Written by: Carla Wright
Photos by: Carla Wright
The Fillmore on Monday night was packed with kids with an average age of 15 all piled together for one purpose, to see Vampire Weekend perform.
While I was standing in the media pit waiting for Vampire Weekend to come on, the people standing on the other side of the metal barricade were passing time by chanting about the techies that would come out.
"Sweaty man! Sweaty man!" was the first of three chants started. The techie was doing some quick sound checks and you could see the sweat pouring from his face. He laughed and walked off when he heard the chant.
"Creepy guy! Creepy guy!" was another techie that had come on stage briefly before he walked off.
"Sweaty man" came running back out with towel, dried off his face and then proceeded to "wipe" his butt with the towel before throwing it into the crowd of chanting kids.
It should have been a warning of what the evening had in store for everyone at the venue.
With such comic relief going on and spirits high, everyone was ready for Vampire weekend to come out.
When the lights dimmed and the band took stage, I held up my camera in preparation for shooting the band. Even though, I am pretty new to the whole "game", nothing could have prepared me for what happened with the opening song.
As I'm peering through my lens and still giggling to myself about the chanting kids and the goofy techs, I felt the floor start to shake. I say shake because vibration would be a better word to describe something you feel but wouldn't throw you off balance.
The floor was literally shaking. I had to stand with my legs apart just to keep balance. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy I looked over at another photographer, Margarita, and stared at her in disbelief.
"My pics are going to be shaky!" she screamed to me over the music.
"It'll be fine. They're just testing our photo skills". I replied to her with a smile.
With all the goofiness that had been going on in between bands, it's pretty easy to understand how a median age of 15 would get excited and jump and down when their favorite band come on.
Vampire weekend is on tour with Harlem Shakes and is selling out venues with their unique (but catchy) style of music.
It was a fun, but simple evening. The band did not use much lighting effects or any type of backdrop. It was just the band, a stage, and a venue full of their adoring fans.
"The members of the band met while attending Columbia University; they then self-produced their first album after graduation while concurrently working full time jobs." – Wikipedia.com
The band is:
Ezra Koenig (lead vocals, guitar)
Rostam Batmanglij (keyboard, guitar, vocals)
Chris Tomson (drums)
Chris Baio (bass guitar)
And for those who were wondering how the band got its' name:
"The band takes its name from a film they made together with members of the band Ra Ra Riot entitled Vampire Weekend. The film told the story of a boy named Walcott charged by an elder to dispatch a vampiric horde in Cape Cod and escape. The song "Walcott" from their debut album details the plot of the film."- Wikipedia.com
Vampire weekend is on tour until late September.
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