Vampire Weekend- Father Of The Bride Australian Tour

It has been six years since Vampire Weekend last played in Australia, and tonight's sold out show at the Forum was surprisingly their first ever headline show here. This was supposed to be a Falls Festival side show, but it became their only show in Victoria as the Lorne site was shut down due to extreme weather conditions and bushfire fears in the lead up to New Year's Eve.

Belinda joined me on the absolutely packed main floor of the venue. There were no support acts so the crowd was ready to go when Vampire Weekend hit the stage and started the set with "Bambina" off their latest album Father Of The Bride. It was an epic concert that lasted nearly three hours as they played songs off all four of their albums. I had no idea they were a bit of a jam band live with multiple drummers, guitar players and keyboardists.

"Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" was played a few songs in and nearly became the undoing of the entire show due to a loss of power to the guitars and bass twice mid-song. This led to a couple of lengthy delays as the road crew tried to fix the problem. Thankfully the third time was a charm and they made it through the whole song to the relief of everyone in the room. The band sounded amazing and frontman Ezra Koenig’s singing was just like the vocals on the albums. My highlights were the older tracks from the first two albums, including "A-Punk," "Oxford Comma," "Holiday," "White Sky," "Horchata," "Cousins" and "Giving Up The Gun." With the stage backdrop of a giant globe that rotated on its axis, Ezra talked about current events during the show, including the impact of the Australian bushfires and his support for US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

The main set finished with "Jerusalem, New York, Berlin," and for the encore they started with "Sunflower." Ezra then asked for audience requests, which included "Diplomat's Sun" and "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance." To close out the evening they played "Ya Hey" as two large inflated globes bounced through the crowd on the floor of the Forum.

Here's the video for "This Life"