Buzz Under the Stars Night 3, which happened on June 3 in the outdoor area behind Grinders, featured Vampire Weekend, preceded by Cults. Both bands are based out of New York and came together in the Crossroads for 96.5 The Buzz’s final night in their concert series.
Altogether, the concert was fun, upbeat and full of people who knew every lyric to the Vampire Weekend songs. Cults was awkward and a tad unorganized. The five piece group left on a good note with their hits “Go Outside” and “You Know What I Mean”, but had a certain repetitiveness to their music that contrasted the headliner’s eclectic mix.
Cults frontman, Brian Oblivion, committed a faux pas when he said, “Oklahoma City has always been great to us.” The band’s singer, Madeline Follin, quickly apologized while Oblivion shrugged and said, “I had to do that at least once.”
You did have to feel a little sorry for the intro group. Multiple times during their set, Oblivion and Follin would assure the crowd that Vampire Weekend was coming up next; while it’s common for a warm-up act to not be the reason fans come, you could tell that in the summer heat the crowd had only Ezra Koenig’s buttery voice on their minds.
Finally, as the sun fell below the horizon, Vampire Weekend emerged fully clad in their preppy, urban wardrobe. The band’s lead singer, Koenig, was wearing camo Hurley shorts and a white button-down.
The group opened with their YOLO-esque hit “Diane Young”. The most significant thing about their setlist was with each new song came cheers and excitement as they rattled off their impressive list of chart-toppers.
The biggest phenomenon of Vampire Weekend is that they are able to get a fanbase of teenagers who may or may not know the depth of the band’s lyrics to sing along and practically worship songs about religion, the Middle East, wealth, education, and mortality.
Vampire Weekend is more satyrical than many of its fans are led to believe. All four members are Columbia University grads, Koenig with a degree in English. Many of the songs utilize cryptic allusions in order to make the meaning unclear.
All in all, Vampire Weekend lived up to expectation. Much of the concert felt like listening to their album, a sign of real talent.
As for chatter, there wasn’t much. Koenig talked between a few songs. Nonetheless, their personalities made themselves apparent. The band’s bassist, Chris Baio, danced like an 80’s middle schooler for much of the show. Keyboard player/guitarist Rostam Batmanglij kept his cool and drummer Chris Tomson entranced himself in the music.
Under the well timed lights of the Crossroads venue, Vampire Weekend met the hopes of the many cell phone holding teens Monday night as they performed their Modern Vampires of the City tour.
