Photos and Review by Stephen Bloch
When Vampire Weekend were proverbial college freshmen, touring in support f their debut self-titled album in 2008, they played Milwaukee for the first time at Turner Hall. The show lasted about 45 minutes, which included about ten minutes of banter. There was significant doubt if last night’s show at BMO Pavilion in Milwaukee would even last that long as the weather radar indicated that the end of days were approaching. The sky let loose for almost 90 minutes and curfew was in play. When frontman Ezra Koenig and company took the stage, he made it abundantly clear they were prepared to give us what we waited for and hoped we were along for the ride. Ra Ra Riot kicked off the show with a jammy set of their own.
With five full length studio albums, they had no problems filling their allotted time that brought through the first set. The first set brought us way past the 11pm curfew but Ezra assured us that the powers that be said play on! The first set had a heavy dose off of their new release, Only God Was Above Us. This is a band that is known for rapid fire two to three minute poppy jams. It was novel to see them jam out “Mary Boone”, “Harmony Hall”, and “Hope” to close the set.
Each member of the band exited the stage one by one through what could only be described as a portal. Everything could have ended right there and people would have been happy, but as they have been doing all tour, they returned to the stage for another set of primarily fan request covers. Some worked. Some not so much. Some requests were very Milwaukeeish (thankfully no Freebird). The highlight of the encore for me was clearly the opener, “Reuben and Cherise”, a Jerry Garcia Band song. Vampire Weekend clearly has many diverse influences including world music, punk, pop, and jam bands for sure. This was a nod to Jerry Garcia’s birthday and was pretty much played in full. The other requests were more along the lines of snippets.
This is a band that has matured a great deal in 15+ years with a dense catalog and full sounding band consisting of two drummers, multi-instrumentalists, bass, and guitars. They bring energy and fun to their shows and clearly have a growing fan base with preschoolers and their grandparents in attendance. Their New York City and Columbia roots are ever-present and they consistently give nods to their collegiate experience. I can’t say whether they were all Summa Cum Laude students, but I will give them an A+ for the show.
