Vampire Weekend06.18.24
Vancouver, BC
Woo this was a fun one! Vampire Weekend, live, outdoors (!) at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby (for all intents and purposes, Vancouver, for the uninitiated).
I'd been lukewarm on their music up until recently, but their new record, Only God Was Above Us was a revelation to me. And seeing them announce a tour in support of it, with a stop in Vancouver, and knowing their legendary status in the indie scene, I started diving into their back catalogue more. And it all finally clicked!
Since this show was outdoors, it had to adhere to the curfew of the park. So it was still bright out when Vampire Weekend came out, with the sun only setting near the end of the show.
Fantastic set -- tons of cuts from the new record ("Ice Cream Piano" and "Prep-School Gangsters" among my favs), and classics ("Mansard Roof", "Campus", "Oxford Comma", many others). And they had a jam session near the tail end of the set, taking requests from the crowd. Pretty hilarious hearing them stumble through classic indie fare, like Arctic Monkeys' "Do I Wanna Know?" and The Killers' "Mr. Brightside". Crowd was great too; loved seeing fans of all ages taking it in. Great way to ring in the summer!
