"Party time at outdoor venue"
Published in Berkshire Eagle, 9/15/10
Ezra Koenig at Mountain Park (Photo: David Barnum)
By Jeremy D. Goodwin
HOLYOKE—You’d have to be a real grump to deny the obvious: Vampire Weekend just plain killed it at Mountain Park Monday night. Joyous, high-energy, tightly delivered—the indie hitmakers’ set was relentlessly cheery and dance-inducing, a triumph of pop-that-matters delivered as party music.
Sure, as the band exhausted most of its catalog over the course of nearly 90 minutes, it was clear its material was, if not quite monochromatic, certainly treading a limited emotional range. The lively rhythms became repetitive, and eventually there was the sense one was simply listening to both of the band’s albums, back to back, on the greatest living room speaker system ever. But Vampire Weekend does what it does, and on this evening the band did it brilliantly. It’s unfair to expect more.
With the quartet delivering very tight versions of its songs onstage, the alchemy of the group became clear: it’s grounded in a sort of dorm-room-punk interplay between Ezra Koenig’s glittering guitar lines, Chris Baoi’s burbling basslines, and Chris Tomson’s straight-ahead drumming (spiced occasionally with some where-did-that-come-from? stickwork on his cymbals and drum rims), with Rostam Batmanglij almost at a parallel station, filling out the sound and stamping it as definitively recognizable with big, sugary synth riffs and, it appeared, the occasional sample.
Grounded in the bouncy rhythms of various shades of African pop music plus bits of ska and even reggae, the sound barely stopped for breath during its triumphant parade of stiff-armed drumbeats and glittering, pin-point guitar figures. At least one band member has cited the 1985 compilation “The Indestructible Beat of Soweto” as a foundational influence. This minor classic is a much cooler reference point than Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” released shortly thereafter and drawing from many of the same African subgenres—but the effervescent party music gleefully intoned by Vampire Weekend this evening was as fresh and accessible as anything else making the rounds in pop music currently… with no lingering sense of indulging in a guilty pleasure.
Vampire Weekend at Mountain Park (Photo: David Barnum)
Vampire Weekend’s lyrics are stocked with careful, 21st century details rich in consumerist signifiers (“the colors of Benetton,” Tom’s of Maine, S. Pellegrino) and self-conscious multiculturalism (“You spilled kefir on your keffiyeh.”) It’s up to the listener to gauge the ironic distance: are we a bunch of white people feeling validated because we get the references, or snidely judging the people who feel validated because they get the references, or is there another layer of meta-irony to iron out before we agree on the level at which we are appreciating this experience?
But none of this subtext felt present during an evening of sophisticated pop played for a very appreciative, generally college-aged audience—which itself, of course, is another data point to fold into the analysis.
After the first several songs, I gave up on writing “sounds great,” “high energy,” and “very tight!” in my notebook. As crowd-pleasers like the opener “Holiday,” “M79,” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” gave way to each other, the set took on a momentum it never quite relinquished. By the time Koenig mesmerized with his dizzying vocals on “California English” and the band followed with a particularly popping take on the surging counter-rhythms of “Cousins,” a peak was reach between the joyful-seeming band and its fans.
The few slower moments were appreciated—“I Think Ur A Contra,” for instance, took on renewed life from its album incarnation, with Batmanglij’s piano fills adding a bassy heft that didn’t detract from the song’s meditative quality—but one couldn’t help wonder what the band could achieve if it slowed down the dance steps and allowed itself to express an emotion that couldn’t be written off as ironic. Given the obvious joy on display, particularly in Koenig’s genial presence, it seems a goal the band could warm to.
But none of this subtext felt present during an evening of sophisticated pop played for a very appreciative, generally college-aged audience—which itself, of course, is another data point to fold into the analysis.
After the first several songs, I gave up on writing “sounds great,” “high energy,” and “very tight!” in my notebook. As crowd-pleasers like the opener “Holiday,” “M79,” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” gave way to each other, the set took on a momentum it never quite relinquished. By the time Koenig mesmerized with his dizzying vocals on “California English” and the band followed with a particularly popping take on the surging counter-rhythms of “Cousins,” a peak was reach between the joyful-seeming band and its fans.
The few slower moments were appreciated—“I Think Ur A Contra,” for instance, took on renewed life from its album incarnation, with Batmanglij’s piano fills adding a bassy heft that didn’t detract from the song’s meditative quality—but one couldn’t help wonder what the band could achieve if it slowed down the dance steps and allowed itself to express an emotion that couldn’t be written off as ironic. Given the obvious joy on display, particularly in Koenig’s genial presence, it seems a goal the band could warm to.
Ezra Koenig at Mountain Park (Photo: David Barnum)
One star of the evening was Mountain Park itself. A new venture by Eric Suher of Iron Horse Entertainment Group, the outdoor venue near Mt. Tom in Holyoke hosted an impressive roster of bands in its brief inaugural season, including The Flaming Lips, MGMT, My Morning Jacket, Counting Crows and Willie Nelson. As experienced during Vampire Weekend’s show, it was a no-frills experience, but the sound and light systems were superb and the mood seemed universally relaxed. Audience members not interested in the “pit” area had the chance to set up camp far up along the hilly slope of this natural ampitheatre and still experience excellent acoustics, or to find any number of nooks and crannies between the soundboard and stage that offered the unusual combo of great sightlines, great sound and plenty of room.
Sure, some of that space would be filled up with an even larger audience (the season reportedly topped out with a 3,000-person crowd for The Disco Biscuits), but Mountain Park already seems a glittering gem in the region’s live music scene. The potential offered by the charms of the venue combined with the booking power of Iron Horse means this could emerge as a powerhouse of the summer music season.
Sure, some of that space would be filled up with an even larger audience (the season reportedly topped out with a 3,000-person crowd for The Disco Biscuits), but Mountain Park already seems a glittering gem in the region’s live music scene. The potential offered by the charms of the venue combined with the booking power of Iron Horse means this could emerge as a powerhouse of the summer music season.
