sudan archives tour setlist

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Sudan archives concert setlists & tour dates, upcoming shows.

• Date and Venue Doors Scheduled
• May 10 2024 Wonderfront Music & Arts Festival 2024 San Diego, CA, USA Add time Add time Add times

Sudan Archives at PDX Jazz Fest 2024

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Sudan Archives at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Sudan archives at la3c 2023, sudan archives at austin city limits 2023.

• Selfish Soul
• Freakalizer
• NBPQ (Topless)
• Loyal (EDD)
• Homesick (Gorgeous & Arrogant)

Sudan Archives at All Things Go Music Festival 2023

• Nont for Sale
• Come Meh Way

Sudan Archives at Format Festival 2023

Sudan archives at afro punk fest 2023.

• Traditional Irish Jig

Sudan Archives at The Bellwether, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Sudan archives at green man festival 2023, sudan archives at all points east 2023.

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• Come Meh Way ( 35 )
• Freakalizer ( 32 )
• NBPQ (Topless) ( 32 )
• Nont for Sale ( 32 )
• Selfish Soul ( 32 )

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484 people have seen Sudan Archives live.

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Sudan Archives Announces Fall 2022 North American Tour

Including dates in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Nashville, and Vancouver

Los Angeles-based violinist and singer  Sudan Archives has mapped out her headlining “Homecoming Tour” across North America for Fall 2022.

The trek kicks off on September 24th in Solana Beach, California, and will include dates in San Francisco, Vancouver, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Nashville before closing out on October 21st in Los Angeles. See the full itinerary below.

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 3rd at 10:00 a.m. local time. Pick up yours via Ticketmaster .

Ahead of the tour, Sudan Archives will be making the festival rounds, making appearances at Winnipeg Folk Festival, All Points East, and Capitol Hill Block Party among others. Earlier this month, the musician released her latest single, “Selfish Soul,” which came on the heels of March’s “Home Maker.” Her last album was 2019’s  Athena .

Sudan Archives 2022 Tour Dates: 06/17 — Brooklyn, NY @ BK Mag Fest 06/25 — Calgary, AB @ Sled Island Festival 07/07–10 — Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festival 07/08 — Montreal, QC @ Montréal Jazz Festival 07/22–24 — Seattle, WA @ Capitol Hill Block Party 07/29–31 — Denver, CO @ Underground Music Showcase 07/30 — Omaha, NE @ Maha Festival 08/19–21 — Hamburg, DE @ MS Dockville Festival 08/23 — Leeds, UK @ Belgrave Music Hall 08/25 — London, UK @ All Points East 08/26 — Stockholm, SE @ Popaganda Festival 08/26–28 — Darmstadt, DE @ Golden Leaves Festival 08/28 — Edinburgh, UK @ Connect Festival 08/30 — Brighton, UK @ Patterns 09/01 – 09/04 — Salisbury, UK @ End of the Road Festival 09/03 — Bristol, UK @ FORWARDS Festival 09/24 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern 09/25 — Santa Barbara, CA @ Soho Music Club 09/26 — Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s 09/27 — San Francisco, CA @ The Independent 09/30 — Vancouver, BC @ Fortune 10/01 — Seattle, WA @ Neumos 10/04 — Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line 10/05 — Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 10/08 — Ottawa, ON @ Bronson 10/10 — Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair 10/11 — Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live 10/14 — Washington, DC @ Black Cat 10/17 — Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle 10/18 — Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West 10/19 — Nashville, TN @ The Basement East 10/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room

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Violinist, singer and songwriter Sudan Archives

Sudan Archives at Maximum Fun Kevin Ferguson hide caption

Sudan Archives has been making music for all her life. She grew up in Ohio, where she played violin in church and school bands. Her dad was a label guy, and he tried to make a pop duo out of Sudan and her twin sister, but it didn't take. Sudan needed to do her own thing. To be an artist in her own right.

When she got her high school diploma, she headed out to Los Angeles. She then started hanging out at a club called Low End Theory, home to beatmakers Flying Lotus, Daedalus and Nosaj Thing. It was there she found her voice as an artist.

