Love Bites Back: Vampire Weekend

A SCANT 10 MONTHS AGO, the members of Vampire Weekend played fourth at an all-day BBQ on the Columbia University's Barnard campus.

The show itself was a washout of sorts; it was moved indoors and attendance was sparse due to furious April showers.

These days, it is hard to imagine such an event wouldn't be filled to capacity with overzealous tastemakers and seething non-believers because the pseudo-Afro-funk-new-wavers are this year's Next Big Thing.

And although the District's Wednesday forecast calls for rain, you can bet that a little water won't keep hipsters from cramming into the band's sold out show at the Rock & Roll Hotel.

Vampire Weekend's meteoric rise (in indie-rock Internet buzz terms anyway) has culminated in a big week that saw the release of the band's debut self-titled full length on XL Recordings, its network television debut on "The Late Show With David Letterman" and the start of a massive U.S. tour that takes the band all across the country, including a set at the Coachella festival.

You'd never know this flurry of activity was happening by talking with bassist Chris Baio. He seems to take it all in stride, and it's clear that he's not yet comfortable sermonizing about his band.

Even a brief run in with Paris Hilton while taping Letterman yielded minimal reactions.

"She had three bodyguards and we ran into her in the elevator," says Baio. "One of our friends gave her a CD and she thanked us."

Not exactly the stuff rumors are made of.

Baio & Co.'s casual nature is an interesting counterpoint to the endless debate surrounding the band's album. Within the past few weeks, the Village Voice and the New York Times have seemingly spilled more words about the band they've printed about the presidential campaign, while Pitchfork Media has eagerly bestowed its "Best New Music" title onto them — the indie equivalent of a kiss on the forehead from La Cosa Nostra.

But the band's cribbing of African and Caribbean styles blended with its hyper-literate subject matter have led to a eyebrow-arching skepticism, even by elitist indie-rock standards. The songs "Mansford Roof" and "Oxford Comma" tackle erudite topics such as architectural aesthetics and the finer points of diction, while two tunes on Vampire Weekend's debut ("Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Walcott") concern themselves with the finer and not-so-finer points of Cape Cod.

Vampire Weekend has even described its music as "Upper West Side Soweto."

Controversy and questions abound:

Is there an inherent contradiction between upper-class privilege and education and rock music? Are the claims of musical misappropriation valid concerns or just another routine yet unanswerable quest for authenticity in popular music? Can anyone pull off Ralph Lauren chinos and still be perceived as cool? Will people dance in D.C.? Is this the first show at the Rock & Roll Hotel where it's preferable to come in business casual?

While the answers to these questions all hang in the balance, one thing is for sure: Mothers can expect their daughters home promptly.

"The four of us tour in a minivan. We don't have a chance to party real hard," says Baio. "Usually when we play I try to give it my all. After our set, I really just look forward to going to sleep."

» Rock & Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; Wed., 8:30 p.m., sold out; 202-388-7625.

Written by Express contributor Matthew Siblo

Photo by Tim Soter