Vampire Weekend Take Risks, Cover Tom Petty @ Joe's Pub, NYC 5/6/09
Santiago Felipe
Despite selling out in five minutes, and despite featuring Vampire Weekend playing Vampire Weekend songs, last night's early show at Joe's Pub was an atypical night with the band. They performed as the Music portion of the Happy Ending Music & Reading event, part of a series organized and hosted by Amanda Stern, bringing together Writers To Watch (they have hype in the literature world) and musical acts to trade off readings and songs. It was a funny mix of indie kids, wine-sipping book editors, and cat-calling literary groupies, and maybe not everyone knew Vampire Weekend before, but everyone definitely loved the shit out of "Oxford Comma."
These days Vampire Weekend are holed up in the studio working on LP2, so the (business) casual vibe at Joe's seemed to offer some welcome relief. No new songs were played, although old songs were played newly: All participating in the event had to "Take A Public Risk," which Vampire Weekend accomplished via a number of firsts: the Chrisses traded instruments for the set (Baio on drums, Tomson on bass); "Walcott" was rearranged into a "roundup" version (a mildly jazzy/swinging halftime thing); Tomson offered the band's double-bass debut; and "M79" was performed four-piano-hands style, Rostam and Ezra sharing the grand piano.
Another requirement: the band had to cover a song and "get everyone to sing along." They chose Tom Petty (like they do) because they're smart. The song was "Walls," which Ezra introduced by pointing to their friend in attendance Ed Burns (he waved) whose She's The One soundtrack birthed it. Lyrics sheets were passed out, everybody sang, nobody caught Rostam's intro piano tease of Arcade Fire's "Tunnels." ("Is this a rearrangement?" - Everybody.) Great song, great cover.
A word on the authors to help you understand Santiago Felipe's photospread. I was told last night's wordsmiths were a particularly beloved bunch: Wells Tower, who read a hilarious piece from his new short-stories collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned; John Wray, excerpting an intense passage from his acclaimed Lowboy, your average story about a schizophrenic teen riding NYC's subways in search for a woman to fuck in order to save the world; and Arthur Phillps, whose The Song Is You inspired constant guffaws and is the most likely to wind up in your hands as a gift someday. ("It's about music, and bands, and going to see bands.") The readings themselves didn't fit the Taking Risks theme -- there is little risk involved in public speaking for writers that look like actors -- so they performed tiny self-dares instead. Wells thought there was risk in bringing two things he loved that didn't go together, together -- chocolate chip cookies and bacon, obvs -- which digressed into an anecdote about trying to fly to NYC with a huge ball of cookie dough that resembled C-4 embedded with semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Wray publicly debuted his back tattoo of NYT literary critic Michiko Kakutani (aka know your audience). Arthur Phillips announced his retirement from writing and intention to become a full-time bullfighter, changing outfits and olé-ing with a styrofoam bull mounted on a remote controlled car. Writers are weird.
Enough of kindlegum.com. The Vampire Weekend setlist:
01 "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa"
02 "I Stand Corrected"
03 "M79"
04 "Oxford Comma"
05 "Walcott"
06 "Walls" (Tom Petty cover)^
^ w/ Rostam's piano intro tease of Arcade Fire's "Tunnels"
I somehow don't suspect the bookish crowd brought their FlipCams to the show, but if somehow video were to pop of that Tom Petty cover, it would be a very good thing, and we would post it. In the meantime, check out Ezra's hip hop track, and studio-mastered MP3s from Rostam's supergroup with Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles, Discovery.
Posted at 4:23 PM by amrit in Concert, Photo
Tags: Arcade Fire | Tom Petty | Vampire Weekend
This is not a bash on the band in any way, but Ezra Koenig (sp?) looks 15 in that picture.
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he really does
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Why did you post a photo of Conrad Keely and Spencer Krug w/ two sex offenders in the middle?
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15 might be pushing it. He looks a solid 10 there. Wow.
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I fucking love that song. Bright Eyes, Glen Campbell and me at shitty karaoke bars have also covered it. Hope to hear this version.
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Josh Ritter too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF3mMzAfqKQ
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Took a while, but I think that Don Delillo t-shirt right there finally did it for me. These guys are pretty great.
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If you guys started a kindlegum.com I would love it to pieces.
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sounds like VW is doing everything they need to to win back those they lost in the backlash. And I still can't wait for the new album. I suspect the title will be announced soon
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Great coverage! The video/sound would be a welcome addition if it ever surfaces...
Also, it's *Michiko KAKUTANI
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They had to take a "Pubic Risk"? Like shave a smiley face, or peroxide it or something?
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For me life is one big pubic risk, so that was just an unfortunate slip of the subconscious. You're correct, and I have fixed. Also vowel transposition issue remedied, thanks hunter w.
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why does Ezra look like a young Jay Leno in this picture?
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