Sudan Archives is a violinist who breaks new ground with what the instrument can do in pop music. However, she's not just a violinist. Playing the violin is only one color she paints with, one arrow in her quiver. When combined with her voice, her beatmaking and her songwriting, Sudan Archives' music is mesmerizing.

She recently released a new album called Natural Brown Prom Queen , which has been met with rave reviews. The album just came out this Fall and Sudan recorded it at home, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sudan Archives joins Bullseye to talk about her music and new album Natural Brown Prom Queen . She also talks about her process for creating music and performing it live. Plus, Sudan dives into some of the violinists who inspire her.

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Concert review: sudan archives.

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To all of you who have missed the opportunity to see Sudan Archives in a small venue, congratulations: you played yourselves. If the Los Angeles-via-Cincinnati singer/songwriter/producer/superstar doesn’t blow up because of her bombastic sophomore album, Natural Brown Prom Queen , the powers that be will have missed out on fostering legitimate greatness. The opportunity to see her now was damn near impossible to pass up — especially in the postage-stamp-sized Mississippi Studios, which has a capacity of roughly 250 people.

This reviewer first saw her perform at 2019’s Pickathon Music Festival, where she was showcasing songs from her also-excellent debut, Athena — she performed alone, on the festival’s largest stage, with nothing but her violin and a small keyboard, to the rapt attention of a massive daytime crowd. She’s just that magnetic. Somehow, in the three years since, she’s gotten more so. Sudan isn’t alone up there, but it’s spartan, with just a synth/bass player to share the load while she works the crowd, hands out “Natural Brown Prom Queen” sashes, and — most importantly — plays violin. We can only long for the day when she can perform with a full backing band behind her — if just one other person allows her to tap into an even better version of herself as a performer, it’s hard not to see what happens to her stage presence with live instruments.

From the moment she stepped onstage, the crowd was ecstatic. It helped that Sudan looked fucking awesome, dressed in a hyper-short pleather miniskirt, a studded belt, a black bralette, a bedazzled receiver for her wireless mic and, oh yeah, a chainmail headdress . Sudan oozes pure fucking swagger, making her impossible to look away from while she stalked the stage, seemingly incapable of slowing down. She also kept screaming, which she noted was something that gave her some trouble earlier in the week, but she just couldn’t help herself. And boy, did she dance — around the stage and in the audience, she seemed to be having the time of her life.

Living in Portland and seeing bands is weird for one reason: musicians from everywhere come here, play for our audiences and are frequently blown away by how much they love it. When you see people do it enough times, you learn to discern between the bog-standard “we love your city!” stage banter that populates many sets, and the genuine love an artist has for a city. Sudan was this to a T: “Portland is my favorite place to tour because y’all dance the most,” she said early in the show, which came as a surprise considering our reluctance to dance at many shows (to our credit, we all danced out asses off at this show). She talked about how much she loved Pickathon, and at one point joked about leaving LA to move here (Sudan, if you’re listening: please move here ). She could have read the phonebook and it would have made for engaging banter, so the fact that she casually dropped jokes like “How many of you ever had to cut a friend off? Hoes, right ?! All my songs are about love and hoes!” made the show all the better.

The bulk of the hour-and-change set focused on Natural Brown Prom Queen , with all of the best tracks on the album rendered excellently in live form. Tracks like “Freakalizer,” “Home Maker,” “Chevy S10,” and “Homesick (Gorgeous & Arrogant)” are great on record, but sound so much more alive in a room full of people, with Sudan able to dance and sway and thrust her hips and — in the case of “NBPQ (Topless)” — flash one of her breasts while singing the “ I just wanna have my titties out, titties out, titties out! ” portion of the song. (Side note: if you want, and you should want, you can preorder an “I just wanna have my titties out” shirt from the Sudan Archives merch site.) She also dabbled in Athena (“Iceland Moss”!) and her early EPs (“Come Meh Way”! “Nont For Sale”!), which were sprinkled throughout the set. It didn’t matter which release she played from — the crowd was ready to dance along to, and sing along with, every single one of them, which is a regrettably rare thing with shows promoting month-old albums.

