Vampire Weekend comes to San Diego in their 1st live tour in over 2 years!
Tickets go on sale Friday at 10am but use KPRI as your password for presale tickets on Thursday from 10am-10pm. Tickets are $47.35 ($35 + $12.35 service fees).
Tickets can be purchased here.

(text from press release)
Touring in support of their critically acclaimed third album Modern Vampires Of The City, Vampire Weekend have added several more dates to their fall run. Along with previously announced headlining stops at Brooklyn's Barclay's Center and Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl, the band have now announced stops at Philadelphia's Mann Center and Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, among others. The band will be supported by Sky Ferreira, Solange and Beirut on select dates.

San Diego show added on September 30th at SDSU’s Open Air Theater – tickets on sale Friday, June 28 at 10am

Vampire Weekend's Modern Vampires Of The City's critical acclaim has been matched by its reception with the public: it entered the U.S. album chart at #1, and has gone on to sell nearly 250,000 copies in the month since its May 14 release on XL Recordings.

This is the second time Vampire Weekend has achieved such a landmark: Its sophomore album Contra also debuted at #1 in 2010, making Modern Vampires... the first time an independent rock band has entered at #1 with two consecutive releases.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

On Tour
06/26-30/13 - Pilton, UK - Glastonbury Festival
06/27/13 - Bournemouth, UK - O2 Academy Bournemouth
06/28/13 - Portsmouth, UK - Portsmouth Guildhall
07/02/13 - Cologne, Germany - E-Werk
07/03/13 - Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
07/04-07/13 - Werchter, Belgium - Rock Werchter
07/06/13 - London, UK - Olympic Park
07/07/13 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands - De Wereld Draait Buiten
07/09/13 - Cholet, France - Poupet Festival
07/12/13 - Lisbon, Portugal - Optimus Alive
07/13/13 - Bilbao, Spain - BBK Live
07/14/13 - Aix-Les-Bains, France - Musilac Festival
07/16/13 - Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom
07/17/13 - Hamburg, Germany - Grosse Freiheit
07/19/13 - Lewes, UK - Gentlemen of the Road Lewes Stopover
07/20/13 - Dublin, Ireland - Longitude Festival
08/04/13 - Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08/05/13 - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum Theatre
08/07/13 - Calgary, AB - Southern Alberta Jubilee
08/09/13 - Squamish, BC - Squamish Music Festival
08/11/13 - San Francisco, CA - Outside Lands Festival
09/5/13 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Folk Festival
09/7/13 - Boston, MA - Boston Calling
09/19/13 - Philadelphia, PA - Skyline Stage at The Mann Center #
09/20/13 - Brooklyn, NY - Barclay's Center # +
09/23/13 - Columbus, OH - The LC Pavillion #
09/24/13 - St. Louis, MO -The Pageant #
09/25/13 - Fayetteville, AR - Arkansas Music Pavillion #
09/27/13 - Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre #
09/28/13 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl &
09/30/13 - San Diego, CA - SDSU Open Air Theatre #
10/1/13 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre #
10/2/13 - Albuquerque, NM - Kiva Auditorium #
10/5/13 - Tulsa, OK - The Brady Theater #
10/7/13 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium #
10/8/13 - Kansas City, MO - Midland Theater #
10/10/13 - Grand Prairie, TX - Verizon Theater #
10/13/13 - Mexico, City, MX - Corona Capital Festival

# Sky Ferreira

+ Solange

& Beirut

Street Scene 2008 Photos: Day 1

So I loved Street Scene this year. Yes, there were the positives...back downtown has that urban feel people in San Diego long for...and the minuses...like I drank a goddamn energy drink that made me feel like shit for the entirety of Saturday, but I endured. Not one band's set disappointed, the sound was great on every stage (and during The National I didn't experience the bleed people spoke of because I hung on the left side of the stage) and the ins and outs plus a photo pass plus hanging with friends who were OK to let me run off on my own but still hang out when it was time to call it a night made it an amazing weekend. I will attempt to write a little about everything I saw and experienced, but mostly, since I uploaded, I wanna post the pics, so after the jump, you can see my version of Street Scene 2008.


On Friday I was rearing to go but my friends took a little bit longer to motivate, so I did my thing at my place, then hopped on the bus to Petro and Kris' house while we waited for others to meet up. We had some beers, then some shots at Rosie O'Grady's before finally catching the bus downtown. It's a long ride, but it was fun being with a group of friends.

The busride to downtown

I was told my photo pass fell through, but while I was waiting to hand off tickets to a friend who was coming from LA, I thought I might as well try and see if the list went through, and sure enough, while not granted a full media pass, I was handed a photo pass. The lines at that point were chaos, but there was a media line and I cruised right in. MGMT were about to start, and that stage was crowded, but some way, some how, I squished my body through hoardes of people to make it up to the photo pit in time for their set. The band looked happy and healthy which was great, since the last time I saw them they looked a bit shellshocked and worn down.

MGMT




After the first three songs, as photographers were kicked out of the pit, I wanted nothing to do with the Zarabunda Stage, and wormed my way right back out, listening to a few songs from the very back of the stage area. I think of all the bands on the weekend, they were most inappropriately placed as far as stage and time go because they were incredibly popular.

I wandered to The Casbah stage and caught Foals within the 3 song allotment. This band is so incredible and I feel like they'll endure while other flash in the pan bands come and go. They're so entertaining and energetic on stage.

