Saturday, 5 Apr 2008
The entire city of Madison was at the High Noon Saloon for Vampire Weekend and YACHT last night. Vampire Weekend steadily riding their wave of fame including a recent performance on SNL and more positive reviews than I dare to mention.
So, does their live performance live up to the Hype? Are they the next incarnation of Paul Simon? Do you even hear Paul Simon in their music? What did you think of YACHT? Questions need answers, drop us a comment. If you loved the show drive to Milwaukee to take it all in again! Ed Oliver was once again on hand to provide us some photographic recaps.
The reviews are in:
The Badger Herald: Vampire Weekend, YACHT sail away
The Daily Cardinal: Vampire Weekend gets fans moving
And a video:
Civility In Public Discourse: NO!: VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Myspace: Vampire Weekend
Myspace: YACHT
Find MP3’s at The Hype Machine or buy stuff from Strictly Discs | eMusic
April 5th, 2008 at 11:52 am
I caught the last two songs of YACHT, intentionally. Don’t really care for what he does- not much of a performance in my opinion. I thought Vampire Weekend played a good show. For all their mentions of the Terrace they don’t seem to be racing back to play it after talking with them!
April 5th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
YACHT has his heart in the right place and his creativity had some nice surprises but his songs lacked any depth. His computer generator band had numerous problems that took away from the whole ‘theater’ of his show. He might be more of a force if he has an extra member or two in the band where he has to find approval.
Vampire Weekend was the band that actually delivered a great, solid show. It was your college fraternity, dance along with the songs kind of band. No, it didn’t seem like they would ever play the Terrace ever again. His comments were pretty sarcastic about playing by a body of water among vagrants, babies and drunks.
They cast their sorta arrogant shadow by pointing the finger at us, “This is the laboratory of the American Democracy?” I wondered how pissed he was about that Terrace show. The High Noon show may be the last Vampire Weekend show in Madison for a while. Although the Minneapolis crowd sounded like they didn’t get into it.
But they rocked and I danced and had a great time. Long time since I did something like that with a band at High Noon.
Great pictures.
April 5th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I don’t know if I necessarily agree. I think they had a great time at the Terrace., and they definitely should have. THey were nobodies and had a bunch of new people come out and dance to their music. I think for the right money, those guys would love to come back to play the Terrace. Great show though, I had a bunch of fun.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Donovan, the Minneapolis crowd was definitely into the show…
April 6th, 2008 at 11:49 am
In my opinion, YACHT stole the show. Vampire Weekend played well, but weren’t very engaging. Overall, the crowd completely sucked. Y.A.C.H.T. really did his best to stimulate the crowd and definitely seemed like he was having a great time on stage.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:56 am
I didn’t know if Minneapolis got into it or not. Ezra said on stage that the Minneapolis crowd didn’t get into it.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:18 am
I think YACHT put on a great show-despite the glitches. It’s not necessarily my style of music, but it was good for a live venue. I think the fact that he was up there by himself doing his own thing was inspiring. Vampire Weekend were ok - I liked the simplicity of their gear setup.
What I can’t stand is crowds who always want to be up in the front, but refuse to dance, or move at all - I think that has a huge effect on the band’s performance and opinions on the city’s venues.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:17 am
I think that VW are good doing record(s) but shows are not his strong point. They had all at his side at the High Noon but they didn’ t profited at all. They sounded just correct, Koenig haden t got any stamina (except in a couple of songs), all the African side disappear in live… I neither agree with its “we haven t got more songs politic”, you can always play a cover of other group or a different version of your songs. In fact it was the shortest end show clap that I see in Madison. My conclusion and advice: By the moment they are a good band to listen at home. Didn t pay too much for a ticket. (I’m sorry by my English but it s the only one that I have : )
April 7th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Looking back on the show, I don’t think YACHT was really that bad. Didn’t “steal” the show, IMO, but offered up a little something different and got the crowd involved. He left me laughing and bobbing my head in approval.
That said, a bit more depth is almost alway appreciated and his show would certainly benefit from some. The eye-shaking beats grew tiresome after the first 20 minutes and having a bit more to offer would have excused the headache.
LOVED the Google Street-view of his Portland apartment.
Vampire Weekend delivered splendidly. Their performance was by-the-books and *exactly* what I had expected, but it left me thoroughly satisfied. I haven’t enjoyed a sound as much since discovering the joys of the Shins and the Kings of Leon.
My only complaints: VW was too quiet, YACHT too loud.
Oh, and the fact that VW didn’t put on a longer show. Yeah, yeah…I know they don’t have a lot of material…but they didn’t even play all the tracks on the album…..or how’s about they throw in a cover or something?????
~ryan
April 7th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
As far as YACHT goes, I don’t think there *were* any glitches. What we heard was not a barely-finished glitchy routine but rather a beautifully executed song with an almost balletic synchronization between pre-recorded track and live performance. Marvelous. Or could it be yet just a well played mistake? Well, never did I sense the flagging confidence such mistakes would generally produce. And his explanation, ‘I guess should install the new drivers’. Heh? I wouldn’t guess ‘old drivers’ were an issue! (and where exactly did he get the ‘new’ ones that took under 10 seconds to install?) I do believe the artist is instead calling for the audience to think critically about the performance, as well as about the action and experience of observing a performer. I thought VW was good (though I had hitherto never realized or acknowledged just how derivative their sound is) while i found YACHT positively inspired. I will go out of my way to see him play again.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Im not a huge fan of Yachts music but I remember his performance alot more than Vampire Weekend which should tell you who was more entertaining. Yacht definitely made the crowd feel special giving us that slideshow, taking a break to answer audience questions and finally hanging out at the merchandise area. Vampire Weekend had great music but nothing would really made the show standout just.
Yacht was using a macbook air maybe it couldnt handle producing his music and the slideshow at the same time, which is why there were some glitches on a couple of his songs??
April 8th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
i think YACHT blew vampire weekend away. even with the glitches.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I think the criticism and comments are very insightful. In case he neglected to mention it, Yacht, aka Jona is a native son of Madison. He was born there while I worked at WHA Television. Our family as very fond memories of Madison and the creative folks in the city.