David Emery Online

Weekend

26 October 2008

Last night I had the fortune of trekking over to the Forum in Kentish Town to see Vampire Weekend with support from El Guincho and Wild Beasts. Oddly enough I’ve never made it to the Forum before – one of those quirks of fate I guess – but I can’t help but feel that with the Astoria closing soon we’re all going to end up there a bit more.

El Guincho was up first and was very good – lots of fun, Spanish-tinged beats; obviously more suited to a smaller, more intimate venue with a party crowd but still good never the less. Wild Beasts, while I think winning over the crowd a little better, wasn’t as successful. They’re a very ‘marmite’ band – mainly to the slightly inexplicable quantity of mildly painful falsetto employed – and while I can take it in single track doses I think it wanes slightly over the length of a full set.

Vampire Weekend – of course – utterly dominated. I saw them late last year in a tiny venue and the amount they’ve progressed in that time is amazing, and they’re weren’t half band to start off with. Their summer of festival playing has really paid off; they’ve got the songs, everyone knows them and it all works spectacularly well. The edition of a string quartet later on in proceedings also blends in nicely into the mix, as do the couple of new songs they play – you get the feeling that these boys are going to be around for quite a while…