Vampire Weekend Reading Set Gets the Crowd Stripping

Reading has a reputation for being a raucous festival. Its traditional marker as the musical swansong of the summer has meant its backstage reveries often feel like the fall of some old empire; the punters themselves get on with the business of celebrating in rare old style. Topless, as the case is sometimes...

Vampire Weekend may not have been aware of such activity before they came -- they're well-read boys from the Upper East Side, checked shirts and sensible trousers in full effect, a winsome blend of indie and Afro-pop- flavoured brew ready to dole out to a Sunday crowd -- but their set saw the crowd rival the band in the entertainment stakes.

No snub to VW intended -- last year's debut album was an instantly likable record, even if it has potentially damned them with having to mine that sound for the rest of their careers. The New Yorkers made an admirable fist of filling a prime-time main stage slot on the back of one record.

Frontman Ezra Koenig donned the shades for much of the set -- possibly an attempt to censor some of the bare flesh on display. Where Spinner was standing, a human pyramid ended with a display of bare cheeks which incited a barrage of bottles. Now that's a tough act to follow.


In a set sprinkled with the familiar - 'Mansard Roof' and 'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' helped kick things off -- Vampire Weekend also unveil new songs, material which doesn't veer a million miles away from the infectious Afro-pop of their debut. The Reading and Leeds sets came just as the band prepare to put the finishing touches on their new record. On this evidence, don't expect drastic changes in direction.

Predictably, the set's crowd-pleaser is 'A Punk', with the crowd dancing like sun-stroked lunatics. Well, from those with their trousers still on, obviously.