ACL Live Shot: Vampire Weekend

Shouldn’t Vampire Weekend be headlining this festival? They’ve got a trio of critically beloved and commercially ubiquitous LPs, plus style, grace, and charm. And they’re enjoyed by both aging boomers and wayward 12-year-olds.

The name might not stack up with world-beaters like Depeche Mode and Lionel Richie, but Arcade Fire and the Black Keys have played the closing set before. Vampire Weekend doesn’t stack up?

Even if you don’t think the New York quartet on that level, there’s no band more professional than Vampire Weekend, especially in terms of social good. Amidst a balmy late afternoon, Ezra Koenig jittered his guitar to “Cousins” and set things off. There’s no greater olive branch to an audience than opening with the lead single from the album everyone already knows.

Koenig actually apologized before launching into songs from the excellent-but-still-new Modern Vampires of the City. There were snickers, even vague claims of cultural appropriation back in 2008 about four Ivy-educated boys singing songs about Oxford commas to Afropop rhythms. The gorgeous Contra quieted voices in 2010. These days it’s hard to even remember the contrarianism.

Call them young, vogue, naive, or puerile. It doesn’t matter now: Vampire Weekend can line up 15 great songs in a row. Nothing feels sweeter than outliving your hate. They still play “A-Punk,” too.

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