It’s hard to know who will really survive in music — lord knows it’s easy to be totally dead-wrong — but if you have the chance to see this woman perform, we implore you to take it. If there’s any justice in the world, by the time she’s ready to release her third album, you’ll be seeing her headlining concert halls and basketball arenas, with space between the stage and the front row that you could fit Mississippi Studios into. Then again, as much as it feels like her rise to mega-stardom is inevitable, it’s hard to not hope that she rejects the stage lights and private jets and fortune and fame on her way, and instead plays in rooms this intimate and vibrant for the rest of her career. We should all get the opportunity to be this close to actual greatness, performing close enough that you can lace hands with it while singing about being gorgeous and arrogant.

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Athena was my first real introduction to Sudan Archives, and I was thrilled that she'd be visiting the Casbah, which is an iconic venue and one I'd never been to after living most of my life in San Diego. I liked how cozy the Casbah was, and was able to make some pre-concert conversation with some fellow concert goers. Velvet Negroni was the opener and had some decent contemporary R&B bops that got the night going. Sudan Archives came onstage around 10:30, and had wonderful energy. She's a fantastic violinist and would constantly be noodling on her electric violin between songs. She played maybe 6 songs from Athena, and some favorites like Nont For Sale from Sink. My biggest gripe I had that made the concert mostly unenjoyable for me was booming bass from her backing tracks. It was INCREDIBLY loud and I would really have to strain to hear her actual singing, even with earplugs on. (Can't imagine how it would've been without). Towards the end of the set, my boyfriend and I were thinking that maybe the guy doing sound had realized it was way too loud, but it kept on going. Her set was around 55 minutes, and at the end we left disappointed because the show would've been so much better if they'd fixed this problem...it was more like seeing Sudan Archives but 100x bass boosted.

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An amazing show. Sudan's music was extraordinary and she has great stage presence. I look forward to seeing her again on her next visit to Chicago.

The SRO venue was a minor inconvenience, as the constantly shifting crowd did adversely impact sightlines.

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Sudan Archives tour dates and tickets 2024-2025 near you

Want to see Sudan Archives in concert? Find information on all of Sudan Archives’s upcoming concerts, tour dates and ticket information for 2024-2025.

Sudan Archives is not due to play near your location currently - but they are scheduled to play 1 concert across 1 country in 2024-2025. View all concerts.

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Homecoming Tour: North America Sept 24 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern Sept 25 – Santa Barbara, CA – Soho Music Club Sept 26 – Sacramento, CA – Harlow’s Sept 27 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent Sep 29 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios Sept 30 – Vancouver, BC – Fortune Oct 1 – Seattle, WA – Neumos Oct 4 – Minneapolis, MN – Fine Line Oct 5 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall ​​Oct 7 – Toronto, ON – Axis Oct 8 – Ottawa, ON – Bronson Oct 10 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair Oct 11 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live Oct 12 – Brooklyn, NY – Elsewhere (The Hall) Oct 14 – Washington, DC – Black Cat Oct 15 – Pittsburgh, PA – Sound Series Block Party Oct 17 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle Oct 18 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West Oct 19 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East Oct 21 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room

Homecoming Tour: Europe 4 Nov – Milan, Italy – Circolo Magnolia 5 Nov – Zurich, Switzerland – Moods 6 Nov – Munich, Germany – Ampere 8 Nov – Vienna, Austria – Grelle Forelle 9 Nov – Prague, Czech Republic – Futurum Music Bar 10 Nov – Warsaw, Poland – Hybrydy 12 Nov – Copenhagen, Denmark – Hotel Cecil 13 Nov – Berlin, Germany – Metropol 15 Nov – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso Noord 17 Nov – Brussels, Belgium – Grand Salon 18 Nov – Paris, France – Pitchfork Music Festival 21 Nov – Dublin, Ireland – Whelan’s 24 Nov – Manchester, UK – Band on the Wall 25 Nov – Barcelona, Spain – La 2 de Apolo

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Nicki Minaj Pink Friday 2 tour: See the setlist for her career-spanning concert

Though she kicked off her Pink Friday 2 tour March 1 in Oakland, California, and still has more than a month to roam the country before heading to Europe, Nicki Minaj's enthusiasm and spunkiness are still raging.

On April 1, Minaj rolled into Capital One Arena in D.C. with a glossy spectacle and plenty of her trademark attitude for another sold-out date.

