Dance-o-matic: Vampire Weekend @ The Independent

Okay, so we lied. Or maybe misspoke. We genuinely thought we wouldn't be able to make it to the Vampire Weekend show at The Independent on Wednesday night. Turns out we were wrong. We were there, and loving it.

The band played a little over an hour, and turned in an awesome set of highly danceable ass-kicking tunes. The set was highlighted by the band's unbridled enthusiasm: while lead vocalist Ezra Koenig clearly was in the driver's seat, the rest of the band was most definitely on-board. Smiles and backing vocals abounded, and everyone was psyched and sweaty.

The set included a good deal of the band's current material, but also a number of songs off of a currently-in-recording second album. The new songs fit smoothly into the set, and while they aren't a huge departure, they will clearly entice the already-faithful.

Throughout the show, there were a number of cries of "San Diego's got nothing on us!". We here at H.A.D. aren't sure exactly what that means (I mean, duh, right?), but we do know that Wednesday's show was a solid block of tunes that we won't soon forget, and we'll certainly be coming back for more.