Last Night: Vampire Weekend and Abe Vigoda at the Fox

Better Than: getting bitten by a vampire wearing high-tops, skinny jeans, and shaggy bangs.

Last night, the Columbia grads of Vampire Weekend, led by frontman Ezra Koening and his impressive falsetto, waltzed out on stage to the tune of ... "Jump Around" by House of Pain. It seemed like an odd introduction. Until the sold-out crowd at the Fox began to do exactly as the music suggested, that is. The jumping rarely stopped throughout the show, as tweens, their parents, and seemingly everyone who attended the most recent MGMT concert (according to multiple overheard conversations), rallied hard for the growing indie pop sensation.

New York-based Vampire Weekend has a Paul Simon-esque, calypso sound going on, and its constantly upbeat riffs can be both catchy and annoying. But mostly, they're just annoyingly catchy. The band kept its sound dynamic, swiftly moving between ska, rock, and dub to keep the crowd's attention. 

​The group is promoting its second album, Contra, and played plenty of songs off of the new disc, but fans tended to cling to the tried-and-true hits. The crowd was particularly energetic and hungry for the energy that emanates from songs like "A-Punk" and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa." It was during these popular singles that Vampire Weekend really popped ... along with a sea of devoted fans, who waved their fists in the air, one step ahead of every beat. The band could definitely switch up its tendency to stick to one chord throughout its entire set. But Vampire Weekend had good on-stage energy that made up for the monotony that ensued in some of its lengthier numbers.

Richard Haick

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