Vampire Weekend highlights fall concert schedule

Mumford & Sons. Liars. Tortoise.

This summer, Bloomington has been ripe with talented musicians putting on fantastic performances in intimate venues. The shows coming in the fall, however, should prove to be just as memorable.

The first show will also be one of the biggest. Kicking off the semester on Sept. 6, Vampire Weekend, the Dum Dum Girls and Beach House will be taking the stage at the IU Auditorium. Vampire Weekend is obviously the biggest headliner of the trio, coming off two consecutive critically acclaimed albums and being the heavy on its latest tour schedule.

The group is currently being sued by the subject of the photo from their latest album cover, Kristen Kennis, so it should be interesting to see if the issue injects any kind of new creative energy into the group.

The other two acts, the Dum Dum Girls and Beach House, have both (deservedly) garnered more attention recently, so the anticipation will be high for their shows as well.

Noise pop musician Wavves will appear Sept. 14 at Rhino’s All Ages Club. Redeeming his formally erratic and immature behavior with his latest release “King of the Beach,” Nathan Williams will surely put on a great show. His penchant for creating carefree, fuzzed-out music will keep the memory of summers past alive.

If the Wavves show is not enough for some concert-goers, they can hit up the No Age performance the next day at the same venue.

For the 21+ crowd, The Tallest Man on Earth is playing Sept. 21 at Bluebird Nightclub. Known for his incredible deftness at finger-picking acoustic guitar, Kristian Matsson has a voice reminiscent of Bob Dylan and lyrics that stick in the mind.

S. Carey, the drummer and pianist for Bon Iver’s live shows, will be opening for Matsson.

Following Matsson at the Bluebird will be Yeasayer, a psychedelic worldbeat band on the local label Secretly Canadian.

Having released its latest album, “Odd Blood,” in February, the band has played a stint of shows and will surely be performing with even greater intensity and talent. Its tunes lend themselves to an active concert atmosphere, and the home environment will be another awesome element.
Cymbals Eat Guitars and Good Luck will be opening up for The Thermals on Oct. 4 at Rhino’s. While the trio from Portland, Ore., did not release a new album this year, there is no way its post-punk/pop sound will not translate well live.

Bassnectar returns Oct. 27 to the Bluebird. Lorin Ashton’s freeform electronic project brings an incredible amount of energy to shows, and his display is usually very good as well.

Last year’s show was a success, and this year’s should be no different — especially with a more intimate venue enhancing the effects of electronic shows such as this.
While this by no means covers every show in Bloomington this fall, music lovers should now have a good idea of which shows not to miss.