With a career-spanning 33-track setlist – albeit with some shortened versions of songs – Minaj, 41, delivered a fun, colorful set for fans who have waited more than eight years to see her on a U.S. tour again.

Her anticipated “Pink Friday 2” album arrived in December and was preceded by a snappy update of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” with Ice Spice on “Barbie World” ( from the “Barbie” movie soundtrack , for those with fleeting memories).

That hit, as well as new songs including “FTCU,” “Big Difference” and “Ruby Red da Sleeze,” allowed Minaj to slip into her various personas , which she also did gleefully with megahits “Super Bass” and “Anaconda.”

Minaj’s devotees – aka “Barbz” – came ready to play, bopping in the arena clad in more pink than the city’s famed cherry blossom trees.

Here are the songs fans will hear during Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 World Tour.

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Nicki Minaj Pink Friday 2 World Tour setlist

• "I'm the Best"
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• "Pink Birthday"
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• "Barbie World"
• "Roman's Revenge"
• "Fallin 4 U"
• "Right Thru Me"
• "Here I Am"
• "Let Me Calm Down"
• "Nicki Hendrix"

26. "Super Freaky Girl"

27. "Anaconda"

28. "Pink Friday Girls"

29. "Super Bass"

30. "The Night Is Still Young"

31. "Moment 4 Life"

32. "Starships"

33. "Everybody"

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How Tesla Planted the Seeds for Its Own Potential Downfall

Elon musk’s factory in china saved his company and made him ultrarich. now, it may backfire..

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When Elon Musk set up Tesla’s factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers — a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.

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Vampire Weekend Sinks Teeth Into a Daytime Show — or Is It Nighttime? — Celebrating Eclipse in Austin: Concert Review

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Certainly Vampire Weekend’s new album, “Only God Was Above Us,” doesn’t provide a good reason for any current backlashes. Right about the time in a career that any band worth its salt should be facing accusations of being washed up, Vampire Weekend isn’t getting older, it’s getting better, and “Only God…” is one of the group’s best. So for those of us torn between watching the sun get blotted out and getting blotto keeping our attention on a particularly good rock show, this exercise in multi-tasking was a real contest of self-will.

For all the hoopla over this being an eclipse show, most of the audience was content to just keep their unshielded eyes on Koenig and company, content to wait until it actually got dark to pay too much attention to the cosmos’ shenanigans. These were mostly Vampire Weekend chasers, with eclipse-chasing taking a back seat. As totality approached, though, Koenig announced that the band would be taking a short intermission to let everyone focus on the impending darkness. I’d assumed maybe the band would actually pick its spaciest song and jam all the way through the 3-4 minutes of Texas totality. Or break out “Gen-X Cops,” the new song that begins with the line: “Blacken the sky and sharpen the axe!” Or cover Pink Floyd or Bonnie Tyler. (“Total Eclipse of the Heart” was at least used as the band’s walk-up music.)

Actually, Vampire Weekend wasn’t in danger of being overshadowed, as it were. Inside the Moody Amphitheatre in downtown Austin, totality was a little underwhelming, as the cloud cover grew thicker by the minute, until the shrinking sun became completely obscured about 10 minutes before the darkness really kicked in. Except for one blink-and-you-missed-it  reapparance, in which a short roar went up as the flaming corona became visible for all of two seconds. “Did you catch that one moment?” Koenig asked, after the band returned to the stage. “Talk about a buzzer-beater!”

This is supposed to be a music review, not an eclipse review, but we feel comfortable going on record as giving this particular experience of the phenomenon a Pitchfork rating of 5.2.

We can go considerably higher for the band’s performance itself, and recommend seeing it in a more standard setting on the road this summer and fall, when their shows presumably won’t be accompanied by blatant signs of God’s judgment on America. (Unless all the merch selling out prematurely counts also as a sign of divine distress. This was the first time I’d ever seen a merch table being dismantled completely around the time the music was getting underway, thanks to all of the band’s bespoke shirts and hats having been manufactured in amounts guaranteed not to meet demand.)

