Vampire Weekend on Thursday
Posted on April 4th, 2008 – 9:55 AMBy Chris Riemenschneider
Fifty minutes. That was it. No encore.
Fortunately for Vampire Weekend, the audience that was smart enough to buy up the scant tickets in time to last night’s Triple Rock gig also knew not to expect much more. And I actually think the reason those wise Columbia grads played a venue so small was so people didn’t expect more, or at least they’d be so smitten at seeing the band there they’d ignore the brevity. Which seemed to work.
Myself, I’m always a little dumbfounded whenever a band can’t even muster up a cover to fill out its set list. These guys joked about trying to learn Tom Petty’s greatest hits, which might’ve been a rebuttal to exactly that kind of criticism. But if memory/lore serves me correct, U2 wound up playing “Out of Control” or one of its early tunes twice the first time it came through town at First Ave because it didn’t have more. And when the Strokes played in the Entry the week “Is This It” came out, they also didn’t last past an hour.
These guys definitely aren’t U2 or the Strokes, but they still were pretty dang fun. Several people asked me afterward if the Triple Rock set was better than when I saw them at SXSW, and the answer was a resounding yes. Look for my full review at www.startribune.com/music. Here’s the set list in the meantime:
Mansard Roof / Campus / Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa / M79 / Bryn / Ladies of Cambridge [B-side to Mansard Roof single] / I Stand Corrected / A-Punk / One (Blake’s Got a New Face) / The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance / untitled new song / Oxford Comma / Walcott
Let us know your thoughts if you made the show. And even if you didn’t, what do you think of bands who can’t get it up for more than an 45-50 minutes?
6 Responses to "Vampire Weekend on Thursday"
I had no allusions that they would play for longer than that. They played every song they have recorded plus a couple new ones.
I thought the show was good. The drummer is all kinds of amazing and the singer’s voice was effortless live. $12 well spent.
In general though, if an established artist (i.e., more than one album) can’t play at least an hour, I would feel slighted.
I think, coming into the show knowing that their album is only 34 minutes long(much like the Strokes first album) the audience should have been prepared for a short show. But I think that sort of brevity in the set captures the energy of band and their sound. They write catchy pop songs that are 2-3 minutes long-there is no need to drag things out. I feel, even when the band has released a couple more records, they still won’t be the sort of band that plays marathon 2+ hour shows. I was won over by Ezra’s comment that during the afternoon they went to the U to seek out where Bob Dylan used to live(and skateboard?!). A fun show by a band that really seems to be enjoying the ride. Hopefully, they will continue to make good records(ignoring all the hype) and come back and play Minneapolis again at a larger venue(so more of my friends can get in.)
Chris,
You should have gotten to Antone’s earlier on that Friday night, because their set then was even better than last night’s Triple Rock show 
Last night was very very good still though. Their set I saw at the Parish for NPR’s day party at like 4pm was just fairly average, and it sounds like their set at the Spin Party you saw at Stubbs was as well.
Very fun show, and funny you mention the Strokes, because that set reminded me a lot of the first 2 Strokes shows at the Entry a bit (only tighter and not drunk).
They were fantastic. Having done an exhaustive online search for other songs than what’s on the album (and only finding “Boston/Ladies of Cambridge”), I didn’t expect much different or much longer. The new song wasn’t fantastic, but as always, listening to new stuff at a show where you want to hear old stuff usually takes a few listens.
Show gets an A+…especially for that really spastic dancing chick on the left “balcony.” Yikes!
No kidding about that dancing girl, I could hardly decide who to watch. Both were top notch entertainment in my book!
Kids these days! When we were their age,we used to drive for hours, un-load a PA system, set up, play four 45 minute sets, tear down, load the truck and drive for hours back home! (Wait! So that’s what’s wrong with me!)
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