dispatch from the green room at world cafe live in philadelphia, pa.

we’ve had a great week of shows with grant-lee phillips. after albany, we went to burlington, vt, where an audience member took these videos … then we spent two nights at club passim in cambridge, ma (personal highlight: time with family)… then we went to new york, where we played in manhattan (personal highlight: time with friends) and then in brooklyn (personal highlights: a day spent at museums, and of course the vegan philly cheese steak) at union hall (pictured above). after that, a long but fun day including a radio appearance on philadelphia’s wxpn, and then a show at jammin java in vienna, va, which was hard-fought in terms of tiredness and traffic — but thanks to a great audience, it was one of my favorite shows of the week. as i write this, we’re getting ready for our show at world cafe live in philadelphia, pa. we’re feeling rested and ready and are looking forward to tonight’s show, and then annapolis and sirius-xm radio. thanks to everyone who has come to shows, listened, read, and supported us along the way.

we played more of a ‘rock’ set and had much fun doing it, leaving off the super-fragile numbers in favor of more sparkle and soar. it was pouring rain out. here are some pictures of this evening:

a fan picture of our set. we were well-lit. my legs look skinny.

after the show, the Folding of the Vampire Weekend signature image. a sacred moment, done in silence.

a panoramic shot of the VW show in full effect, from the balcony.

a panoramic of the green room/winterpills pre-show mealtime in full effect.

testing the lights at soundcheck.

the view from my head during soundcheck.

the banner.

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last saturday the 18th, we played at the amazing Bell House in Brooklyn, with our dear pals KaiserCartel and new friends Lucinda Black Bear. his venue is not to be missed for it ambience, sound, and general incredible friendliness to an audience and artist. somebody got this place right.

it was the first of three shows that we are playing with Dave Chalfant playing electric guitar in place of Dennis, who severely burned his hand doing a Mark Bittman recipe last week (no fault of Bittman’s). Dave C played great, as usual, and the show was wonderful all around. KC and LBB’s sets blew our minds. a great night.

THe next day we made it out to Williamsburg with Benjamin Cartel to eat Bahn Mi at Silent H. Here are some pictures of the weekend:

Ben waits for his grilled pork Bahn Mi sandwich, patiently, with a touch of anger perhaps.

the violinist and cellist of Lucinda Black Bear.

during soundcheck: a view of the Bell House.

Cincinnati is a cool city: architecture, neighborhoods, chili, Vietnamese food, the great art deco train station, churches. Club was on the edge of a funky neighborhood, a bit remote but not too far. We arrived at 6:30 for load in, as told to, only to find that no one would be there till 8, the promoter had quit weeks ago, and there wasn’t usually music on Mondays. This did not bode well for a succesful show.

We almost left, but 4 minutes before our ‘deadline’ the club opened. So we planned to play a show for our friends the Fervor quickly, then they would too, and then we would leave and get a drink somewhere. We weren’t expecting anyone.

But our conscience won out and the sound guy Dwight was great and some fans showed up and before we knew it we had played a show we felt good about to a small bit appreciative crowd. We stayed in the moment and the moment blossomed for us and us for it.

The owner at the end was very generous and it was nice to meet fan Keeh and Wussy bandmates Lisa and Chuck… and the manhattan was delicious.

Al’s was kind of a Fellini movie: load-in to a rather seedy bar in a rundown neighborhood, during a tango dance party; door was held open for us by a midget. Mix of neighborhood characters and college kids. One of locals seemed annoyed the ‘rock n roll Nazis’ were breaking up the tango party.

Our last show with kaisercartel for the tour (sniff). The room was very sparse and pool was being played right in the room with us. One of the weirdest gigs we ever played, but the owners (josh and audra, I think) were super nice and served amazing Kentucky bourbon in teacups and local beef burgers with sweet potato fries that were damn good.

Fervor played a great show and afterwards pics were posed for. A couple awesome fans came out for us. A unique night, no doubt.

We are so beyond depleted and exhausted today. Dennis and his guitar are surely missed; gig was ok in that department, not great.

If there was any drawback it was only that whitesburg is hours on winding weavy roads up into the heart if Kentucky Appalachia. Beautiful, poverty-stricken, a bit scary. The town itself is a true oasis, which included a filmmaking institute. The ride out the next day was truly amazing and terrifying.

Some pics.