It wasn’t quite Springsteen-ian in its epic qualities, but the band’s Austin show did stretch to two hours and 20 minutes (counting that 10-minute break for everyone to ponder twilight). Its highlights included six songs being debuted from “Only God Was Above Us,” which was even a couple less than the set could have withstood, but not a bad ratio of terrific new songs nonetheless. These included two newbies right at the top of the show, “Ice Cream Piano” and “Classical,” and then, over the course of nature playing with its faulty light switch, “Connect,” “Gen-X Cops,” “Capricorn” and “Hope,” all good candidates to stay in the set even by the time Vampire Weekend has moved on to album six.

The sound of Vampire Weekend on record is pretty different from the live experience, now, just as it was with the last album, 2019’s “Father of the Bride,” with Koenig and co-producer Ariel Rechtshaid treating the music almost as a sonically unpredictable duo project in the studio. (Bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson at least show up on about half the tracks, more than they did on “Father.”) Sometimes, when the new material is being played live, there’s more of a rush to the music, with a full seven-piece band taking it on; other times, you miss the eclectic touches from the records that can’t or shouldn’t be exactly recreated live.

Some of the group’s seminal tracks felt quaint now in the context of the more expansive newer stuff, like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” from a period when being audacious meant playing in a style meant to feel like it was taking place under African skies. But some of the chestnuts really blossomed to life with this version of the band. “Sunflower,” in particular, was a gas, alternating quick sax and fiddle riffs, then combining those two instruments in riffage alongside the guitar, like the art-rock equivalent of a Southern rock band doing a three-guitar attack.

The rarity most delighting some hardcore fans was “Jonathan Low,” “one of our least-known songs,” probably brought out for this occasion specifically because of its origin point: it was written and recorded for the “Twilight: Eclipse” movie. “We should play that one more often,” Koenig conceded, sounding surprised after sticking the landing. “That’s a good song… Shout-out to Robert Pattinson and the whole gang,” he joked. (Earlier he made it clear they never saw the film.)

The first-half highlight was “Flower Moon,” also clearly given a special place in the spotlight because of its appropriate title, written into the setlist to be the song that would precede the moony intermission no matter what time the show got underway. It was funky and fusion-y, with solos for bass, sax and what sounded like a vintage Synclavier. If they had just kept that eight-minute jam going all the way into and through the peak darkness, it would have been a real moment. It still was, even with the sun still out.

In the second half, guests included Thomas Mars of Phoenix, joining Koenig for a first-time performance of their prior studio collaboration “Tonight,” and Dave 1 from Chromeo then guesting for “Needy Girl” — followed by those two French speakers leading the audience in a French version of “Happy Birthday to You,” in honor of this coincidentally being Koenig’s 40 th birthday.

The band didn’t bring in any special production design to enhance the experience, beyond a backdrop portraying an eclipse in all its phases, from beginning to end. But the two drummers did arrive equipped with complementary bass drum heads, each depicting Méliès-like faces of the sun and the moon. “See our custom drumheads?” Koenig asked. “I think (the artist) got the expressions just right. The sun looks pissed, but he’s about to laugh.”

The audience might have known how the sun felt… maybe a little pissy about missing out on all that bespoke merch, but all is forgiven when performances as awe-inspiring as “Sunflower” and “Flower Moon” are involved. Being in the path of totality, and in the path of total virtuosity: they’re both rare enough things.

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Vampire Weekend turns Austin fans into creatures of the night at total solar eclipse concert

Despite the name, it’s always been easier to picture the members of Vampire Weekend guzzling clam chowder than blood. On Monday, though, our favorite Ivy League rock stars finally found meaningful communion with their undead namesakes. They came to Austin, put an army of the living under their thrall and cheered as the sun went black.

Out-of-towners and townies alike staked spots around the city to watch the total solar eclipse that afternoon. Some marked the moment with their favorite alt-rock stars at Moody Amphitheater in Waterloo Park. 

When first announced, the concert felt a bit random. The band is more associated with preppy northeastern idiosyncrasy than the sound of Texas skies. Nevermind all that. Vampire Weekend took a once-in-a-lifetime moment on the shores of Waller Creek and made mystic music, happy to be the opening act at their own show. 

