Vampire Weekend returns to the intimate Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theatre on Wednesday October 13th at 8PM. Beach House and The Very Best provide support.
Some bands stay in a holding pattern their whole careers. Others jerk the steering wheel hard and fly off the road. Now touring in support of their second album, Contra, Vampire Weekend do neither. Or maybe they do both. Contra pulls off a series of impressive feats: It’s bustling with fresh ideas, and yet it sounds immediately familiar; it’s heavily layered but taut and kinetic; it chews ravenously through sound palettes and rhythms, and yet it’s nimble and assured; it’s still breezy, and yet it smolders with a newfound emotional heft. The songs are catchy, fast, twinkling, clattering – the darker themes of loss, doubt and regret accumulate almost imperceptibly, but they land a powerful blow. The finished product explodes any reductive notions of what constitutes Vampire Weekend’s sound and aesthetic. The varied influences here include third-wave ska, the Hallelujah Chicken Run Band, Brazilian baile funk, Congolese thumb pianos, Repo Man, Sublime’s 40 Oz. to Freedom, reggaeton, bachata, Bollywood, Philip Roth, Beethoven, NYC 1983, dancehall, and the Beastie Boys’ second album, Paul’s Boutique. All of these influences are incorporated with subtlety and sophistication, woven together into a seamless fabric of references that, heard in full, resembles nothing so much as itself. Vampire Weekend’s music and lyrics serve to both construct and deconstruct a world around them. Like the word “contra” itself, the songs are layered with meaning and invite interpretation. With this album, Vampire Weekend have staked out an alien territory – literate, crackling, alive – that’s unmistakably their own.
General Admission tickets are $36.50 and go on sale Friday June 25th/10am at LiveNation.com or charge by phone 800-745-3000 and at the Fillmore Box Office.
All dates, acts and ticket prices are subject to change without notice. All tickets are subject to applicable taxes, parking and service and handling charges.
For more information go to www.livenation.com.