Ezra Koenig has reunited with his high school band at a recent Vampire Weekend show. Check out footage of the moment below.
The gig from Vampire Weekend follows a huge year of touring, all in celebration of their latest album, ‘Only God Was Above Us’.
While in New Jersey on Monday (September 15), the band mixed things up by having a band called Sophisticuffs open for them. The band is the group that Koenig was in during high school, and also happens to feature Ra Ra Riot frontman Wes Miles.
Taking to the stage at the Wellmont Theater, the original line-up came together to open the show, and play their first live date in over 20 years.
The band were active between 1999 and 2002, and for the show they hung a small, make-shift backdrop behind them, which barely covered the Vampire Weekend curtain. Check out fan footage from the set, and a post from Ra Ra Riot about the reunion below.
The reunion comes as the band got their start in New Jersey, and for the three more shows that Vampire Weekend have planned at the Wellmont, Koenig and Miles will continue to open as part of Sophisticuffs.
These headline shows across the US follow on from a huge summer of festival slots for Vampire Weekend, and the band made headlines this summer when they used their headline set at Victorious to speak out in support of The Mary Wallopers, and say it is “wrong” for a festival to punish an artist for flying a flag.
The performance came shortly after the Irish band were halfway through the opening song of their set at the Portsmouth festival when their sound was cut by Victorious organisers and the Palestinian flag they had on stage was taken away.
That decision was met with furious responses from both the band and many of the other artists on the bill – several of whom, including The Last Dinner Party, The Academic, Cliffords and Esme Emerson, decided to boycott the festival as a result.
“If someone was punished for flying a flag, that is wrong and they deserve an apology,” Koenig said during their set. “The terrible suffering of the Palestinian people deserves all of our sympathy.”
Before then, Vampire Weekend surprised fans by using their set at Just Like Heaven to break out covers of Tame Impala, Phoenix, and TV On The Radio.
In a four-star review of their latest album, ‘Only God Was Above Us’, NME shared: “Despite its sentimental homages to the history of their hometown, ‘Only God Was Above Us’ isn’t a nostalgic album. Rather than adopting an overly rose tinted view of the past to cope with the present, Koenig seems to be fine with embracing that things just aren’t that great.”
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