If you really want to see what people mean when they say “an intimate show”, you have to go see a band play at the Horseshoe Tavern. It’s the kind of place that looks like somebody’s basement, with a floor that holds a few hundred at best, and a stage that looks like it can barely hold all of the band’s gear. There are no roadies to set up equipment, no security to keep people from climbing onto stage; just the faint echoes of a million songs played by a thousand bands that came through on the way to becoming something.

Although, you might not be blamed for paying no mind to the tavern’s history when your face is being melted off by some fresh new band, right-this-second. That’s what these kinds of places are supposed to be about, right? What some unknown band is playing in a dingy bar like the Horseshoe Tavern right now might be the radio hit of tomorrow, might be the beginning of something, might be what rock aficionados still talk about in 20 years, what some kid a generation from now uses to understand us. And right now, someone is listening to Vampire Weekend for the very first time thinking, “These guys are great!”, and someone is blogging about them being the next big thing. Someone is hoping they’ll help indie rock save us from the doldrums of the pop music industry like the critics said it would.

I got to see these guys play at the Horseshoe with my friend Kim, a week or so after the release of their debut album that’s been so hyped (yet so catchy), that hipster-rock-snobs everywhere nearly self-destruct in sarcastic meltdowns trying to figure out whether to hate them or not.

Vampire Weekend @ The Horseshoe Tavern

I can’t claim to be “in the know” when it comes to indie rock or the latest in music news, but I know what I like. What I saw on stage that night was a talented band playing damn good music, and you kind of got the feeling these guys were loving every second of their hype-fueled ride (no, Chris Baio is not wearing a two-tone shirt in that picture, that’s authentic rock n’fucking sweat), no matter how long or short it might be. Here was a band in the midst of becoming something, whether that something is a massive hit or just another entry in the continuing list of over-hyped indie bands, and I got to be there for it.

It’s the Call the Office of Toronto.
(Or perhaps Call the Office is the Horse Tavern of London?)