“Hey, Red Rocks. It’s pretty chilly out, and this song comes from a cold place, so we’re gonna play that for you.” While re-tuning one of his many guitars, lead singer of indie-rock band Vampire Weekend Ezra Koenig spoke softly to the sold-out Colorado crowd as tiny flakes of snow showered into the amphitheater. The band then started playing “Unbearably White,” one of the breakout songs from their most recent album “Father of the Bride,” while the crowd screamed their approval of the opening guitar riff. In the 34 degree weather on Wednesday, Oct. 9, Vampire Weekend fans kept themselves warm while screaming “Call it a day / Call it a night / Calloused and cold and just unbearably white.”
Aside from “Unbearably White,” the frigid scene in Colorado couldn’t have been more of a juxtaposition to the California-inspired album, “Father of the Bride.” The audience danced around in rain-drizzled puffer coats and gloves to lyrics about the perpetually warm “Mulholland Drive” and “Sunset Boulevard” sung about in the nonchalant break-up song “How Long?”
It’s true, the New-York based band is no stranger to the cold. Yet, after a six-year hiatus from music making since their last album “Modern Vampires of the City” was released in 2013, the band seemed eager to shut away their manic and heavy-hearted analysis of modern life and saddened existentialism so present on their previous project.
On this tour, Vampire Weekend appears lighter and more at ease. The band entered the stage with no grand music, piercing lighting displays or a pre-walk on fanfare. With a grand enough legacy preceding them, simply strolling onto the stage in a row and picking up their instruments was enough to set the crowd into an uproar.
“Hold You Now” and “Harmony Hall” opened the show in a somewhat counterintuitive manner. These first two tracks on “Father of the Bride” don’t call for epic dance-offs and showboating as much as other songs in the band’s arsenal do. The opening of the concert seemed to reinforce the group’s sense of peace in their new era. But Vampire Weekend has always been quirky like this; the audience still raised their hands and sung the lyrics as rainbow-colored lights flashed in time to the typical cross-cultural, world music influences in the Melanesian samples of “Hold You Now”’s interludes.
Yet, this new album doesn’t absolve Vampire Weekend concerts from their usual potpourri of genres and subject matter. Songs from every one of their four radically different albums made their appearance at Red Rocks to a crowd of wild dancers and closed-eyed meditators alike.
Early hits “Oxford Comma” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” prompted an amphitheatre-wide sing-along. The band played their timeless and short hit “A-Punk” twice in a row due to their need to “dance around to warm up.” “Contra” and “Modern Vampires of the City” also drew in energetic collective dancing with songs “Horchata” and “Diane Young” as well as relaxed swaying in more introspective songs like “Taxi Cab” and “Hannah Hunt.”
Vampire Weekend was not there to please. Many shows that sell out huge venues like Red Rocks for two nights in a row are governed by the unwritten laws of needing elaborately decorated, changing sets and various party tricks. In defiance of these rules, this Vampire Weekend concert simply seemed like a larger-scale open mic night. Though the lights changed and fake fog shrouded the band in drama, they served up no special or grand surprises. Vampire Weekend was there to play their music, take guitar solos for as long as they wanted to, play obscure Bob Dylan covers and say thank you. Their performance was reminiscent of the battle of the bands event that occurs on DU’s campus, with eager bands looking to simply show audiences who they are and what they represent.
Vampire Weekend has always been a weird, bi-polar group of curious intellectuals. Red Rocks was lucky enough to host this recently calmed, yet still crazed, band of just plain good musicians in a location only 35 minutes away from DU.
Towards the beginning of the show, Vampire Weekend played their 2013 hit “Unbelievers,” asking the audience, “Want a little warmth but who’s gonna save a little warmth for me?” At Red Rocks, the loving audience took on that role as Vampire Weekend made sure to save all the warmth in the midst of the cold for them.
