One of my favorite bands, Vampire Weekend has been teasing their first new album in 5 years for a while and posted a cryptic Instagram tease with the initials OGWAU. Now thanks to a Spotify merch leak, we know the title, album cover, and the release date.


Can't wait. I assume a lead single is coming soon.

Old video I made when I was one of only a couple dozen people watching the show. It was at a charity event that was way out of VW's demographic.

'ONLY GOD WAS ABOVE US' – APRIL 5, 2024
TRACK LIST
1. Ice Cream Piano
2. Classical
3. Capricorn
4. Connect
5. Prep-School Gangsters
6. The Surfer
7. Gen-X Cops
8. Mary Boone
9. Pravda
10. Hope
PRE-ORDER AT VAMPIREWEEKEND.COM
- TWO NEW SONGS OUT FEBRUARY 16 –
- "CAPRICORN"
- "GEN-X COPS"

I enjoyed their first two albums, especially Contra. Haven’t listened to them beyond those two albums though.

Man, the next two albums are AMAZING! You need to listen.

BTW : The album title refers to this miraculous near-air disaster on Aloha Airlines. My friend's dad was on the flight.


https://www.ndtv.com/feature/the-mir...flight-4592426

OMG, 'CAPRICORN' is really good.

The other one I'm kinda Meh on.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OL...a255V1ysskmm7o

Vampire Weekend 2024 Tour Dates:
04/08 – Austin, TX @ Moody Amphitheater (Solar Eclipse)
04/27 – New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
05/10 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party
05/30 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
06/06 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall ~
06/07 – Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory ~
06/09 – Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theatre ~
06/10 – San Diego, CA @ Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre ~
06/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl *\
06/15 – Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre at U.C. Berkeley &
06/16 – Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theatre at U.C. Berkeley (Matinee Show) &
06/18 – Burnaby, BC @ Deer Lake Park &
06/19 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater &
06/20 – Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena &
06/22 – Bonner, MT @ KettleHouse Amphitheater
06/23 – Bonner, MT @ KettleHouse Amphitheater (Matinee Show)
07/19 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre @
07/22 – Kansas City, MO @ Starlight Theatre #
07/23 – Lincoln, NE @ Pinewood Bowl Theater #
07/25 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Saint Louis Music Park #
07/26 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island +#
07/27 – Chicago, IL @ Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island +#
07/30 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory #
08/01 – Milwaukee, WI @ BMO Pavilion #
08/03 – St. Charles, IA @ Hinterland
09/19 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center ^
09/20 – Cincinnati, OH @ The ICON Festival Stage at Smale Park ^
09/21 – Indianapolis, IN @ Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park ^
09/23 – Rochester Hills, MI @ Meadow Brook Amphitheatre ^
09/24 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage ^
09/25 – Laval, QC @ Place Bell ^
09/27 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden ^
09/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ TD Pavilion at The Mann ^
09/30 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem ^
10/02 – Charlottesville, VA @ Ting Pavilion ^
10/05 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden $()
10/06 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden (Matinee Show) $x
10/08 – Wilmington, NC @ Live Oak Bank Pavilion ^
10/09 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheater ^
10/11 – Nashville, TN @ Ascend Amphitheater ^
10/12 – Atlanta, GA @ Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park ^
10/13 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit ^
10/15 – St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre ^
10/17 – Austin, TX @ Moody Center ^

~ = w/ La Lom
* = w/ The English Beat
\ = w/ Voodoo Glow Skulls
& = w/ Mike Gordon
@ = w/ Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
# = w/ Ra Ra Riot
+ = w/ Princess
$ = w/ Turnstile
() = w/ Mark Ronson
x = w/ The Brothers Macklovitch
^ = w/ Cults

I've never been a huge Vampire Weekend fan but I will say if you have even a passing enjoyment out of their music, their concert is 100% worth checking out. My buddy had a spare ticket in late 2019 (last concert I went to before COVID) and they just fucking rocked.

My daughter bought tickets for the Sunday matinee in MSG. They're doing two shows there with two completely different setlists and no repeats (except for A-Punk).

New song with official music video

Album's leaked. It's really good.

But it's only 47 minutes - didn't need to be a double LP - would've easily fit onto one. Unless it's 45rpm, but I doubt it is.

