Las Vegas Weekly

September 12, 2008 · 6:16 PM

Vampire Weeknight

By Allison Duck

I’ve found myself starting to watch Saturday Night Live just for the musical guests. Such was the case this past March when I noticed the name Vampire Weekend flash on the screen as the musical guest on that night’s episode. Being woefully out of touch with the national indie music scene at the time, I had no idea who these guys were. I imagined they might be some kind of metal outfit. Maybe they wore those plastic vampire teeth that sell so well around Halloween or painted their faces a ghostly white. These thoughts were quickly dispelled a second later when a quartet of sweater-clad-Oxford-shirt-wearing guys appeared onscreen. Clearly, Vampire Weekend felt more at home in Lacoste than black leather.

I stayed on NBC long enough to catch the New York indie group perform several songs, including the upbeat “A-Punk” from their self-titled album. The band’s four core members were joined onstage by a flock of string players, and together they produced a peppy and entertaining set with the strings adding an extra layer to the melody.

After the SNL performance, my interest in the group grew, and now that I’ve heard their album in its entirety, I find myself recommending them to friends. So this week I’m recommending a trip to the Joint at the Hard Rock on Monday night to catch Vampire Weekend’s show. Even with only one full-length album under their belt, the band has enough material to keep fans happy and probably earn some new devotees as well. If you want to jump on the bandwagon, grab your skinny jeans and cardigan sweaters and head to the Joint for Vampire Weekend working it on a school night.

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