Review: Vampire Weekend concert sucks the fun out of a Friday night
After playing their last encore just after 10 p.m. last Friday, Vampire Weekend slinked off stage through the darkness.
Were they afraid of the lights that were about to be switched on? When they were, the roughly 2,000-strong audience stood suddenly exposed -- their own night had ended much earlier than expected.
Then came the jokes and jeers.
“We should have just stayed in the bar and played the album,” one fan complained.
Others griped that they spent nearly twice as much time in taxis getting to and from Impact’s Thunder Dome in Nonthaburi than they had actually listening to the band.
The biggest complaint however was simply that Vampire Weekend’s effort was half-hearted and that the gig failed to produce any semblance of a climax.
The consensus, expressed by one expat: “It was like bad sex.”
Jet-lagged or just apathetic?
Looking rather uncommitted and failing to establish a rapport with the audience, the band of twenty-somethings apparently turned geriatric on their long flight from the United States. They arrived in Bangkok at 1 a.m. on Friday.
Hitting the stage at around 9 p.m. and packing it in just after 10 p.m., they breezed through a polished set of 18 songs, followed by a four-song encore, without pausing to enjoy their first Bangkok show.
So, should we blame Vampire Weekend? Or blame ourselves for expecting something more from a new band with only two albums that total just over 70 minutes of music, whose studio sound consists of start-and-stop bouts of high energy tempered by tepid interludes?
Contracted to play for 75 minutes, the band did what they were paid to do. But as one fan lamented after the show, “What happened to the joy of playing music for a crowd?”
Challenges and missed opportunities
Bangkok rock music fans have been here before. Finding the right balance between venue, price and willing bands has become a challenge for organizers and fans alike.
More worrying than the VW disappointment is the notion that the Impact Muang Thong Thani concert experience has simply become too risky a proposition for promoters -- too far from the city and too expensive with unpredictable returns.
Ticket prices for international names are sky-rocketing, with Korean actors getting 4,500 baht (more than US$150) for 90-minute meet-and-greets. Gwen Stefani’s expensive 2007 Impact show ended with a nearly tearful apology for its brevity.
Failure isn't inevitable. Green Day played an extended set to a packed house earlier this year. Linkin Park received rave reviews a few years ago.
Even so, according to show organizer Potchara “Pear” Vichitranon of Lullaby, who deserves credit for bringing a band-of-the-moment to the city and looks likely to lose money on the concert, local promoters face an uphill battle.
“There are very few choices for venues and I can’t choose the date [the band plays]," he says.
Why can’t Bangkok have a purpose-built, small capacity stadium? A place where all of us, including Vampires, might feel more at home? God knows there are enough vacant lots around.
Pear isn’t holding his breath.
“Investors don’t think it would be a very good investment," he notes. "They would rather build a condominium."
