Watch Ezra Koenig Join Phoenix For Three Songs At Just Like Heaven ’24
This past weekend, Goldenvoice’s nostalgia-heavy indie fest Just Like Heaven came to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. The show’s lineup featured blog stars like the Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie, the War On Drugs, Miike Snow, and Passion Pit. The bill did not feature Vampire Weekend, a group that’s long been peers with many of the acts on the Just Like Heaven lineup. But bandleader Ezra Koenig still came out to do a bunch of song with festival co-headliners Phoenix.
Two years ago, Ezra Koenig made a guest appearance on “Tonight,” one of the singles from Phoenix’s most recent album Alpha Zulu. When Phoenix played that song on Colbert, Koenig joined them, singing his part from the back of a Tokyo cab. Last month, Vampire Weekend played their Only God Was Above Us record-release show in Austin, and Phoenix’s Thomas Mars came out to sing “Tonight” with them. At Just Like Heaven, Koenig again joined Phoenix to perform “Tonight,” but he didn’t stop there.
On Saturday night, Ezra Koenig joined Phoenix mid-song to sing his part on “Tonight,” and he got a nice whoop of recognition from the crowd. Then Koenig stuck around to play guitar on Phoenix’s last two songs of the night, the all-time jam “1901” and the more recent “Identical,” from the movie On The Rocks. (Sophia Coppola, Thomas Mars’ wife, directed that movie, and Koenig’s partner Rashida Jones played the lead.) Watch some fan footage below.
Check out our We’ve Got A File On You interview with Phoenix here.