Payne's Pretzels

Friday night saw in my first gig of 2010 with Vampire Weekend at the O2 Academy in Newcastle upon Tyne. The O2 Academy (recently rebranded from the Carling Academy) is a fantastic venue of the dance hall-era with great sound and terrific atmosphere. The support act were Fan Death, a rather interesting female group with a Pulp-like disco sound with some violins thrown in for fun. One to watch for the future. The main act were terrific and seemed to truly enjoy the Newcastle crowd, claiming they were the best of their UK tour. Their new songs came across stronger than on record and the crowd had a great knowledge of the new tunes. Apart from a few weak points in the middle, Vampire Weekend has to be one of the best gigs I have been to. Everyone had the opportunity to bob along to as many tracks as they wished, encouraged of course by frontman Ezra Koenig.

For some reason, I took quite a few videos of the gig and they have come out rather well. Check out the playlist above for some highlights of the gig.

Setlist – White Sky, Holiday, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, I Stand Corrected, M79, California English, Cousins, Taxi Cab, Run, A-Punk, One (Blake’s Got A New Face), Diplomat’s Son, Boston (Ladies of Cambridge), Giving Up The Gun, Campus and Oxford Comma

Encore – Horchata, Mansard Roof and Walcott