Vampire Weekend Setlist

Mansard Roof
Campus
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
M79
Bryn
Ladies of Cambridge
I Stand Corrected
A-Punk
One (Blake’s Got a New Face)
The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance
New Song
Oxford Comma
Walcott

Tour Dates

04/05/08 Turner Hall Milwaukee, WI*
04/06/08 The Metro Chicago, Illinois*
04/11/08 Brown Uni Campus Providence,RI
04/25/08 Coachella Indio, California
05/01/08 Anson Rooms Bristol, UK
05/02/08 Birmingham Academy UK*
05/03/08 Liquid Rooms Edinburgh, UK*
05/04/08 ABC Glasgow, UK
05/06/08 Northumbria Uni Newcastle, UK*
05/07/08 Leeds Cockpit Leeds, UK*
05/08/08 Manchester Ace 2 Manchester*
05/09/08 Camber Sands Minehead, UK*
05/12/08 Wedgewood Portsmouth, UK*
05/13/08 Electric Ballroom London, UK*
05/15/08 Great Escape Brighton, UK
05/17/08 Orangerie Brussels, Belgium
05/18/08 Luxor Koln, Germany
05/19/08 Le Trabendo Paris, France
05/20/08 Melkweg Amsterdam, Netherlands
05/21/08 Motolow Hamburg, Germany
05/22/08 Magnet Berlin, Germany
05/23/08 Atomic Cafe Munich, Germany
05/26/08 Circolo degli Artisti Rome, Italy
05/27/08 Bologna Rocker Bologna, Italy
05/28/08 Mascotte Zurich, Switzerland
05/30/08 Primavera Barcelona, Spain
06/07/08 Park Avenue Orlando, Florida
06/07/08 The Social Orlando, Florida
06/08/08 Cafe Eleven St. Augustine, FL
06/12/08 Bonnaroo Manchester, TN
06/27/08 Glastonbury Festival, UK
06/28/08 Glastonbury Festival, UK
07/19/08 Pitchfork Music Chicago, Illinois
08/10/08 Summer Sonic- Osaka, Japan
08/22/08 Reading Festival Reading, UK
08/23/08 Leeds Festival Leeds, UK

* SOLD OUT

It’s April 3rd, and the sign on the door of the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis clearly reads: “This show is completely SOLD OUT. Seriously“

Vampire Weekend must be very pleased with themselves. I mean, these guys were on SNL (3/18/08), on the cover of Spin Magazine (Mar 2008), and overall huge support from MPR … so basically these guys are probably the most overhyped band right now.

You know me, the more hyped a band is, the more they have to prove to me that they are worth all the buzz. Fortunately, I was impressed with them. They clearly know how to manipulate their audience (“this is a tall order, but could you guys ….”) and the band played really well.

The one downfall is that they are still very, very young (and I don’t mean the way Ezra Koenig looks like he’s barely 18 with his dashing good looks and polo shirt). They barely had enough material to make the show last for an hour. In fact, they played their entire debut album, plus two other songs.

Of the two songs, one of them is untitled as of this writing – and it requires the keyboardist, Rostam Batmanglij, to pick up an extra guitar. This new song is actually pretty good, possibly the best song on the whole set… plus I was quite surpised with the way Batmanglij handled the guitar with ease.

I felt sorry for was the opening one-man-band, Jona Bechtolt, or better known by his stage name Yacht. His music and style, it didn’t mesh well with Vampire Weekend’s pseudo caribbean/reggae inspired rock and roll. Yacht is more about a man and his Mac Air and his anchor sign of love (Bechtolt insists on having the lights turned off as he wanted to show this off).

Although I like what Bechtolt was doing (dancing and sweating and singing to pre-recorded music with lots of glass breaking sound effects), I felt that the audience wasn’t ready or wanted to see his sort of performance art.

Still, being on what looks like mostly a sold-out tour schedule can only do good for Yacht and I’m hoping he won some new fans as a result of being on this successful tour.

I am very interested in seeing where Vampire Weekend and Yacht lands in the future.

For more information on Yacht, check out Valley Girl’s article and also one of W♥M’s favorite record label, K Records, as well as his official website, teamyacht.com.

As for Vampire Weekend, I’m sure they’re already well on their way on being on the cover of NME anyday now.

All photos by Brody