Vampire Weekend & Yacht, 3.19.08 @ Casbah

Wednesday night I made sure to get my rest before heading down to the Casbah. I knew the show was sold out, but this show was beyond that, a crowd larger than I'd seen since perhaps Wolf Parade played here. I said hi to a couple friends then went to check out Yacht, who were making quite a spectacle of themselves on and off the stage.

They're a duo from Portland, just the two of them and an iBook with some prerecorded beats, backing instruments on some songs, and even backing vocals that gave the effect of a crowd singing along to the majority of their songs. I thought they were quirky and fun, and they entertained when they jumped into the crowd to dance, but some in this crowd seemed outwardly hostile, like just get to Vampire Weekend already. There was one chick who stood, arms folded, staring at the stage even when the band was no longer on the stage. Yikes, cranky people.

I went outside and it was a who's who of San Diego music. Almost the whole on-air staff of 94/9 was there, a bunch of former and current 91X'ers, writers, venue managers, bartenders, etc., which was cool to see but unfortunate that its not something we see often enough. After chatting for a while, I decided to try and make a move inside, but it was seriously packed. Amber and Matt were kind enough to let me slide up on the side with them, but it was straight nutty. I had the chance to talk to Chris, the bassist, before they started and he gave a nice "hey, I remember you!", so we chatted and I asked if everyone was healthy because we were counting on a good show. "No pressure," I joked, but he was still sweet as ever so it's good to see they're still down to earth after all their media hype.

They played a quick, tight set, pretty much playing their full album. Nothing more, nothing less. I watched the first half of the set from sidestage, but eventually just listened from the patio. There was a funny moment, I think it was after they played Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, and they said they'd just recorded a 12 minute reggaeton version of that song at 91X and we should all call to request it. He said, "you know 91X?" and someone booed it and screamed "94/9!" and he was like "What's that?" then there was a little more booing and he says, "What, we're from New York, we don't know your stations" and then people joined in randomly yelling out 94.9. Later I was told the PD from 91X was there and left after that happened, but that might've just been someone being snarky.






Anyway, I was happy with the show, but I liked the show as much as I like the album; that is, I like it, I listen to it, but I never looked into the lyrics, it's not stuff I sing along to, it's just enjoyable to my ears and I passively listen. I thought it was a good show, but I would've been happier if half of the people there, arms folded, would've just gone home.

When the show ended, I headed up to U-31, to at least say hi to the Birdmonster guys since I'd missed their show, and apparently they'll be back again soon, so that pleased me. From there, I had to make a final stop at home base, where I saw my friend that I'd not seen in a while, so she came over after the bar closed and we stayed up too late catching up.

I don't really have much of a recap for the rest of the week. I stayed in Thursday after working late. Friday I went to Habitat House and saw The Modlins and one of the other bands, though I'm not sure which, but shows there are always fun and the bands were solid. From Habitat, I saw Hotel St. George and Dynamite Walls at the Casbah, then stopped at the Ken where I did some shots with some neighbors, and that's when Gene came over and blogged about the Ken Club show. After a beer or two, he left and I caught up on "In Treatment" then woke up on Saturday feeling lazy, but it wasn't until later in the afternoon that my sniffles and chills caught up with me. I went to Ken Grill for me bff's birthday with her family, but after dinner went from bad to worse and I was in bed by 8:30 which is just a shitty way to spend a Saturday night. That all lead to my crappy Sunday and I've been in pj's all day. Now back to bed because I cannot be sick tomorrow...we've got some big deadlines at work and there's some shows this week that I don't want to miss. I hope to get all the week's listings up later, but took care of the first part of the week for now.

On a personal side note, the same night Vampire Weekend played in San Diego marked the fifth anniversary of the US invasion into Iraq, which also happens to be my brother's birthday. When I spoke to him, he was off training somewhere, had been in a field exercise for 12 days, and when I called to wish him a happy birthday, he told me he's getting shipped to "the sandbox" in 4 weeks. Today in Iraq, the US hit marked the 4,000th US casualty since the war started. Nothing makes me sicker than the prospect of this war continuing indefinitely. It's gonna be an ugly political year, but I can only hope that collectively, we as Americans simply say, "enough."