Vampire Weekend @ The Garage, 3rd February 2010

Ready for the Weekend

The Relentless Garage is a recently refurbished venue just by Highbury and Islington tube station, and on Wednesday it played host to a few hundred Vampire Weekend fans who had won an HMV competition to see the band play by pre-ordering a copy of their second album, Contra.

The band took to the stage surprisingly early at 8.30pm and performed an hour-long set including favourites from their eponymous 2008 album and songs from their new album, which recently topped the US Billboard Chart.

The lead singer Ezra Koenig mentioned several times that they were just getting back into touring so they were grateful of the opportunity to practice, and it was probably a comfortable experience playing new material in front of a crowd who has definitely all purchased the second album. But the band seemed pretty polished, even with the new tracks, and are obviously great musicians. The crowd went pretty wild and personally I find that Vampire Weekend churn out they type of music that it’s impossible to stay still to.

Following on my last gig when I saw Editors play at the Water Rats, Vampire Weekend definitely continued the trend of band members who look like they turned up to the wrong gig. They keyboard player seemed completely out of things, wrapped up in a thick cardigan in a room that wasn’t at all cold, and although he managed to play all his parts, some of them did seem slightly slower than they should have been. The views from the audience included ‘stoned’, ‘on heroin’, ‘jet lagged’ and ‘flu’, but what ever it was he was definitely somewhere else.

Having said that, it didn’t impact on the gig as a whole and it was great to be up so close to the stage when previously I’ve only seen them on huge outdoor stages, including supporting Blur in the summer at Hyde Park. Although the set was short and they didn’t do an encore, it was more than enough to make for a fantastic evening. I certainly now have higher expectations of them when I seem them play Brixton later in the month!

Vampire Weekend are touring the UK in February

Blur @ Hyde Park, 3rd July 2009

They've still got it

I was so excited when I managed to get tickets to see Blur at the first reunion gig that they announced (excitement was tempered slightly when they added more performances before this one, but it was pretty darn exciting none the less) - Parklife was one of the tapes I used to play in my walkman and The Great Escape was the first actual CD I ever bought. But reunions are tricky things with examples of great successes (Take That - but more of that later) and great failures (naming no names lest I offend anyone ;-), so there's always a risk that they might not be as good as you remember.

Anyway, before the main event there were 4 (yes, count them - 4!) support acts, of which I only caught 3 because it was a Friday and some of us actually have to go to work in the afternoon.

Florence and The Machine were first on and I was quite interested to have a listen as there's been a lot of buzz about her this year. She's got a great and surprisingly powerful voice for such a little slip of a thing but although I really like A Kiss From A Fist but Flo is more of a Kate Bush type i.e. a bit too sophisticated for my cheesy pop sensibilities. But she does have very red hair. Next on was an African band which I'm sorry to say I can't remember the name of but who were very very good.

Just before Blur came on we were treated to Vampire Weekend who I love - their music is so summery so a sunny afternoon in the park was a perfect venue (it was pretty hot so I'm not sure why the lead singer decided to keep his body warmer on - I can only presume it's some kind of New York fashion statement). We were treated to a couple of new tracks as well as all the big hits from their debt album, which were really good to hear. My enjoyment was only impared slightly by the group of people I was stood next to who were accusing VW of being a Gracelands rip off in every single song. I shan't argue that there isn't a similar sound going on but I would argue that they are both just using the same African influences and it's hardly a sound that is getting overly exposed at the minute. Anyway, rant over, I'd love to see them play in a small venue and I'm sure their new album will be fab.

Finally, Blur made it on stage and the crowd went wild. By this time I was actually really close to the front - not quite sure how that happened - which meant for a great view but also meant that I was caught just on the edge of the mosh pit - not fun trying to keep on your feet. Actually, that was the only bad thing about this gig...maybe I was closer to the front than I normally am but it was all a bit rough and bad tempered and I got completely covered in beer.

However, the concert made that all worthwhile. Blur have such a great back catalogue of hits that they didn't even get round to playing some of their biggest hits like Country House. But they did play an amazing mix of tracks absolutely fantastically. They look just the same as ever - Damon leaping up and down on the stage like a mad man, Dave looking like the labour party candidate that he is (VOTE DAVE!), Graham being quietly brillant, and Alex sauntering about smoking (boo) and looking just as hot as ever (yay). Stand out tracks were probably Girl and Boys, Parklife (at high speed) and The Universal as the final encore - blissful!

I really hope they are going to make some new music together now. What this concert has proved to me is that their songs are still relevant and haven't dated at all. I can't wait to get hold of the live CD of the concert so I can relive it without the plastic bottles raining down on me...

The live recording from both of Blur's dates at Hyde Park is available now.