Live Review: Vampire Weekend, Metro Theatre, Sydney – 23rd January 2013

Sydney’s Metro theatre was packed to the rafters for New York’s Vampire Weekend on Wednesday 23rd January. Sold out, this show would be the indie-rockers only solo show in Australia, following their sets at Big Day Out nationwide. It had been over two years since their previous visit following 2010’s album ‘Contra’, so anticipation was high with fans eager to hear some new material from their forthcoming album due out on May 6th this year.

Opening with crowd-pleaser ‘Cousins’ from their debut self-titled album, the band had the audience in the palm of their hand from the get go. With two albums of solid, live-friendly tracks to choose from, Vampire Weekend gave a fantastic, tight, energetic performance. The track of the night was undoubtedly ‘A-Punk’ which was followed by ‘Unbelievers’, one of only two new tracks performed, somewhat disappointingly for fans.

Otherwise Vampire Weekend produced a fantastic set list laden with big hits to a deafening crowd. Fear not, if you failed to get a ticket to this show however, word on the grapevine is the band will be returning to Australia later this year, no doubt to showcase their eagerly awaited new album.

By Carol Friel