Perth

Vampire Weekend @ Metro City.

To take the Camera or not to, this is always the question when you’re not a “professional” photographer as there is always meat head bouncers trying to take it off you as if it’s a detonator to a bomb ... so I took it. For the Perth dwellers reading you would be familiar with Metros City’s past history of stabbings, shootings and the overall gangster vibe that it has developed. So with the assistance of my mate Larry I managed to smuggle my 7D past 3 points of security and a metal detector ... Josh for the win! In terms of atmosphere there is nothing too amazing about having to march through so much security, I literally felt like some one was going to “bust a cap’, however, we were going to see Vampire Weekend, so that alone managed to wash the slightly sour taste out of my mouth.

It’s very rare that you think the support act is going to out-do the main band. For the first time I thought this was so. Until tonight I was only familiar with Cloud Control’s single The Gold Canary, which I loved, but it was one of those songs on the radio where the band’s name always eludes you. With personal favourites being Death Cloud and Intro, the harmonies of this band are next to none. Cloud Control are a must see before they are famous and ticket prices are too high. They are on tour now, so get to it!.

After having fairly high expectations from watching Cloud Control, and from their album Contra, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Vampire Weekend. Larry and I were discussing in the intermission whether the lead singer Ezra Koenig could in fact sing that fast in Californian English or can if he hit those high notes - the answer is yes, to both of those. The vocal range of Ezra is phenomenal and I would argue that he has the best voice in the business. It was refreshing to see a band that was full of individuals and not all blend into the same familiar indie outfit that most bands manage to find them selves wearing. Everyone in the band had their own thing going on and they all had the ability to draw in the view, making it a very multi-layered set and the icing on the cake would have had to be the insanely large back-drop of the Contra album cover. It was large! To put it in perspective the drummer’s head was as big as her pupil! This was easily the best gig I have attended to date and I’m still listening to the album flat out two weeks down the track in an attempt to travel back to that amazing gig.

Until next time,

Josh.