August 30, 2009 17:43

Vampire Weekend keep the summer going at Reading Festival

New Yorkers overcome the clouds to get the Main Stage dancing

Photo Gallery: Vampire Weekend
Photo: Guy Eppel

Vampire Weekend attempted to keep the summer going at the Reading Festival this afternoon (August 30).

Taking to the Main Stage in overcast and windy conditions, frontman Ezra Koenig implored the crowd to stay summery.

"It may feel like summer is over but don't give up," he declared before 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa'. "This is a song about summer love."

With the band taking a break from recording their second album at home in Brooklyn, they included several new efforts in their set.

"We're going to play a few new songs today," explained the frontman. "So if you don't know them, in the words of Lady Gaga, 'Just dance'!"

After performing new tracks 'White Sky' and 'Run', they went back to their beginnings, dedicating early EP track 'Ladies Of Cambridge' to "the beautiful women of Boston, Massachusetts".

'A-Punk' then inspired such frantic dancing that clouds of dust kicked up by the crowd began to float across the Main Stage.

Later, the band, with keyboard player Rostam Batmanglij sporting a T-shirt promoting label mates The xx, then had the audience screaming along to the chorus of 'One (Blake's Got A New Face)', before playing a third new song, 'Cousins'.

Declaring the audience "wonderful", the band wrapped up their "last show of the summer" with 'Walcott'.

Vampire Weekend played:

'Mansard Roof'
'Campus'
'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa'
'I Stand Corrected'
'White Sky'
'Bryn'
'Ladies Of Cambridge'
'Run'
'A-Punk'
'M79'
'One (Blake's Got A New Face)'
'Cousins'
'Oxford Comma'
'Walcott'

NME.COM will be coming live from both the Reading And Leeds Festivals sites this weekend (August 28-30). Stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals for news reports, blogs, video interviews and photos from the event.

Get next Wednesday's (September 2) issue of NME for the ultimate Reading And Leeds Festivals review.

Plus have your say on this summer - fill in the annual NME Festival survey now to cast your verdict on 2009, and tell festival chiefs who you want to see next year.