Watch Vampire Weekend Make a Surprise Appearance in LA
Tamara Lee
Vampire Weekend haven’t played a proper show since 2014, and though stirrings of working on the band’s follow-up to 2013’s fantastic
Modern Vampires of the City seem promising, not much has been heard from the group as a whole, aside from short performances at rallies for Bernie Sanders in 2016 (though members of VW have set out on their own solo journeys).
Well, that “proper show” barrier still hasn’t been broken, but Vampire Weekend—who are now without multi-instrumentalist and producer Rostam Batmanglij—did make a surprise appearance in Los Angeles earlier this week, when frontman Ezra Koenig was set to appear at the LA venue Largo for the
Running Late show hosted by HQ Trivia’s Scott Rogowsky. Luckily for the crowd, Koenig’s bandmates tagged along, and the collective performed a couple tunes.
According to
Stereogum, Koenig and the usual VW lineup of bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson were joined on stage by three new members—another percussionist, a guitarist and a keyboardist—which could be a preview of the lineup that the band will employ when they officially return to the stage this summer at a number of festivals around the world, including Chicago’s Lollapalooza.
In LA, Koenig and company offered a couple of their own tunes—”Unbelievers” from
Modern Vampires and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” from their 2008 self-titled debut, plus a cover of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”
Watch a short clip of “Cape Cod” below, along with some pictures from Rogowsky, including one of Koenig that proves the 34-year-old hasn’t aged since he was about 15 years old.
NOT HARD TO BELIEVE EZRA KOENIG IS PERFECT IN PERSON BUT I WILL CONFIRM
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#MartyMemes with @arze
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