Solar eclipse 2024: Austinites cheer on the sun during the 'very, very, super duper cool' total solar eclipse

Consider the components of the vamps’ spell. The symbols of the lunar phases adorned the stage backdrop. It was frontman Ezra Koenig’s birthday. On one of their drums, the moon smiled; on the other, a wary sun shot a sideways glance. 

A little after noon, a de rigueur Bonnie Tyler needle drop heralded the band members. All dressed in black or white, except Koenig, who met the stifling humidity and vexingly cloudy skies with a Blind Melon T-shirt. ( “No Rain,” get it?)

The live debut of two tracks from new album “Only God Was Above Us” kicked things off. “Ice Cream Piano” rollicked with classic Vampy Weeks rhythm. Fans wearing galaxy-pattern shirts bopped to “Classical.” Koenig sang of bleak sunrises, and his impish crooning hadn’t weakened a bit over the years. If anything, his voice rode the bubbling percussion and sultry keys with warmer blood than the early days.

The crowd-pleasers really brought the birthday boy to life. His adorable shoulder shakes on “Unbelievers” punctuated more celestial lyrics: “See the sun go down/ It's going on down and the night is deep/ Want a little light/ But who's gonna save a little light for me?” Listen, if there’s an eclipse, you’re gonna hear what you need to hear.

Koenig’s falsetto shot straight to the sky on “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” People’s eyes, cowering behind commemorative Vampire Weekend eclipse glasses, traced the arc of his voice right up to the clouds. Practice glances, the first of many. 

Wind started to cut the muck in the air. Koenig gesticulated with purpose while performing, with two fingers held up like a Boy Scout. Or, as it was easy to think while he sang “White Sky” with a glowing ring at his back, like Benedict Cumberbatch opening a dimensional portal in “Doctor Strange.”

See? Mystical.

The energy at the concert, on stage and off, seemed to grow more frantic as wispy gray stuff rolled away overhead. “How’s the sun looking?” Koenig asked the crowd after “Sunflower,” quickly chiding: “With glasses only.” Answer: like a Hostess CupCake with a big bite taken out. 

Not for long. The band played “Capricorn,” and suddenly the sky held the remains of a pancake that the whole table shared at brunch. 

The free love jangle of “This Life” reminded everyone that “pain is as natural as the rain” — hopefully neither’s services would be required Monday. 

New song “Gen-X Cops” squealed and careened on its steely strings, a fresh sound for the band. On the roof level of the amphitheater, two police officers peered up at the sky through their special glasses. 

Bassist Chris Baio shook his tail as the band pummeled “Diane Young.” Horn trills drilled through a frenetic “Cousins,” and suddenly you could see an orange peel through your glasses. The band treated everyone to a rarity: “Jonathan Low” from the soundtrack to “Twilight: Eclipse.” If not then, when? “Shoutout to Robert Pattinson and the whole gang,” Koenig said.

The invocation of Edward Cullen shifted the celestial bodies — a much more exciting thought than the boring truth of a well-scheduled setlist. From the darkened stage, a funky miasma of guitar, cymbals and soprano saxophone plunged the venue into a more feral place. The orange peel above had dieted its way to a fingernail clipping. Suspense built. Perhaps, even, unease. Koening’s elfin demeanor turned to trickster glee.

“Curse the night/ If the sun don't make things right,” he sang on “Flower Moon.” A clattering klatch of shakers and discordant guitar broke into a jazzy reverie. 

And then, it all stopped. Totality knocked. Let the experience be “beautiful, restorative, mystical,” Koenig urged. The band left the stage. 

Soon, the office lights from nearby buildings shone brighter than anything else. Everybody made two pivots — first away from the stage, then upward. A few people squeaked. More shushed their neighbors. For a few surreal moments, the shadows stole all the sound. Still, clouds covered the big show.

People started howling. Vampirism? Out. Lycanthropy? In.

One eager soul shouted: “Moon!”

For a few seconds, the blanket of cotton above spun out into threads. Just long enough. The eclipse — black hole, white glow — took center stage. The crowd went wild.

But the sky was on a dimmer switch. God’s house lights came up. Vampire Weekend returned. Koenig clutched his own eclipse glasses.

“Talk about a buzzer beater,” he cracked, adding, “That’s the main event — nature, reality, the universe.”

