Vampire Weekend’s live experience has surpassed the preppy hooks from their earlier years. For the New York-bred band’s fifth album, Only God Was Above Us, they designed thought-provoking narratives and sonic palettes. As they demonstrated during their first Twin Cities performances in five years, this is a group peaking right now.

Tuesday’s nearly two-and-a-half-hour show at the Armory was the first of two nights, and lead vocalist Ezra Koenig congratulated the audience on bringing a lot more than “Tuesday night energy.” It began with Koenig, bassist Chris Baio, and drummer Chris Tomson on stage in front of a “Vampire Weekend” banner. But the band needs way more than three musicians to recreate the jam-packed arrangements found on Only God Was Above Us. After performing three tracks off their self-titled debut, Baio and Tomson exited to leave Koenig solo to begin Only God Was Above Us’ opener, “Ice Cream Piano.” 

As he amped up the energy singing, “The word was weaponized, as soon as it had passed your lips / I am a gentleman, I refuse to show my gentleness,” the curtain dropped to reveal a vibrant musical ensemble of keys player Will Canzoneri, percussionist Garrett Ray, multi-instrumentalist Ray Suen, and multi-instrumentalist Colin Killalea. “F**k around and find out, the angry child recites this every day / The universe will pry out the truth which is you've got nothin' to say,” Koenig continued to the sound of bright, shattering keys and ornate beats from two percussionists. 

Koenig wasn't the only star of the show. When watching the stage, it was difficult to focus on any one of the seven musicians, who each alternated between instruments to find their unique places within songs. On the psychedelic and funky “Sunflower,” Suen stepped to the front of the stage to sonically combat Killalea’s saxophone with his violin. For “Capricorn,” the saxophone player produced drawn out, ear piercing squeals. Koenig’s enthusiastic “Ah-ooh-ooh-ooh” choruses on the throwback “White Sky” didn’t overshadow Suen’s breezy pedal steel guitar and Ray’s shakers lightly tiptoeing around the lively cymbals. 

Backed by the band, Koenig has a talent of making painful circumstances sound beautiful. “Classical” comes off as cheerful, children’s theme park music when he sings, “Untrue, unkind and unnatural / How the cruel, with time, becomes classical.” It’s like a nursery rhyme alluding to the saying, “History is written by the victors.” Drums and piano keys danced excitedly around, “Baby, I know pain is as natural as the rain / I just thought it didn't rain in California” on “This Life” before Koenig pleasantly sings, “You've been cheating on, cheating on me / I've been cheating on, cheating on you / You've been cheating on me / But I've been cheating through this life.”

During “Cocaine Cowboys,” a compilation of songs Koenig called “strange, bewildering, and bizarre,” an audience member was brought on stage to play “gold rush” (corn hole). Canzoneri’s keys kept chirping as the player scored a point with a bean bag, which resulted in a whopping $500 that Koenig jokingly said would irritate his accountant in Beverly Hills. 

The corn hole game exemplified Koenig’s youthful yet wise energy and crowd interaction. His stage banter was professionally seasoned and lightheaded. To gauge the astrological energy before playing “Capricorn,” Koenig asked if there were any Capricorns, Tauruses, or Virgos in the room. Responding to some yelling in the crowd, he said, “This goes out to all the Capricorns and the guy whose heart was broken by a Virgo.” 

Vampire Weekend could have easily ended the night after “Hope,” the tranquil, folky tune with a long outro, but instead chose to return to the stage and dedicate 20 minutes to attempting covers requested by the audience. “That was the show,” Koenig said. “Not bad right? This part is something else.” On previous tours, the band let fans request Vampire Weekend songs, but this time around, people had the freedom to request any song. Fans came prepared with song titles on signs held overhead, and Koenig chose a few classics by the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones, Weezer, Blink-182, and of course, Prince. (He didn’t want to mess up a Replacements song.) 

The segment may have been fun for super fans, but instead felt like an anticlimactic aftershow, not a continuation of the concert. The crowd dwindled, but those who lingered got a bonus of “Worship You” and an overhauled “Ya Hey.” Still, looking at the night holistically, Vampire Weekend proved they are at their best.

Opening the evening was Ra Ra Riot, whose lead singer Wes Miles is one of Koenig’s most long-time friends. Many bands thank the crowd for showing up early, but at the beginning of Ra Ra Riot’s set, Miles thanked the Armory “for showing up on time.” The indie-pop-rock quartet composed of Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist and keys player Milo Bonacci, and drummer Kenny Bernard, set a warm tone. Their new song “Wish” about imagining a different world where desires are fulfilled included Miles’ focus on fingerpicking patterns on his acoustic guitar. “Water” from their 2016 album Need Your Light struck a chord when the singer hit falsetto. 

Like Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot can turn feelings like intense yearning into pop infused jams on songs like “Every Time I’m Ready to Hug.” But with less-detailed instrumentation and precise showmanship, the performance came off more like background music. To show up on time would have meant to show up for the headliner’s energizing set. 

Ra Ra Riot

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Setlist

Mansard Roof

Campus

I Stand Corrected

Ice Cream Piano

Classical

Connect

White Sky

Step

This Life

Sunflower

Run

Pravda

Bambina

Capricorn

Gen-X Cops

Diane Young

Cousins

A-Punk

Married in a Gold Rush / All the Gold in California / Sin City / Cumberland Blues / Possum

Mary Boone

Harmony Hall

Hope

Encore

Martha My Dear (The Beatles)

All My Loving (The Beatles) 

Purple Rain (Prince)

Say It Ain’t So (Weezer) 

Roxanne (The Police)

Uncle John’s Band (Grateful Dead)

All The Small Things (Blink-182)

Wild Horses (The Rolling Stones)

Tainted Love (Soft Cell)

Someday (The Strokes)

Worship You

Ya Hey