The new era of Vampire Weekend has begun.

The Hilltop Hoods may have pulled the lion’s share of punters at the end of Day Two (a theme for the day) but those in attendance at the Amphitheatre witnessed a grand comeback from the NYC indie royalty.

The set burst into life with ‘Cousins’, the lighting showing off the backdrop – a vibrant display of graffiti that later opened up to a fish eye lens. “This is our first festival in four years and first Australian show in five years,” the band explain to roars of approval. There was the feeling that both audience and band are reconnecting with music they’ve both treasured.

But rather just being a reminder of what we’ve been missing, what made this a truly special show was how it kick-started a new chapter for the band and proved that despite being out of circulation, their energy and importance has diminished none.

Losing Rostam might be the best thing to happen to their live show

When key member Rostam Batmanglij left the band in 2016 to pursue freelance production and solo work, it cast a worrying omen over Vampire Weekend. However, in his departure, Rostam’s duties have been split between four new members, and it's brought the band’s live show more in line with their studio sound, and allowed them the freedom to do things they never could as a four-piece.

Taking influence from their ‘80s forebears, such as Stop Making Sense-peak Talking Heads and Graceland-era Paul Simon, Vampire Weekend are now a fully-fledged seven-piece unit. Frontman Ezra Koenig, drummer Chris Thompson, and bassist Chris Baio now joined by multi-instrumentalist Greta Morgan, guitarist Brian Roberts, keys player Will Canzoneri, and percussionist Garrett Ray

Usually such a large ensemble is a red flag for indulgence but despite a rumoured 120 inputs, the motivation here was a steely focus on breathing new life into all of Vampire Weekend’s greatest hits.

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These songs have aged beautifully

Every track is at least 5-10 years old but they’ve all aged more than gracefully, sounding positively lush in the hands of this new line-up and showing how vital they can sound in a field with thousands of your mates.

Right from the preppy indie and Wes Anderson movie punk of their 2010 debut, Vampire Weekend had an intellectual streak and cosmopolitan style that would eventually make them the butt of the internet joke that they’re the ‘whitest band alive’. But they deserve credit for developing a unique musical identity that few other acts have bothered to capitalise on, let alone mimic successfully.

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The Soweto spring of ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ and ‘White Sky’, the goofball greaser rock of ‘Diane Young’, to the baroque pop of ‘Oxford Comma’ and ‘Ya Hey’. These are songs bountiful with vivacious melodies and gorgeous harmonies, all buoyed by a bubbling rhythm section. The stretch including massive sing-alongs to ‘Diane Young’, ‘A-Punk’, ‘Oxford Comma’ to the explosive ‘Hannah Hunt’ and ‘Giving Up The Gun’ feels like a blow by blow of the brilliance the band has to offer, and just how ahead of the curve they always were. A big part of that appeal lies in the winsome ringleader out front.

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Ezra Koenig is a charmer

The baby-faced frontman built a humorous bond with the crowd with a running gag about how they’re ‘warming up’ despite the oppressive winter chill. “We’re finally playing at night. Dreams really do come true,” he jokes later, and deadpans about ‘Giving Up The Gun’ being “an Instagram request”.

He’s intellectual and witty but immensely likeable in way that other artsy blockbuster bands, like Arcade Fire or alt-J for example, can sometimes irritate or seem smug. In a way, Koenig has a right to be so cocky. He’s underrated as one of modern music’s most interesting pop writers. Let’s not forget he wrote the hook to Beyoncé’s ‘Hold Up’.

A lyricist capable of constructing Genius.com worthy tongue-twisters (“A vegetarian since the invasion/she’d never seen the word ‘bombs’/blown up to 96-point Futura”) but also moments of simple insight, like “wisdom’s a gift that you trade for youth”. Winding his words around charismatic melodies, often complemented by easy chants like ‘Ay Ay Ay’ or ‘Baby Baby Baby’.

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The new elements all work

They stretch ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ (a song that was always tantalisingly short) into a quotation of Chicago’s chintzy ‘Saturday In The Park', and back again. ‘White Sky’ is gifted an instrumental preamble that’s like a tropical music box slowly wound into sunny life.

Most surprisingly, they reclaimed SBTRKT’s ‘New Dorp New York’ into a Vampire Weekend song. What should’ve been a novelty nod to Ezra’s intermittent collabs became an early centrepiece, finding room in its oddball rhymes and warped percussion for a guitar workout and a disco funk strut. It definitely shouldn’t work. But it does. Beautifully.

We’re excited for album #4

Tonight was the perfect celebration of the band’s three excellent, progressively smarter records. The one major complaint was we didn’t get a taste of what comes next. Some new material would’ve really been the cherry on top of the sonic sundae, even if it arguably would’ve bogged down the thrill of hearing their colourful back catalogue in new ways.

With an impressive live unit and a proven track record for studio brilliance, will the new Vampire Weekend album measure up? We’ll find out soon.

“Next time we come to Australia we’ll have a new album,” Ezra declares to booming applause. If you’re even a casual fan, do not miss injecting some Vampire into your Weekend next time they’re in town.

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