Foals




After Foals, I wandered to a beer garden to wait for TVOTR, but the lines were insane. It was about 7 and we had about 45 minutes, and I convinced Jake and Dagart to leave with me. We hopped on a cab and had drinks at Chee Chee, and made it back in time for TV On The Radio. I took pics of them at shows prior, despite them making kind of a big deal about no photos, which always makes me nervous that there will be a big Band of Horses or QOTSA outburst from the band, but with that in mind, I was among probably 40 photographers in the pit, and Kip made eye contact with me as they played and gave me a head nod and a smile, shirking my fear of bearded guys that hate photographs. Their set was incredible and they definitely delivered, though I could say that about pretty much every band I saw throughout the weekend.

TV On The Radio




After TVOTR, I made my way to Spoon's stage and posted up in a spot. There were so many photographers that I decided to only shoot 2 songs per band then move along so I wouldn't get bullied for using a point and shoot cybershot amongst all the crazy media peeps with gigantic lenses. I've seen Spoon so many times now but it never gets old. Britt blows me away. And with a full horn section, their set really rocked.

Spoon




After Spoon, I was done with the big stages and wanted to catch the Casbah stage again, since I think it had been nearly two years since I'd seen Devotchka. I guess their Eastern European sound kinda takes me back to my Polish roots and listening to polkas with my dad as a kid, and there is something about their sound that, while still indie rock, brings an element of tradition to it. They sounded amazing, but the lighting didn't work out so much for my P&S or PoS camera, depending on how you look at it.

Devotchka




Last, I made my way back to the nightmare chaos stage to worm my way through the crowd for Vampire Weekend. I still love this band, despite their unfortunate overhype and subsequent backlash. They make me happy, and when I met them all in the past, they were all sweet and humble guys just enjoying the ride while they can. Can't knock them for that.

Vampire Weekend








After Vampire Weekend, I attempted Beck but was rejected for not having a secondary special photo pass, which pretty much made me give a big middle finger and skip his performance. I guess with Beck I'm a fairweather fan. I only own/like Sea Change, and the last time I saw him at RIMAC I was bored to bits, so I wandered.

I did make one more stop at The Casbah stage for Antibalas who played furiously and had a great political message to their music, not to mention being the only band I danced to all night.

Antibalas


And that was the end of our Street Scene adventure. I caught a ride with Dagart and Jake and we hit the Chee Chee for a while after the show, then went to the Ken. It was a punk night there and it was packed and I ran into a bunch of friends there, so afterward a couple of them came over thinking we'd have a full on after party, but everyone else bailed I guess. Still we had a good time catching up and I finally crashed out around 4 am. Entirely not enough sleep for Saturday's festivities, but such is my life sometimes. I'll post a Day Two recap soon.

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."

Sunday Recap: Grand Ole Party, Vampire Weekend, Fantastic Magic at the Casbah

I barely eeeked out my column in time to head down to the Casbah. In fact, I thought I was going to have to actually blog from the Casbah because I felt the need to catch up with all this posting, but I knew that just was not gonna happen, so I left it in the car. Let me tell you something, San Diego. If you wanna hit a Casbah show that you know is a big deal, go onto Casbahmusic.com and buy tickets in advance. I cannot tell you how many people were stuck outside on Friday and Sunday just hoping to be let in. Our little bands are all grown up and all those late on the bandwagoners are buying their tickets in advance... I'm jus' sayin'

Anyway, I got there while Fantastic Magic was finishing up. I saw them once before at Scolari's and I kinda like their spooky hippie sounds, but in the sold out room, the band couldn't really grab the majority of the crowd's attention.

I made sure to secure a spot up front because I'd heard so much about Vampire Weekend. They said that they'd all gotten sick and they were pretty disappointed about that, but I really enjoyed them. I was really feeling the singer in his cable knit oversized sweater and his scarf...the joys of winter. I also loved how before each song, the bassist would kinda start dancing to the beat of the next song before anyone else had played a note. I loved the live performance and so I downloaded some of their music online today...and recorded all those comparisons to Paul Simon hold true, though I didn't really feel that live. I would've guessed the band was European had I not known otherwise.









In between bands I met some people, including the new music editor of CityBeat, and a few blog readers, which was pretty cool. It's nice to get feedback like that. On a night like this, it was just as fun between bands as it was actually seeing the bands play. I love those nights...where you actually hope the band takes a while to set up.

Eventually, Grand Ole Party started and the room was packed. Like Sardines. I ended up watching most of the show from the side of the stage and then for a while from the bar, and at times from the patio, but I decided I needed to take at least a few pics, so I delivered a beer to Greg, who was right up front. Sorry to all those people irritated by me squeezing through, but I kinda feel its my blog duty to try.

Kristin was a little sick, but they sounded really great and it's clear why the band has been getting such a great reception across the country and in Europe. None of it has gone to their heads, and they're all just as sweet as ever.









After the show I was really surprised, because the Casbah stayed open. They had music playing and people were actually inside dancing and stuff. I talked to the guys in Vampire Weekend a bit and they were really nice, and teasing me about being a blogger- certain blogs have so much attitude that they make the rest of us look bad. I hope bands never see me as the enemy...well except Band of Horses...but who cares about them anyway?

Anyway, I was talking to one of the guys in the band and the others were loading out all their merch, but left a 7" behind, so he asked if I wanted it. Yay. And he gave me a poster. Such lovely guys.

After the show I was ready to head home but was caught at the last second by some of the Casbah guys who needed their battery jumped. I pulled my car around and up on the sidewalk, but the jump didn't work, so I was on my way home. When I got home, my animals were a bit rambunctious and my dog chomped my cat. He's ok, no skin was broken or anything, but my poor cat has been hiding from my dog all day. Hopefully he feels better tomorrow. Needless to say, I got to bed later than I expected so the shortage of sleep left me pretty unmotivated to go out tonight. So I took a break, but I'll be at the Lemonheads show tomorrow. I hope Evan's in a good place because his mood can really influence the performance. A happy Evan is so, so nice.