Vampire Weekend in Dallas
Sunday night I went to see Vampire Weekend. I didn’t go as a fan, but more out a sense of curiosity. Being the contrarian that I am I was pretty anti-VW when their first album came out. There was something about that East Coast-preppies-playing-Afro-Caribbean-flavored pop music aesthetic that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. There was something a bit too “precious” about it. But then I really grew to love Grizzly Bear, and it doesn’t get more East Coast preppy than those guys. And then Vampire Weekend’s second album got great reviews. I think I also got a sense of a certain ironic detachment from VW that made me question their sincerity a little bit.
Eventually, the backlash to Vampire Weekend grew large enough that my contrarian nature began to question that. I mean, something that gets so much love has to have something to it, right? I’ve grown to feel that music is usually better live (funny, I used to feel completely the opposite), so I thought I would give them a listen in person to decide for myself.
The verdict? I think these guys have something. The songs are incredibly catchy. I don’t have either of their albums and I’ve only heard a few of their songs, and I think that lack of familiarity kept me from really loving the show. I did enjoy it though. It seemed like they did a good job of pulling off their sound in a live setting, and it made me want to listen to more of their stuff.
I kinda felt like grandpa as I surveyed the crowd, although I think things were marginally closer to my demographic up in the balcony where there were seats. When the guy came around with wristbands as people were lined up to get in I was a little taken aback by the fact that maybe only 7 or so people out of the 50 in line in front of me were over 21. Am I getting too old for this?
I had my point and shoot camera with me, and at one point someone from the venue came over to hassle me over whether it was a video camera or not. I think this was because of the LCD screen that flips open to the side. Number 1: It does have video capabilities, but the mic on that thing is ridiculous for recording anything other than really quiet stuff, so I wasn’t shooting any video. And B, if I was shooting video, I might have had the thing pointed at the stage more than 40% of the time. So take that, jerkface. He said I could use it as long as I didn’t have the screen off to the side. Whatever. Have fun watching the hundreds of videos on Youtube shot by other people who were there.
All in alI I enjoyed the show, and I’m now interested in listening to more VW. So I’m glad I went.
This is the opening band - Abe Vigoda.
.jpg)
Eventually, the backlash to Vampire Weekend grew large enough that my contrarian nature began to question that. I mean, something that gets so much love has to have something to it, right? I’ve grown to feel that music is usually better live (funny, I used to feel completely the opposite), so I thought I would give them a listen in person to decide for myself.
The verdict? I think these guys have something. The songs are incredibly catchy. I don’t have either of their albums and I’ve only heard a few of their songs, and I think that lack of familiarity kept me from really loving the show. I did enjoy it though. It seemed like they did a good job of pulling off their sound in a live setting, and it made me want to listen to more of their stuff.
I kinda felt like grandpa as I surveyed the crowd, although I think things were marginally closer to my demographic up in the balcony where there were seats. When the guy came around with wristbands as people were lined up to get in I was a little taken aback by the fact that maybe only 7 or so people out of the 50 in line in front of me were over 21. Am I getting too old for this?
I had my point and shoot camera with me, and at one point someone from the venue came over to hassle me over whether it was a video camera or not. I think this was because of the LCD screen that flips open to the side. Number 1: It does have video capabilities, but the mic on that thing is ridiculous for recording anything other than really quiet stuff, so I wasn’t shooting any video. And B, if I was shooting video, I might have had the thing pointed at the stage more than 40% of the time. So take that, jerkface. He said I could use it as long as I didn’t have the screen off to the side. Whatever. Have fun watching the hundreds of videos on Youtube shot by other people who were there.
All in alI I enjoyed the show, and I’m now interested in listening to more VW. So I’m glad I went.
This is the opening band - Abe Vigoda.
.jpg)
Labels: Concerts
posted by JC at 9:42 PM
1 Comments:
East-coast preppie precious. Yup, that bugs me too, and I'm from the East Coast!
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