For more topical fare to the Swankster mission, see if you can make it through the comments at Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan. One might shit on emo kids for sporting guyliner where another will discredit death metal for the overtly intricate satanic dungeon motifs. Either way, both are empty criticisms ringing as hollow as the old man decrying the glories of his youth and the last great era of “good” music." See? Total bullshit. Everyone is a douchebag. Even this missive, instead of a tale on the irresistible pop hooks of Vampire Weekend, quickly devolved into a pretentious defense to my own history of defending a young band doing whatever the fuck they want to do. Caring little if looking preppy isn't cool and caring less to actually have written a line in a song referencing one's butler. If that is not embracing the punk ethos of fighting against the established grain then nothing is. Jonathan Richman can attest to this. Dude loves his parents and wants to keep the ladies at the government center in high spirits. Not exactly a wild rebellion, but is it not exactly that?

In real life, where real life is not framed by the Internet, Vampire Weekend is still a tremendously talented new band. Their story arc is simply not long enough to draw a safe verdict for posterity. Of course I don't expect anyone to stop from trying. This is not my point at all. I just think we need to be aware who we are listening to. Clearly a quick Google search of "Vampire Weekend backlash" proves this point rather well. And by rather well I mean insufferably self involved and achingly predictable. "They sing about rich people!" "They wore scarves!" Is it too much to ask to be spared from fashion nitpicking when talking about rock and roll? Act fast before you blink and miss the next Midwestern band relocating to Brooklyn. Oh they just bought their skinny jeans? Grew beards? Added a new keyboardist who happens to be a gorgeous ex-model with a cute bob haircut? Let the hype cycle play again. Puh-leeze.

Rock critics get slack for rockism, but I'd like an answer on the rampant pseudo-liberal ideology of oppressing the rich kids? The Strokes experienced some of the same via thinly veiled jealousy colored through suspicions of nepotism from Julian Casablancas' famous model brokering father. And while the pedigree of an artist is fair game for discussion, often most of the critical tones get punctuated with scorn amidst additional piling on to prove unworthiness. Why can’t haters just stick to hating the music on its own? Bank accounts, closets, and frequency of showers are completely irrelevant when headphones are involved.

So what the hell does this have to do with Vampire Weekend playing Denver's Bluebird? I was really stoked to see the band play live for the first time. I really do love their self titled debut. I think this space has said plenty on the band to get into the why again. I really wanted to love the show, I really did. What actually happened is I got caught up in the maddening amateurism of a crowd more interested in arguing about who got to the front pit area first rather than listening and *gasp* taking the show in. I hate doing this when reviewing a show because it’s not reviewing the show at all -- it’s reviewing my own personal experience.

Unfortunately I can't help it. In order for me to avoid discharging from the spigot of disingenuousness I must call out the drunken morons behind me who kept screaming "Mystic Seaport". I don't know if you fellows are from the region of Mystic, CT, where the historical maritime Mecca familiar to all field tripping, Northeastern, elementary schoolchildren is, or you just really dig the song "Walcott", but you were killing me. Sure it was probably more a me thing than a you thing, but God it was just tearing at the fiber of my being.

Other than a weird crowd Vampire Weekend was great. Really tight and just as clean as the record. Too clean perhaps. The bass may need additional decibels for filling out the bottom end a bit more. Lead singer Ezra Koenig was very chatty. Distractingly so, but I'll give him a pass since the band doesn't have that much material to fill out a set. We’ll talk again after record #2 is out. Nice talk. Thanks.

[Setlist scan]