ezra Koenig interacted frequently with the audience, making endearing quips between songs. At one point, when asking the crowd to sing along, he said "It's gotta be funky. Not Baja Fresh, more Del Taco, know what I mean?"

Bassist Chris Baio demonstrated some admirable dance moves, and the entire band seemed genuinely excited to play together. 

Vampire Weekend closed with "Oxford Comma" before returning to play three encore songs. Koenig thanked the audience and boldly declared to all those not attending Coachella that the festival "might not get any better" than this performance. 

In a way, he was right.  Not only were Koenig's vocals spot on the entire night, but the band as a whole was able to perform in a polished yet natural way. There were no instances where I felt like I could sense the band thinking, rather they seemed to be able to let go and have fun without worrying about the result. 

The attitude definitely transferred to the audience; it seemed like the crowd could not have been any more excited to spend an evening rocking out with Vampire Weekend, and neither could I.

-Eszter Zimanyi

Check out more photos from Vampire Weekend's set at The Fox Theater on our flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/themusicpirate 

See videos of Vampire Weekend's ENTIRE set at The Fox Theater on Eszter's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/eszterzimanyi

Keep up with Vampire Weekend at their websites:
http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
http://www.vampireweekend.com

Vampire Weekend at The Fox Theater in Pomona

Last night Vampire Weekend played a show at The Fox Theater in Pomona, CA and by all accounts it was amazing. TMP sent Eszter Zimanyi to cover the event along with photographer Flavia McBride, and next week we'll have a proper review posted along with some great photos. For now though, here is one of the 19 videos Eszter took along with the set list from last night's show: 





Set list: 

1. White Sky
2. Holiday
3. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
4. I Stand Corrected
5. M79
6. Bryn
7. California English
8. Cousins
9. Taxi Cab
10. Run
11. A Punk
12. One (Blake's Got A New Face)
13. Diplomat's Son
14. Giving Up The Gun
15. Campus
16. Oxford Comma


Encore:


1. Horchata
2. Mansard Roof
3. Walcott

Free Vampire Weekend show!

Vampire Weekend played an intimate, secret show last night (which I luckily won tickets to) in Chinatown, Los Angeles last night at Madam Wong's.

But for those of you who missed out, they are playing another free show today!

Sunday, November 1 - Dia De Los Muertos
Vampire Weekend 3:30pm
HOLLENBECK RECREATION CENTER BAND SHELL
415 S. St. Louis St.
Los Angeles, CA 90033

New Vampire Weekend Track Available for Download

There is a new Vampire Weekend track "Horchata" available from their upcoming album Contra for download on their webpage!

The track is classic Vampire Weekend you've come to love with a few new added twists. It has a fun bouncing beat with swirling strings and violins carrying the melody and introduces something I haven't heard in a Vampire Weekend song yet, a xylophone. A+

Vampire Weekend never ceases to amaze me with their music. It's the perfect soundtrack to a day at the beach, a long drive with friends, strolling through the parl.... really, anything you enjoy doing sounds better with Vampire Weekend playing.

Download the song here.

Posted by Lucas Vocos

New Vampire Weekend Announced!

Just read on Theophilus London's Twitter page an official release date for Vampire Weekend's sophomore album! The album is called Contra and will be released January 2010.

I've been waiting forever for this album to come out after I heard them perform "White Sky" last summer (2008) at a show at the Glasshouse with White Williams. They were still writing the album at that point and performed it as a test. The song is phenomenal, it continues Vampire Weekend's African pop-influenced sound adding more complex instrumentation. I've heard a few different versions floating around the blogosphere, a slower version played on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and a quicker paced version played live in Glasgow, so it'll be interesting to see how "White Sky" and the other songs sound.

I was hoping their song "Ottoman" on the Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist soundtrack would have appeared on this album too.

Here is Vampire Weekend performing "Ottoman" at the Wiltern in Los Angeles:

You'll have to wait till January to cop the new album, but their self titled debut is available on iTunes.

Check Vampire Weekend's home page and MySpace page for more info.

www.vampireweekend.com

www.myspace.com/vampireweekend