Vampire Weekend, Pete & The Pirates, El Guincho - Forum, London - Friday 24th October 2008

One of the best bands I saw at Glastonbury this year were Vampire Weekend, and there were so good, I saw them not just once but twice. So, when they announced their autumn UK dates, I was very keen. By the time the gig actually came around, I had not listened to them for a while, and had almost forgotten about them in some respects, so this show was almost like a reintroduction to the band.

We got into the venue just after 8pm, and were surprised to see the opening act, El Guincho, still on stage. I guess that, given the relative lack of material in Vampire Weekend's catalogue, there was a good explanation for that. El Guincho were 2 Spanish guys, one of whom had a synthesizer, and the other had a drum machine. They both played interesting sounding stuff, and shouted over the top. They reminded me a bit of the Ting Tings in a strange way (and not just because there were 2 of them), and I could totally see why they were supporting Vampire Weekend. I probably wouldn't go and see one of their shows, but they were interesting enough to watch for 20 minutes or so.

The main support act were Pete & The Pirates, who I was really looking forward to seeing. I like a lot of the stuff on their album, and as a former Reading resident, it is always good (and more than a bit surprising, given the lack of decent venues there), to see a band from Reading. Anyway, their set was a good one - they had a good number of fans in the audience, and they went down really well. Knots, one of their best songs in my view, appeared early in the set, and Mr Understanding (their absolute standout tune) was towards the end. The rest of the set sounded good - the band sounded tight and competent, and they had more than a few very decent tunes. Last time I saw them, I liked them - but tonight they were better than I remembered.

Vampire Weekend came on stage late, as expected, and to a fantastic reception. Mansard Roof as the first song got everybody excited, and the set was of course mostly drawn from their album. There were a couple of new songs (definitely one, maybe two), but the sound of tunes like Oxford Comma reminded me of just how good they are live. They sound very much like they do on record, with the excellent exception that the guitars sound much, much rockier and better when they play live. The set was fairly short but very good, didn't dip at all, and when they left the stage, everybody was still up for much more. The encore included a very amusing cover of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere, as well as a very fast and furious version of Walcott, which topped the night off brilliantly - a great song, played fantastically well by a very good band indeed.