Vampire Weekend played their first-ever show SXSW show this afternoon, in a rather unprecedented situation.
While most bands are booked to play SXSW in order to attract industry attention, Vampire Weekend have already played Saturday Night Live and been on the cover of several high profile publications.
Their fast-track to success agrees with them though, as singer Ezra Koenig showed natural confidence, and was at ease as he bantered with the crowd, which included Kings Of Leon drummer Nathan Followill.
“It’s really nice to be here when it’s so hot – like summer. We haven’t played a show felling hot like this since last summer I guess. I like seeing everyone in their summer clothes, seeing their chest hair and their legs” he quipped.
In addition to material from their debut album, the band performed live favourite ‘Allston’, with the crowd’s best reaction reserved for ‘A-Punk’ and ‘Blake’s Got A New Face’ which they sang back to the band, encouraged by Koenig.
“There’s about five people named Blake in the audience tonight – this is dedicated to all of them” Koeing joked.
The usually quiet keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij also chatted with the audience, showing his appreciation for bill they were part of.
“It was really awesome to a play here with such awesome bands that we love” he said, adding “And I love the word awesome too.”
Vampire Weekend played:
‘Mansard Roof’
‘I Stand Corrected’
‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’
‘M79’
‘Bryn’
‘Allston’
‘A – Punk’
‘Blake’s Got A New Face’
‘Campus’
‘Oxford Comma’
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