Vampire Weekend's MSG Matinee

With an electronic Montreal act and a Billy Joel Tribute Band

Sunday I walked into Madison Square Garden for a concert, as I had done so often during my concert reviewing years. At first there was a sense of dishabituation, a word around which the Harvard law professor Cass Sunsteen built his keynote address at the World of Bob Dylan Conference in Tulsa in 2023.

It was likely the hour that made me feel I was in a different time zone, about 11:45 AM, and the performance. My favorite 21st century rock band, Vampire Weekend, had played the Garden Saturday night, and they did so again for a matinee show Sunday, Oct. 6. I had seen matinee rock concerts before, but not since the 1960s. The Rolling Stones played a matinee at the old Academy of Music on 14th Street the first time I saw them in May 1965. They played for about half an hour. Vampire Weekend gave its full two and a half hour show, and from what I've read, the set lists have some overlap, but are often quite different.

A major headlining rock band matinee at Madison Square Garden? This is such…