Slop hooked up my daughter with an autographed LP of their last album, something for which I am eternally grateful. For this album she's taking care of it herself. She just sent me this :

Today was the day. My daughter got to very briefly meet each band member as they signed her album cover. Told them she's looking forward to seeing them at MSG.

Just landed in NYC. I bought tickets for me, my wife and daughter for Saturday night show. So she and I will go to both. But as they discuss in the first few minutes of this recent podcast, they're going back on their promise of "No repeats besides A-Punk". Will be 25-30% repeats now. 😡.
At least they are promising free merch for those who can prove they went to both shows.

A good weekend to be in the city. A lot going on this weekend. Those shows, Bleachers is at MSG tonight, Gracie Abrams is at Radio City, Julian Baker at Webster Hall, The Psychadelic Furs/The Jesus and Mary Chain at The Beacon. And the NYFF and The New Yorker Fest are running.

Oh man, I would have loved to see Bleachers. We're seeing the Adam Driver play off-Broadway tonight. And my daughter loves Julien Baker -- She wore her concert t-shirt last night.

After our play we took the subway home, got off at Rockefeller Center and ended up right next to JJ Abrams and his wife (?) just leaving Radio City after the Gracie show. I briefly said hi, but he was just stopping and taking selfie with folks camped out in the SNL standby line.

Also, it turns out my daughter has tickets for Julien's Monday show.

Came to thread to see if there was any reviews from the tour.
Discovered Decker's diary instead.

Well I pulled off the doubleheader duty. Vampire Weekend concerts Saturday night

and Sunday matinee.

That is a lot of VW.

It was pretty cool. There were 8 repeats by my count -- 5 from the new album(Ice Cream Piano, Classical, Gen X Cops, Capricorn, and Mary Boon), two from Father of the Bride (Harmony Hall and This Life), and A-Punk, as promised.

There was still a ton of different material played. Basically everything I wanted or could really think of got played between the two nights. Totally packed and a really enthusiastic crowd. But certainly more mellow for the Noon show, which is such a weird time to have a concert and just felt... off. Nobody was drinking, that was probably a change for the better. I'm kind of surprised Ezra's voice held up; he's got a great one and sounded amazing.
The band is so talented. At the end of the show they take random requests from the audience for any non-Vampire Weekend songs. It's not always great, and understandably, Ezra doesn't know all the words, but I am floored at the band's ability to instantly play just about anything requested -- London Calling, Santa Maria, Karma Chameleon, Dirty Work, Mr Brightside. It's pretty impressive. In addition they played a complete, well-done cover of Billy Joel's 'Scenes from an Italian Restaurant' during the first show's set in honor of Billy's recent run at MSG.

I was a little skeptical that they would come through on that promise. But sure enough, they are.

Update : T-shirt arrived. I thought it was pretty funny

That's a really really cool and unique tour shirt, very special piece of memorabilia for big fans of the band that paid extra to see both shows. I love when bands put effort into their merch.

Vampire Weekend just announced more dates, including at the new Fontainebleau in Las Vegas! That's a tiny venue, but if there's any way I can get tickets, I will.
And will definitely wear my No Repeats shirt

Saw them on Friday. It was another outstanding show. This time in the 3800 seat Fontainebleau theater -- much more intimate than MSG! They are really so great live. They played a nice 2 hour set spanning their entire 5 album catalog. Played a song, Stranger, that I hadn't heard them to before, which I really liked. My daughter was jealous that Brian Robert Jones was playing at our show. He wasn't on most of this tour since he was touring with Paramore and on the Eras tour. But man is he talented. This was, per Ezra, the last headliner show for VW in the OGWAU 'era'.

Like last year, they took random requests from the crowd for their encore. Did Blitzkrieg Bop, Rock the Casbah, Running with the Devil, Liztomania, Of course they did Mr. Brightside (it is Vegas after all). Someone requested Taxes by Geese, which I was shocked by (a new favorite of mine) -- bless his heart, Ezra gave them a shout out, but didn't know the song well enough to actually play it.

I wore my No Repeats Except A-Punk shirt and a couple of hardcore VW fans stopped me to check it out. Speaking of hardcore fans, as we left I saw the car in front of me had a NV plate with the license plate of KWASSA. That's a true fan right there.