CityLife

Vampire Weekend

GOODNESS me, even the touts had made an effort for this one. Collared by a middle-aged gentleman in what appeared to be a padded shooting jacket and cravat on the brisk walk to the venue, it seemed the Ivy League-educated New Yorkers’ penchant for dapper, preppy dress had made an impression outside the venue as well as in it.

Here as part of their last hurrah before presumably scurrying back across the Atlantic to start work on album two, it’s been quite a year for the fresh-faced quartet.

One of the names – along with fellow Big Apple boys MGMT - on most gig goers’ lips following a triumphant festival season, debonair frontman Ezra Koenig and Co were in town on a sold out tour as they continued to reap the seeds planted in muddy and sun-soaked fields all over Europe this summer.

Dismissed by some as cynical Afrobeat revivalists, this assertion does them a great disservice as they proved here.

Lucid

Powered on by Chris Tomson’s ultra lucid drumming, the baulk of their self-titled album was delivered in a joyous, natural and almost self-effacing manner as all four completely lost themselves in the music.

And while the Diamonds On The Sole Of Her Shoes-aping Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa undoubtedly harked back to Afrobeat forefathers Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel, festival hits like recent single A-Punk – soaring on the back of Rostam Batmanglij’s keyboards - showcased plenty of South American undertones too.

Hazy

Lifted from their debut, which is a love letter to their hazy, lazy college days where they originally met  - other tracks like the exuberant Campus and M79 had me hankering after my own student days.

If there was one criticism it was the record was too well re-enacted in the live arena, thankfully a couple of newies - so Graceland you half expected Ladysmith Black Mambazo to suddenly join them from stage left - and a wonderful cover of Fleetwood Mac’s I Don’t Want To Know, fleshed proceedings out nicely.

And by the time traditional set-closer Walcott (a song so euphoric it should be prescribed on the NHS to combat seasonal affective disorder) was aired, a real party atmosphere had lifted a dank winter-like night – album two, then, is awaited with baited breath.

Did you go to the gig? What did you think? Have your say.

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