So chaotic and inventive as Vampire weekendArrangements get over five studio albums, things never feel without control. The production and mixture are impressively ornate, a wedding cake that can tip if a note lands in its place. And while the instrumentation and complexity of their songs have only grown over the years – until 2024’s excellent and dense fifth album, “Only good was above us” – the band’s live -show has just loosened, which allows some raggy dog moments to fans. Fortunately, the music is all the better for that.
The band, which is approaching the end of the second part of their marathon “Only God” tour, stopped by Montclair, New Jersey’s Tiny Wellmont Theater to play four nights as a hometown game for singer and guitar player Ezra Koenig and drummer Chris Tomson. Given that the band played two shows at Madison Square Garden the last time they were in the sadness, the arena created an intimacy perfect for the set opening. The band, a trio with bassist Chris Baio, began the show September 18 with low-fi rendering of band definient hits “unbelief”, “Holiday” and “One (Blake’s got a new face),” Instant sing-alongs played to the group’s former, spikier instinks.
With the drop of a curtain, the band entered a new disc mode with a trio of side-A songs from “Only God”, flanked by a large tournament band with five more musicians. While the gang really wiped out the sound, the Koenig’s song constantly left the edge of the audibility-which, to be fair, may have been a result of the very small arena. But while you can ask about Vampire Weekend is the type of band that needs A second drum set, manned by percussionist Garrett Ray, or two more guitars to complement Koenig’s sharp games, which means that their compositions can have more structure.
About ten songs in their two-hour plus show grew much looser and took 2019 cut “Sunflower” for a walk. The grateful dead -inspired track sounded sharp with the musicians’ fleet that handled the track, and it was clear that this was the direction that the band thought most exciting. Jammier -moment never tracked the tighter songs, but rather gave them a dash of new energy, whether it is piano flourishes under the verses of “Harmony Hall” or scissors in “Cousins.”
The new feeling for these hits characterized in the brains of the fans never made them unrecognizable, but it was refreshing to hear the band find SLU new ways for materials that they have played endlessly. During a year where more and more bands with Millennial fanbases are touring to get payout on the album anniversary and make money on the hot, Fuzzy feelings of youth, it is nice to know that the vampire weekend is not close to a nostalgia. Instead, they are a band worth getting old with.
