Vampire Weekend live @ Phones 4U Arena, Manchester

Image: Phones4U

Vampire Weekend’s emergence in 2007 did so by circumventing the traditional narrative of rock; their preppy privileged background deliberately played on with a sea of influences ranging from Talking Heads to Paul Simon, as well as second album Contra owing plenty to The Clash’s Sandanista. 

Third offering Modern Vampires of the City (stream below) has ended up being their most successful to date, expanding on the love affair with afrobeat to a more Americana driven narrative. It came replete with an arena tour desperate to elevate the group to the lofty levels enjoyed by Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon and the group we recently witnessed triumphantly in this space, the Arctic Monkeys.

Said space was Manchester’s expansive Phones 4U arena, and it’s one that Vampire Weekend have tangibly failed to fill (the standing area is two thirds full and accompanied by swathes of empty seats). That said this is a big space, and there’s more than enough in the throng to suggest that the calculated measures to grapple the big time isn’t far off – equally it’s a claim backed up by the music.

Modern Vampires of the City features heavily in the set, and there’s a raw power that accompanies the quaint yet subtly abrasive quality of the group, particularly in the hugely ironic entrance theme; Drake’s ‘Worst Behaviour’. From then on in it’s a set constructed by the gorgeously ethereal vocals of Ezra Koneig, part of that rare pantheon of singers that will always sound young, and the punchy bass (and rather ridiculous rubber legged dancing) of Chris Baio.

Highlights from the Modern Vampires of the City opus included ‘Diane Young’ and ‘Obvious Bicycle‘, the latter a particularly apt finale before the inevitable encore followed. Predictably though it was the stronger moments of the previous two efforts which drew the strongest reactions. ‘A-Punk’, in all its Ramones aping pogo glory, sent the seas of attendees’ wild at the front.

But for us though it was the delirium of ‘Horchata’ that won out, the melodic absurdity of rhyming a Catalan drink made of ground almonds with balaclava best encapsulating their delightful appeal. The song’s phonetic far out-ness is usually only found in the more off kilter hip-hop ruminations, and turning that into a pure pop masterpiece remains one of the groups’ high points (from this reviewer’s viewpoint at least). And it sounded great live.

Whether the group have quite got the stadium sonics to enter the stratosphere they so clearly covet remains moot after this performance (for one thing they’re going to need to learn to communicate with the crowd in more detail), but that doesn’t dim an enjoyable evening in the company of a genuinely amiable set of musicians. 

We were very kindly invited to this performance by Phones4U, who as well as investing in the sponsorship of the venue are reaching out to websites and media like ourselves to cover live music. So big them up!