Vampire Weekend just announced two intimate shows in Sydney (Enmore Theatre) and Melbourne (The Forum) next year, coinciding with their headlining sets at Falls Festival.
The story of their new album Father of the Bride begins with a long (necessary) break, after the success of Modern Vampires of the City in 2013. The break lasted until 2015, when Ezra Koenig moved to Los Angeles to make a series of pretentious but pretty funny cartoons; Neo Yokio, which starred Jaden Smith and Jude Law and broadcasted on Netflix.
It took a few years, but Vampire Weekend is back. The preppy band will play two very small gigs in Australia next year.
The following year, the co-founder of the group, Rostam Batmanglij, ran off. And Ezra Koenig went back to work with DJ Dahi (DAMN, with Kendrick Lamar), BloodPop (Sorry, for Justin Bieber), Mark Ronson, Danielle Haim… the list goes on.
Father of the Bride is a nod to the 1991 comedy starring Steve Martin, and there is a logic to this. Koenig became a father. He had a child with his girlfriend Rashida Jones. He became an adult.
The album is a natural progression over time, from youth to adulthood/rebirth, from life in an Ivy League university to Jewish politics (the song Jerusalem, New York, Berlin refers to the Balfour declaration of 1917), from preppy Ralph Lauren polos to diapers. And it worked; Father of the Bride went to No 1 in the US and Top 3 in the UK.
Check out the tour dates below. Tickets go on-sale Wednesday 16 October at 12pm AEDT.
Tour dates
Tuesday 7 January – The Forum, Melbourne
Thursday 9 January – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
