Vampire Weekend @ The Rickshaw Stop

There are plusses and minuses to seeing an all ages show: the crowd tends to be far more enthusiastic and unpretentious, but you're also met with a far greater level of highly pitched teenage girls screaming. Similarly, there are plusses and minuses to seeing a band who only has one record: you know exactly what songs you're going to get, and that's all she wrote. Last night at the Rickshaw Stop, Vampire Weekend managed to transcend the negatives and deliver a high powered dose of pop to an all ages crowd.

The band (as they were in December at the Independent) was unrelentingly upbeat and on top of their game: the set traversed their entire album nearly flawlessly, and gave the crowd exactly what they were looking for. The most notable difference from the December show was that the crowds are now highly familiar with the material. The album's release has turned the band from an internet sensation into a real-world one. (See: the cover of this month's Spin)

Perhaps the most endearing moment of the night was when the band invited two girls who had handmade their own "Oh" glasses on stage to dance during A-Punk. It was almost so perfect you'd think it was a press stunt, but it wasn't - and that's exactly what made it so great.

As the set came to a quick close (less than an hour), we realized that this is probably the last time we'll see Vampire Weekend playing a venue of this size. The rate at which they're blowing up, and the fantastic energy of their set leaves little doubt that their return to San Francisco will be at The Fillmore or The Warfield, if not somewhere even bigger. We're glad we got to see it in action.

We also managed to grab some really decent video, including the one non-album song that the band played. Check it out:

Video: Vampire Weekend - Bryn & Ladies Of Cambridge


Video: Vampire Weekend - New Song: