Vampire Weekend Return To NJ For First Time In 16 Years

Performing in New Jersey used to mean something. NJ was home to Bruce Springsteen, City Gardens, and when the Stone Pony wasn’t filled with Asbury Park-themed merchandise. This was the Jersey that Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend grew up in.

First, let’s rewind to 2000. Koenig is a high school kid interested in ska and film, and he loves jamming with his buddies Wes Miles, Dan Millar, and Andrei Padlowski. Together, they form the Glen Ridge super group, The Sophisticuffs. From 2000 to 2002, the band wrote local hits like the folk tale-like instrumental “Chicken Dance” and the noir ballad “Hello Professor.” 

They played gigs in local churches, basements, and backyards, but never anything close to Montclair’s The Wellmont Theater. To be fair, The Wellmont was a movie theatre back in 2000. Nevertheless, their biggest crowd may have been a high school graduation party.

Twenty-five years later, after Koenig’s dreams of playing Madison Square Garden came to life (three times), his goal to reunite The Sophisticuffs was next. On September 15, the Cuffs returned to the stage. This time at The Wellmont, supporting Vampire Weekend. VW’s first time in NJ since 2009, and the Cuffs’ first show since 2002. 

I caught night one of the four-night residency, three rows back in the pit, surrounded by die-hard VW fans who had tickets for at least half of the Wellmont shows. Since the band adopted a Grateful Dead-type approach to their live performance, it’s more likely to see a fan in a bootleg shirt than a tee from the merch stand. Many webstores dedicated to selling VW bootlegs had made tees specifically for the NJ shows. Shirts referenced The Sopranos, the Garden State Parkway, and The Strokes logo.

The Sophisticuffs came on at 8, meandering through an adolescent nine-song set. Unlike Modern Vampires Of The City, the Cuffs material is rudimentary. The intricacy of the lyrics got about as deep as a high schooler’s poetry journal could get. Their material hinted at VW’s early work; songs were built on a catchy instrumental and a few simple stanzas about friends or driving in their parents’ cars.

Vampire took the stage with the energy of their debut LP. Original members, Ezra, Chris Baio (bass), and Chris Tomson (drums), entered as a three-piece before breaking into the full ensemble by the fourth song. The trio ran through “Hold You Now,” “Campus,” and “One (Blake’s Got A New Face)” before the curtain dropped, revealing the live eight-person band.

From then, they stuck to the usual ‘Only God Was Above Us Tour’ recipe. A batch of new tracks, some revamped classics, and a load of iPod-era hits to get the crowd moving. 

A highlight from the recent material was “Pravda,” a song about the Russian word for truth. What sticks out about “Pravda” is the line, “I had a job once in Penn Station // Down at a tie shop called ‘Tiecoon.’” Most people traveling through Penn Station in the 00s couldn’t name the friendly tie store, but Ezra could. Last fall, when VW played two shows at MSG, someone even brought the original Tiecoon sign on stage.

Vampire honored NJ with Springsteen’s “I’m Goin’ Down.” A track they played plenty in the early years. VW could have loosened their setlist a bit more to please the Jersey crowd, but the hollering “Bruceeeee” call indicated that people were digging Vampire’s homecoming. To close the main act, they ran through all-timers like “Diane Young,” “Harmony Hall,” and Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s favorite tune, “A-Punk.” 

Once they returned for the encore, all eight live band members gathered around Tomson’s drums and Ezra’s mic to take risky cover requests from the crowd. These requests can be anything. Fans shoot their phones in the air with their favorite artists’ Spotify page. Some even bring pre-made signs asking for songs they bet Ezra will know the lyrics.

The easy-to-move-along, “Margaritaville” and “Thunder Road,” led the pack before things got interesting. Requests of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” gave Ezra issues, but he battled on. The cover portion ended after a sweet rendition of “Right Down The Line.” VW’s been doing the encore cover-requests thing for a while, so Ezra knows the crowd has his back when he fumbles the words to famous songs.

VW said goodbye with their most NJ-centric song, “Walcott.” Fans screamed, “All the way to New Jersey, all the way to the Garden State,” pointing at the ancient observatory-like roof. It’s rare to see a band come home to a sub-2,500-person venue after playing MSG, but VW doesn’t take the rise for granted. Vampire Weekend may not fit in the pantheon of Jersey rockers led by Bruce and Bon Jovi, but for the fans obsessed with the Tumblr-driven moment in Indie Rock, Vampire Weekend stands above all.

Vampire Weekend is touring festivals this fall; find tickets here. Listen to their new album Only God Was Above Us now.