I once had a great opportunity, an opportunity, that if properly approached and taken advantage of, my life could have changed. My sleep could have been deep and healing, 8-9 hours each night. Stress could have rolled off my shoulders like raindrops off the surface of a freshly waxed car. Days could have passed without instance, whatever that may mean, and time would have worked according to my schedule, if only I had taken advantage of that one missed opportunity.
I’m speaking of ACL 2008. Vampire Weekend was set to play around 2 in the afternoon. I was done with class at 11. So, what’s the dilemma? Well, I’ll tell you the dilemma. It was other people. For some reason or another, not really looking to place any blame on any specific person, mostly because I already know who that person is, we didn’t make it on time. I don’t want to dwell on who misplaced what ticket, or who lost what set of keys, or who needed to eat a sit-down lunch half an hour before leaving; there’s just no need for that. What I want to focus on is my deep seeded remorse and sense of dishevelment that is with me everyday like a parasite attached to my temporal lobe. I sit here now, listening to Vampire Weekend, only being able to wonder at how amazing they might have been to hear live. I think to myself: Wow, I bet they can really mix some things up on stage. Not to mention, they are beginning the tour of their new album, Contra. This could be my one shot at redemption, at least until they release a third album.
Slowly, they’ve been dropping hints, releasing new songs.
If that doesn’t make you burn for Christmas and Horchata, then I can’t say what would. I actually bought and tried Horchata for the first time because of this. Sure, I probably would have come across it at some other time in my life, without this song, but who’s to say when that would have been?
They’re also bustin’ out songs that won’t even be on the album, like California English.
This one isn’t even going to be a part of the album. They probably just cooked this up in one of their jam sessions, all casual-like, the singer just awoke from his massive hangover, the keyboardist still recovering from a battle with the flu, the drummer in the middle of finishing his research on ethical neuro-chemistry. They just said, “Hey, if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, I’m thinking we could just throw out some beats and see where it takes us.” BOOM. California English. At least, that is how I imagine it to have happened.
Anyway, as I’ve almost forgotten where I was going with this, I simply dig the band. I don’t jam to them all the time and I occasionally check their tour schedule, but if one of their songs happens to come on, I’ll strum the air guitar and pop one on the dashboard, and if they happen to be playing inside the continental US, then I will consider going. That is the case now. They will be playing in the US, East and West coast, for only 11 days. I figure that of course, they will probably come back again after that, but who’s willing to risk that? So, California or New York, here I come.