The rest of the concert felt like one long cigarette drag with a sheet clutched to your chest. Remarkable, really, because the band brought out some special guests. First, Thomas Mars of Phoenix joined Koenig to perform their fabulous collab, “Tonight.” Koenig sang, “You need a little splendor,” and as the previous ten minutes had proved, so true bestie.

Another Francophone, Dave 1 of Montreal’s Chromeo, took the stage next to perform “Needy Girl” with the band. Guitar ace/Paramore touring musician/Vampire Weekend ally Brian Robert Jones joined the band for “Harmony Hall.” 

That led into fan faves “Oxford Comma” and “A-Punk.” It seemed like things might wind down. The moon had long since left the building.

But no. The eclipse seemed to inspire literal lunacy in the band. Since 2019’s “Father of the Bride,” Vampire Weekend has embraced their jam band dreams. They gave Austin an extended honky-tonk medley dubbed “Cocaine Cowboys.” 

“It’s a ride,” Koenig warned.

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Truly, the frontman became Cowboy Koenig on that stage. (Or he entered his “Joanne” era — choose your diva.) Lyrics from the song “Married in a Gold Rush” took up residency at the Broken Spoke, full of newfound twang and boot-scootin’. Ghosts who flew in express from Graceland possessed Koenig and Baio’s legs. The band switched pardners, and “All the Gold in California” by Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers Band cut in. 

“Here at Vampire Weekend, we’re not just singing about gold — we’re giving it away,” Koenig said. The crew brought out a giant eclipse-themed cornhole board. One of the band’s stage techs tossed golden bean bags at the hole. He sank a shot. 

As a reward, venue staff came down the aisles and flung gold-wrapped chocolate bars into the audience. One man a few rows back from the stage promptly unwrapped his catch and broke off its tiles like communion wafers, sharing them with his neighbors. An eclipse miracle.

Before sending everyone home with “Walcott,” Koenig, Austin’s newest high priest of the astral realm, gave a benediction.

“Thank you,” he said, “to the sun and the moon.”

Eric Webb is an award-winning culture writer based in Austin. Find him at www.ericwebb.me .

After the eclipse, we'll have posters and framed prints from Statesman photojournalists available at  usatodaystore.com.

Setlist for Vampire Weekend at Moody Amphitheater on April 8, 2024

• “Ice Cream Piano”
• “Classical”
• “Unbelievers”
• “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”
• “White Sky”
• “Sunflower”
• “Capricorn”
• “This Life”
• “Gen-X Cops”
• “Diane Young”
• “Jonathan Low”
• “Flower Moon”

Break for total eclipse

• “Tonight” (Phoenix song with guest Thomas Mars)
• “Needy Girl” (Chromeo song with guest Dave 1)
• “Harmony Hall”
• “Oxford Comma”
• “Cocaine Cowboys” (country Western medley of “Married in a Gold Rush” by Vampire Weekend, “All the Gold in California” by Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers Band and more)

Tickets remain for Nicki Minaj at the Schott on Friday; here's how you can get them

Often referred to as the "Queen of Rap," Nicki Minaj is planning to paint the town pink when she comes to the Schottenstein Center.

Minaj's concert, part of her Pink Friday 2 World Tour, is to begin at 8 p.m. Friday with supporting act Monica. Ticket prices start at $99.50 at ticketmaster.com .

Minaj medley: Nicki Minaj tour: See the setlist for her career-spanning concert

Minaj is famous for her ever-changing hair color and outlandish outfits, and boasts more than a dozen chart-toppers, including "Trollz," her collaboration with controversial rapper 6ix9ine, and " Super Freaky Girl. " She also has had numerous Top 10 hits, like "Super Bass," "Starships" and "Do We Have a Problem?" with Lil Baby.

The 41-year-old native of Trinidad and Tobago has achieved many firsts, including becoming the first woman to score 100 Billboard Hot 100 hits, with more than 130 total entries. In 2020, her first No. 1 single came with the remix of Doja Cat 's "Say So," marking the first team-up between two female rap artists to top the charts.

Minaj's opener, Monica , is best-known for her smash duet with Brandy, "The Boy is Mine," as well as the No. 1 hits "The First Night" and "Angel of Mine."

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