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Review: Vampire Weekend
OMG! OMG! It’s Vampire Weekend! Otherwise known as The Presidents of the United States of America of SXSW 2008. Every year somebody is insanely hyped and then what happens to them? Oh, right. Amy Winehouse. That was last year? Never mind.
Playing SXSW the week after they were on “Saturday Night Live,” just as Artic Monkeys did a couple of years back, the nuclear-strength buzz (cover of Spin, new parents naming their children Ezra Koenig) could have sunk a band that believed a word of it. But Vampire Weekend simply came out on Antone’s stage Friday night, said nice things about our breakfast tacos and then played pretty much all of their debut album.
It’s a safe bet there’s not a shred of irony at play here. If Paul Simon’s”Graceland” had come out in 1975, this is what “Talking Heads: 77” would have sounded like — the indestructible beat of Soweto as interpreted by kids at a Martha’s Vineyard clambake. It’s ridiculously sunny and strikes me as the perfect disc to replace calliope as the soundtrack to every merry-go-round in the world.
After having already played the Spin party earlier in the day, the band opened with “Mansard Roof” and the place went nuts. “Campus,” with its intimation of faculty-student commingling, was next and then they pretty much plowed through the record, including “A-Punk,” and then the place really went nuts. As a live band they’re plenty capable for an outfit that’s been together all of a couple of years, but neither Koenig nor any of his bandmates yet have that can’t-avert-your-eyes charisma that natural stars have.
As a guitarist, Koenig says a lot while not playing all that much — few bands welcome and incorporate so much air in their arrangements. It is all but impossible to resist. So why do hipsters sound apologetic when they say they like them? Is it the whole cultural imperialism guilt thing or what?
But they seem like such nice boys, the fact that “Oxford Comma” has the F word in the lyric notwithstanding. They’re a fine indie band and if people expect something more, well, like the song says, “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance.” (Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend performs Friday at Antone’s. Photo by Jay Janner/American-Statesman)
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