Photo by Natasha Ryan. More at Metromix

In the middle of “Taxi Cab”, all waterfall piano and drum machine and harpsichord, something at Ezra Koenig’s feet lights him from below like a child with a flashlight beneath his chin telling ghost stories – his are about class and aristocracy and heartbreak. His shadow is huge on the image of his band’s second album behind him, one foot tapping. In my pocket my pen has started leaking ink and I try to clean it up with my fingers and look at the stage at the same time. This song is something important – my brother is dancing, swaying, somewhat drunkenly, having never heard this song before, to my right, it is very dark in this giant and cavernous theater, and though the music is very loud everyone is very quiet, swaying, silently transfixed. “Taxi Cab” is a song that flows over you like water. Ezra is tapping his foot and tapping his foot and in his giant shadow every infinitesimal motion is huge, powerful, vital. I am panicking because my pen has exploded in the pocket of my brand new dress and as a result my attempt to make note of the setlist has failed and this is the ninth time I am seeing a band that I love and I will be damned if it is ruined by my pen exploding in my pocket.

I managed to save my dress, but I don’t remember what they played after “Taxi Cab.” It was something huge and something I had to dance to, and I think it might have been “Cousins” but I don’t know, and it might not matter because I’m not sure if I can accurately describe this show to you by relating how I felt about each song in their setlist in order as it went on. They opened with “White Sky,” one of the best songs they’ve ever written. Then “Holiday,” fast and dancy and skittering in the dark, and then “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” and as Vampire Weekend fans are, wont to do all three-thousand people in Washington Heights’ beautiful and ornate and ancient United Palace Theater yelled at the top of their lungs, whether they were thirteen or nineteen or thirty-six, “Do you want to fuck, like you know I do?” I don’t remember any precise order after that. Continue reading →