Vampire Weekend, Phish Cover “Gloria” To Celebrate St. Louis Blues’ First Stanley Cup
Last night, the St. Louis Blues won their first-ever Stanley Cup. They took the championship on the road, winning a dramatic game 7 against the Boston Bruins. This was one of those unlikely storybook sports finishes. The Blues were in last place in January, and they clawed their way back up and won the big game largely thanks to Jordan Binnington, a 25-year-old goaltender (and hopefully-reformed racist) who spent seven seasons playing minor-league hockey. And somewhere along the way, the Blues picked up Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” as their victory song.
“Gloria,” a 1982 cheese-rock banger (and a cover of an Italian song), became the St. Louis Blues victory song this season. It is not a blues song. The story, at least according to Forbes, goes that few of the Blues players spent an off-night in a Philadelphia sports bar, where the DJ kept playing “Gloria.” They started asking their arena to play it after victories, and the became the big victory song of the season. Last night, as the Blues were playing in Boston, two very popular jam bands happened to be playing in St. Louis. And both of the did the smart thing and covered “Gloria” as soon as the Blues won.
Vampire Weekend — who, OK, fine, are not really a jam band — played St. Louis’ Fox Theatre last night, and they played “Gloria” as their first encore. Their mannered take on it sounded a whole lot like a Vampire Weekend song. Here’s the fan-made video:
Meanwhile, Phish played Chaifetz Arena, and they opened their second set with a version of “Gloria.” (They followed it up with a version of the Rolling Stones’ “Loving Cup,” which is pretty funny.) The Phish crowd sounded more amped than the Vampire Weekend one. Here’s a couple of fan-made videos of that cover:
I’m hoping that every touring band that comes through St. Louis in the next three months or so will cover “Gloria.”