They came to a sold-out Constitution Hall. They saw the audience for split seconds at a time, as strobe lights briefly revealed our screaming heads. They emitted power-packed blasts of musical euphoria. They were Vampire Weekend.
Saturday night's audience in Washington, D.C. ate them up, much as listeners at home have, as well. The band's self-titled 2008 debut was a hand-picked mix of international musical sounds, the culmination of which generated heaping amounts of hype, even before the album's release. It would be an understatement, then, to say the band overcame the always feared sophomore slump with this year's Contra, which topped charts and garnered widespread critical praise.
The band played under the backdrop of Contra's cover art, a mysterious girl in a canary yellow polo. Her eyes flashed, every once in a while, reminding D.C fans of the red lights at the top of the Washington Monument, which glow, on and off, throughout the night. Chandeliers, similar to the one on the cover of Vampire Weekend, hung from the rafters and lit up to the beats of songs throughout the show.
"What's up, D.C?!" lead singer Ezra Koenig piped, addressing the crowd for the first of many times that night. But as much as Koenig tried cajoling the crowd into a state of higher energy, the audience only half reached it. Part of the reason may have been a constricting seating arrangement, with little room for indie-rocking out in Constitution Hall. Another reason, though, could be that there may not be a cool way to dance to Vampire Weekend. Although brilliant, the music lends itself to rigorous head-bobbing and "pogosticking," as Koenig put it. A fan would have to be fearless of judgment and fully engrossed in the music to do what they would do in the confines of their own company.
The audience's lackluster energy level was the show's only real detractor, which was no fault of the band. They played through their catalog with pace and fluidity, giving playful clues to indicate what song would follow. For example, Koenig introduced "Campus" with a dedication to college students, and especially graduate students, everywhere.
The set list evenly plucked songs from both albums as Koenig took the band through 18 of their 21 studio tracks on Contra and Vampire Weekend. This steep number didn't make for a notably lengthy set list, as most of their songs hit at about the three-minute mark. These songs then built toward an extended "Oxford Comma," the show's memorable finale which preceded a three-song encore. "Walcott" sent the audience off with an ebullient farewell.
It was pleasing to discover that the boys of Vampire Weekend somehow created a live persona that matched the quality of their studio sound while still remaining distinctly live music. Koenig's distinctive guitar riffs rang clear, along with his manic, crisp lead vocals.
Rostam Batmanglij's harmonies faltered at times, but he made up for this by keeping most, if not all, of the group's nifty production effects intact - effects that easily could have been lost in musical translation.
We left feeling completely satisfied, only regretting we couldn't rewind to experience the show anew.
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