Date: Novemeber 9, 2010
Location: The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA
Preconceived Thoughts of The Band: When I first heard about Vampire Weekend's, A-Punk, I thought they were insanely catchy, but honestly, that single didn't do justice. They are insanely unorthodox in their music. They combined African drums beats, indie rock, and western classical music. It completely blew my mind. They were also on repeat all throughout my freshman year. When my friend surprised me with a ticket to the show. I went ballistic. M79 and Mansard Roof are amazing.
Pocahaunted on the other hand....well I never heard them. I'm never in the know of the openers.
What Actually Happened (BITCH SPOILER ALERT!!!) - So we decided beforehand that we would stay the weekend in Santa Cruz because everyone wanted to see their friends. I was fine with that. So the first day we all went our separate ways. I met my friend at UCSC and walked around and had a great time. That night, a friend of mine was starting to get sick, so she thought she ate some mac and cheese it could go away. That was not the case. The milk that she poured on the mac and cheese was expired, so the next morning she got the full blown cold while going frequently to the bathroom, if you know what I mean....
So when the concert time came up, she decided not to go. Her other friend also said that she was starting to get "sick" and so she stayed with her. I thought it was a lame excuse because she was fine all day.
So at this point it was my second time going to the catalyst. Second time in I noticed how dirty that venue is. The bathroom's are all tagged up, with ripped pages promoting other concert dates. The lighting was horrible and it was badly lit in certain places. But I guess the upside is that it's a small, intimate setting. I got to the VERY front of the stage. The fence is fairly close to the stage, like 3 feet away. I was right in the middle of the stage.
The Catalyst is known for being punctual for getting their openers on stage. I didn't know anything about their opener. Pocahaunted, came out and my jaw just drops. They are very out there; they had facepaint, feathers, ripped clothes and dirty hair. They started playing and I couldn't hear anything. It was literally complete noise. The guitar and bass were badly mixed. There was too much bass, and distortion. The vocals were completely covered by the instruments. The singer was doing her dance interpretation. It was too much to take. I was more in awe that two girls were making so much noise. Their music was too experimental and psychedelic for me.
After that traumatic experience, I decided to check out merch. I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw a Vampire Weekend poster, all signed by them, for $20!!! I practically ran to the merch table and got it!
I came back just in time! Vampire Weekend came out and I was right in front of Ezra. They started out with the new single from their new upcoming album, Contra. It was a very slow start, but they picked it up fast at their second song, Holiday. They went back to their songs from the first album and from their all their fans started interacting with them. It was fun singing along with other people. They barely talked to their fans though. I felt like since they were a happy band, they would be more social to their fans, but that wasn't the case. They just kept saying "thank you for being here, its great that you're all here" etc. pretty generic stuff.
Verdict - It was great! They sounded exactly like their album though. Some people consider it bad because they weren't as creative on stage, but I see as this; if they sound exactly the same live as their album, it's the real thing. That's the band in raw form. There's no manipulation on stage. Talent makes or breaks a fan.
Bitch Rate - 1/5
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