This past weekend, Vampire Weekend appeared at The Met in Philadelphia, and during their set on May 31st, they added to their last set a full version of a song that they’d performed before.
Last August, on Jerry Garcia’s birthday, the band incorporated Garcia’s “Reuben & Cerise” into a medley of audience-requested covers, a fun encore gimmick they do every night. But this time, they performed the song properly, in full.
The song featured lead singer/guitarist Ezra Koenig and drummer Chris Tomson. (Bassist Chris Baio sat out.) Koenig and Tomson were joined by Isabel Hagen on violin, Brian Robert Jones on mandolin, Colin Killalea on saxophone and Garrett Ray on percussion. The version puts the lead on the violin, where, on the record it’s mostly played on keyboard. The band is, however, able to retain the light and fluid feeling that Garcia captured on his original version.
Vampire Weekend is known for taking audience requests for covers, and this show was no different, with songs by Phoenix, Sublime and Bob Dylan attempted, among others.
The song first appeared on Garcia’s 1978 album, Cats Under the Stars, which featured Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, who left the band one year later. The lyrics were written by frequent Garcia collaborator Robert Hunter. (The song was the only one from the album that The Grateful Dead ever performed live.)
