Vampire Weekend Took Requests on Friday the 13th at Bayfront Park

Except for maybe Halloween, could Miami have asked for a better night to see a band called Vampire Weekend than on Friday the 13th? For those unfamiliar, the New York City-born and -bred band doesn't sound like its name. They're neither goth nor metal, as you might imagine a Vampire Weekend would sound like. Theirs is a more wholesome, earthy vibe.

Beyond the name, this is an act that seems to enjoy messing with expectations. When I first heard VW via the 2008 single "A-Punk," which made me think they were a hyper, ska- or punk-influenced group. A deeper listen to their catalogue reveals a band more inspired by world music, Graceland-era Paul Simon, and Peter Gabriel, who merited a name-check on their self-titled debut album that same year.
Eerie concert date aside, Vampire Weekend pulled several fast ones Friday night on their Only God Was Above Us Tour Part 2 stop at the FPL Solar Amphitheater in Bayfront Park. When singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig took the stage a bit before 8:30, joined by original drummer Chris Tomson and bassist Chris Baio, it seemed this might be a stripped-down evening compared to their last Miami show back in 2019, when they jammed at the Knight Center on their Father of the Bride Tour with more musicians than you could count.
Friday, as they grooved through the first few numbers, including "One (Blake's Got a New Face)," you wondered whether they could do justice to their setlist as a trio. But midway through the fourth number, "Ice Cream Piano," as it seemed Koenig would sing the song alone, the giant canvas backdrop with the words "Vampire Weekend" printed on it was torn asunder, revealing a seven-member backing crew complete with every instrument you could think of, including violin and sax.

Throughout the two-hour main set of nearly two dozen songs, players came and went with Koening as the steady presence. This is an upbeat band; even songs about infidelities, like "This Life," have a sunny vibe. On "Sunflower," they figured out how to incorporate a riff from the Super Mario Bros. video game into the proceedings. Before digging into "Capricorn," Koenig asked if any Tauruses were in the house, followed by Geminis, Cancers, and almost every sign of the zodiac.
On this night, the music provided the chief special effect, with only a few exceptions. Miami Vice-era pink and blue neon lights flashed during "Gen-X Cops." During "Diane Young," Koenig's voice was modulated to sound like he'd inhaled helium. The highlight was what I still consider to be their best song, "A-Punk," which had the crowd dancing, jumping, and shouting the hey-hey-hey refrain.

Far less impressive was the opener, Turnstiles, an honest-to-goodness Billy Joel cover band of the type that would have you deciding to relocate bars halfway into your pitcher of beer. Not to be arch, but midway through "Piano Man," I saw a preteen attendee in a Vampire Weekend T-shirt stick his fingers into his ears. Any way you look at it, this was a strange choice for an opener, a slot typically reserved for up-and-comers with original songs. I wondered whether it was an ironic joke, but irony is out of character for Vampire Weekend.
Yet, after the main set ended at 10:15, the motive became clear. As band members returned onstage for the encore, Vampire Weekend morphed into a cover band, with Koenig explaining, "Last time we came to Miami, we took Vampire Weekend requests. Tonight we'll take anything but Vampire Weekend requests and see if we can figure it out."

First, they put their spin on the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Then they came "Scarlet Begonias," a Grateful Dead chestnut from 1974's From the Mars Hotel. Next up: Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place," followed by — no lie — Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie." Bob Marley and David Bowie subsequently entered the chat, though chants for a Beach Boys number (RIP the great Brian Wilson, who shuffled off this mortal coil this past Wednesday) went ignored.
"Is this the best part of the show or the worst?" Koenig asked. Well, it was a little bit of both. It's fun to scream out requests and impressive to see the breadth of a band's musical knowledge, but cover bands are a bit like ChatGPT: Impressive as a one-off parlor trick, but no match for human creativity.

Thankfully, the show ended with a Vampire Weekend song. "This is a song appropriate to say goodbye to anywhere," Koenig said, "but specifically Cape Cod." And so it was that our Friday the 13th Vampire Weekend closed out with "Walcott."