“In Santa Barbara, Hannah cried.“

Last night, while we were watching the powerful Pinback pin the audience to the ceiling at Velvet Jones “in Santa Barbara,” Vampire Weekend performed on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.  We have never been overwhelmed by the band live (trust us, we’ve tried), but we perked up a bit with their spare, dynamic rendition on Kimmel of Hannah Hunt, one of our favorite songs (along with Step) off of our No. 12 Best Album of the Year, Modern Vampires of the City.  After Hannah Hunt watch the band give a more-standard, perfunctory and soulless performance, this time of Unbelievers.  Simply put:  we far prefer to listen to the band’s recordings than throw good money after their live show, which honestly adds nothing to the recordings.

While the latter performance is particularly lackluster, the audience seemed to lap it up, and particularly the ladies.  Who knew Ezra Koenig would become a heart-throb?  Must be the culotte onesie.