Vampire Weekend Contemplate Going Southern Rock on Next Tour

The great thing about Coachella for bands is they never know where and when they'll find inspiration. Take Vampire Weekend for example -- hanging backstage with Spinner talking about their upcoming tour, drummer Chris Tomson came up with an idea for a song for the band to cover. "'All Summer Long,'" Tomson declared. "That guy kind of looks like Kid Rock, which is why I thought of it," he said, looking at a doppelganger of the 'American Badass' singer.

Only, it wasn't just the Kid Rock lookalike that prompted the brainstorm. "We have talked about covering 'All Summer Long,'" frontman Ezra Koenig said. "I think that would blow people's minds." They're also talking about having some fun with other covers on this upcoming fall tour. "I know [bassist] Chris Baio is a real big Allman Brothers fan, so maybe we might give 'Jessica' a shot," Tomson said. If so, Koenig has some ideas for it. " I would enjoy playing 'Jessica' because I would make up words to the guitar melody, because nobody likes instrumentals. People hate instrumental music, so I'd make up some bulls--- about Jessica," he added, jokingly (we think).

Either way, Vampire Weekend, who earned raves for their Coachella performance, are going to be looking at mixing stuff up on this next tour, out of necessity. "Even though we've got two albums it still doesn't give us that many options because when you only have one album you can get away with maybe playing a 50-minute show, people understand," Koenig said. "But when you've got two albums I think you almost have to play all of it. So I guess what we have to figure out is what other stuff can we add to the set and make it special. How can we maybe perform the songs slightly differently or do something? It's a tough one because really it's a matter of not playing a few songs. We don't have too much wiggle room -- it's not like a Bruce Springsteen."

Trying to change up the set list isn't the only new thing on this tour. "I think in the fall we're gonna try and play some places that we haven't played before and that's one of them," Tomson said of their just-announced Hollywood Bowl date. The band will also be filling the history when they return home to NYC. "We're playing three shows at Radio City, very exciting," Koenig said. Though they're excited about Radio City, they'll always take a good outdoor gig. "Historically our band has always had the most fun playing outside," Koenig said. "Being outside at nighttime, it's a beautiful thing."