Concert review: Vampire Weekend doesn't bite arty set

If the young lads of hyper-buzzing indie-rock band Vampire Weekend had attended more of a jock college than Columbia University, they might have bragged after their hasty but hearty set Thursday at the Triple Rock: We came, we saw, we ... charmed.

The quartet's 50-minute gig at the intentionally undersized, very sold-out Minneapolis club couldn't exactly be called a conquering performance, but it was fun and feisty enough to at least keep the hype alive.

Looking pink-cheeked and clean-cut enough to star in a J. Crew ad (start the bidding now!), the bouncing baby band ricocheted through the 11 songs on its eponymous debut album and only played two extra tunes on top of that. There was no encore, and the music varied little to none from how it sounds on record.

As modern indie-rock bands go, though, VW's combination of Smiths-style dorm-room rock and African guitar pop truly has a unique verve. Thursday's show was more interesting than it was rocking.

The opening shuffles "Mansard Roof" and "Campus" -- each driven by frontman Ezra Koenig's staccato, soukous-style guitar strumming -- sounded giddier and bubblier than anything the punk-heavy Triple Rock has heard in ages.

Most out-of-place but impressive were the poppiest tunes, including "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" and "Oxford Comma," where the band showed its knack for Paul Simon-type harmonies. At some point, these guys could very well land big radio hits, thanks largely to Koenig's naturally sweet voice. You don't hear a lot of natural voices in indie-rock these days.

Until the big hits come, Vampire Weekend also offers a cheeky personality. Koenig offered a lot of witty banter, starting after "Campus" when he talked about walking around the University of Minnesota earlier in the day.

"We were trying to find Bob Dylan's house but we wound up at a pasta bar," he said (the Loring Pasta Bar sits on the site of one of Bobby's old flats). "We did see a street where he skateboarded on, though."

Koenig called it a "tall order" when, before the single "A-Punk," he asked the hipster crowd to dance. The fact that fans weren't already dancing says something, but so does the fact that the two songs not on the record -- the punkier B-side "Ladies of Cambridge" and an untitled new one -- were among the show's best. Hopefully, there's plenty more where that came from -- at least enough to fill up a whole hour next time.

See the set list and fan comments at startribune.com/poplife. Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658