BY CHRIS HOCKER Vampire Weekend brought their Only God Was Above Us tour to a sold-out crowd at Raleigh's Red Hat Amphitheater on Wed...
BY CHRIS HOCKER
Vampire Weekend brought their Only God Was Above Us tour to a sold-out crowd at Raleigh's Red Hat Amphitheater on Wednesday night. Proceeds from this show and the previous night's show at Wilmington's Live Oak Band Pavilion were given to BelovedAsheville to continue Hurricane Helene relief efforts in the area.
Vampire Weekend hit the stage at 8:00 PM with singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig, bassist Chris Baio, and drummer Chris Tomson performing on a sparse fraction of the stage in front of a huge VAMPIRE WEEKEND banner. The band started things off with "Hold You Now," "Holiday," and "Boston (Ladies of Cambridge)." During Ezra's solo version of "Ice Cream Piano," the VAMPIRE WEEKEND banner fell to the ground and a full band, including a second drummer, was revealed behind Ezra.
When all was said and done, the band played nine tracks from Only God Was About Us, including a finale of "Hope," our vote for Song Of The Year. They also played well-known tracks like "Unbelievers," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa," "This Life," "Oxford Comma, "Diane Young," "Cousins," "Harmony Hall," and "A-Punk."
When we saw them in 2019 for their Father Of The Bride tour, we were amazed and had a hell of a time. Well, somehow Wednesday night's show was even better. Maybe it was the fact they were giving proceeds to charity? Maybe it was the fact that their stagehand got up and boogied in the middle of the stage during the show? Or maybe it was the fact that after the show "ended," they came back out and performed a mini-set of cover songs, all of which were requested by the fans.
It was loose, they didn't always play the right notes or get the words exactly right, but it was so much fun. They tackled The Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize?," Prince's "When You Were Mine," The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," and about ten more. The highlight of the set of covers had to be Weezer's "Say It Ain't So." The crowd went pretty wild for that one, singing so loudly we felft that we were back at the Weezer show. They finished the long encore off with their tune "Walcott."
This was a great show. If they bring the Only God Was Above Us tour to your town, don't miss it.
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- CHRIS HOCKER, Editor
- Strange Carolinas started as a hobby for Chris Hocker who often dragged his family to offbeat detours on family vacations. Hocker decided to start photographing and writing about these roadside attractions and in June 2014, launched Strange Carolinas with a story on Myrtle Beach's KISS Coffeehouse. In addition to chronicling over 400 attractions across the Carolinas, Strange Carolinas has also become an impressive music blog.
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