I’m on the pear drops tonight tiredness is slowly taking over me, and one needs a major sugar dosage to keep him from falling into sleep mode.
Fan Death are tonight’s support, named after a Korean urban myth which states that if fans are left on overnight they can kill you (I’ll never leave my fan on whilst sleeping ever again.) The band itself where typical electro, mixed with array of other standard instruments, but also a violinist was onboard. The lead singer (who I’m sure been infected by Karen O) did a lot of dancing about in Kate Bush style, but had a voice I could hardly hear and didn’t have control over any of the songs. That was left to the violinist the only part of the set that was interesting at all. That inst saying much as you could play a violin out of tune and I’ll still go weak at the knees. I was just waited for a big fan to be turned on to blow them off stage (yes I used a fan pun). Seriously the violinist could have done the set herself with dancing girl, and that would have made a better support.
Basically 30 minutes of electro-disco that took 30 seconds to forget. No substance and more importantly no good songs.
One of the things the lead singer had to say was ‘This is the biggest venue we’ve played it showed.
Rating: 
With three chandeliers perched high above Vampire Weekend came onto stage with the sounds of House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’. With a well received second album, and a exciting debut that put them on the map in a big way, VW are here to enjoy themselves. They kicked off with the new album with ‘White Sky’ and ‘ ‘Holiday’ something from the first record might of been abit more suitable to get the crowd moving as there was little in the initial opening. That was the theme of the night as most of the new material was met with apprehension and a conserve of energy for the older and popular songs. Luckily it didn’t take them long to please their faithful as cuts from the first record where splashed out including arguably there best song ‘M79′ which still sounds gratifying even without the orchestra elements.
The only song from the new album which got the crowd going was ‘Cousins’ a short to the point number which was a highlight of the set, and was over quicker than you could say ‘Me and My Cousins, You and Your Cousins’. The highlight of the night for many would of been ‘A-Punk’ with virtually everyone getting involved for the ‘Eh, Eh, Eh, Eh’ moments creating a wall of noise showing just how damn popular that song was when it was released.
The band where evidently glad to be here with Ezra (lead single) claiming Manchester as the ‘Bestchester’. As the set wore on old, and new songs where mixed together to create a portioned setlist. Also the huge backdrop of the ‘Contra’ album cover (with the right lighting looked like Vigo from Ghostbusters 2) started to glow literally with its demonic red eyes (maybe I’ve had too many pear drops?). For viewing pleasure ‘Giving Up the Gun’ provided this with some nifty shadow effects which went hand in hand with the song’s faster approach.
The set leaded heavily on the older songs as the set closed, ending proceedings well with crowd favourites such as ‘Mansard Roof’ and ‘Walcott’. There was a clear difference between old and new tonight. The new songs felt more intimate and complex rather than the directness of the older songs, but there no doubting that VW for a small time at least rubber stamped their status as one of the best melodic oddballs around.
Rating:
White Sky
Holiday
Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
I Stand Corrected
M79
California English
Cousins
Taxi Cab
Run
A-Punk
One
Diplomat’s Son
Boston
Giving Up The Gun
Campus
Oxford Comma
Horchata
Mansard Roof
Walcott
One Comment
thx kirk! we suck