Vampire Weekend make mark at The Great Escape

United Kingdom | | 16 May 2008

Vampire Weekend gave festival fans a taste of what's to come this summer by wowing crowds on the opening night of The Great Escape.

The Brooklyn band, who will also play at Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds and T In The Park, proved the biggest draw on the first night of the Brighton festival (Thursday, 15 May).

Eager fans packed the Concord club but many were left disappointed after the venue reached capacity during warm-up act School Of Language.

The lucky ones were treated to a 45-minute set featuring most the hits from Vampire Weekend's self-titeld debut album.

'Campus' got the crowds dancing and 'APunk' got them singing, before the band closed with a racously received 'Walcott'.

Hometown heroes The Kooks were among those watching the band, with singer Luke Pritchard getting stuck in with the rest of the sweaty hordes.

Earlier on, Bon Iver performed to a packed out audience at Pressure Point, leaving onlookers near speechless after their stunning set. The crowd were invited to sing along during a moving version of 'Wolves' before the band took their instruments into the crowd for a moving, stripped down 'Skinny Love'.

Virtual Festivals hosted the opening afternoon of the festival with early revellers getting warmed up in Horatio's bar at the end of Brighton pier to sets by Wojtek Godzisz, The Domino State and more.

Other highlights on the opening day included acoustic troubadour Eugene McGuiness, who opened beach side bar, Digital, and Video Nasties and Late of the Pier, who played electric sets in Brighton Barfly.

Band of the moment The Ting Tings played a late show in the same venue, encouraging fans to help get new single 'That's Not My Name' to number one come Monday.

The Great Escape continues this weekend on Friday and Saturday with more than 200 bands playing across 25 venues.