By Roxana Hadadi

Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma? Vampire Weekend surely doesn’t. The Columbia graduates have left grammar behind and instead moved on to bigger and better things, like a solid punk- and Afro-pop-tinged debut album, and a precise, energetic touring style that was definitely on point this past Wednesday at The Rock and Roll Hotel in Washington, D.C.

All four members of Vampire Weekend – Ezra Koenig on guitar/vocals; Rostam Batmanglij on keyboard; Chris Tomson on drums; and Chris Baio on bass – may have gone to school in New York, but their love for Washington, the band’s first spot on their 3-month tour across the United States and Canada, was palpable. Decked out in grins and college outfits – polo shirts, cardigans and khakis, oh my! – the four took the stage before a crowd of Pabst-drinking, vintage plaid-wearing aging hipsters eager to see the next big thing.

And Vampire Weekend didn’t disappoint. Despite somewhat incredulous whispers from the crowd – “They’re so little!” more than one concert-goer hissed with a mix of skepticism and admiration – the band looked charmingly aloof as lead singer Koenig explained to the crowd, “We always like to start things in Washington… we have a habit of doing that.” Vampire Weekend then launched into their short-but-brutal set (started at 9:45 p.m., ended by 10:30 p.m.), ripping through “gems we put on that piece of plastic,” as Koenig put it.

The set began with “I Stand Corrected,” a track brilliant in its simplicity. Koenig channeled Paul Simon in every good way possible (most obvious in his sincere singing style), and Batmanglij, Tomson and Baio were as tight as can be. Thankfully, Vampire Weekend’s performance didn’t fade as the night went on – a rabidly energetic crowd kept them pumped during “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” a song which draws much from the Congolese soukous genre and charted at No. 67 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007, and “Bryn” was met with swooning fan-girls and lots of appreciative head-nods for its lilting, carnival carousel-like melody.

The band next decided to veer onto their B-side territory with “Ladies of Cambridge” (“We’re not from Boston, we’re from New York,” Koenig assured the audience, in reference to the song’s “I’ve had dreams of Boston all my life” lyric), and exhibited Batmanglij’s righteous skills on the Casio with “M-79.”

But it was with “A-Punk” — a song during which Koenig encouraged the crowd to “do a kind of twist, if you don’t have a lot of space; if you do, you may want to do the Harlem shake” — and “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” — which the band dedicated to “all the D.C. Metallica fans” — that Vampire Weekend solidified the crowd’s reverence. The Ramones-esque breakdown of “A-Punk” worked perfectly live, and when the band invited the crowd to sing along with “One,” fans were tripping over themselves to get closer to the stage and do so.

Vampire Weekend also debuted a new song (which succeeded in name-dropping Hennessey, California, fashion magazines and skateboarders all at once); delivered a rousing rendition of “Campus,” one of their album’s saddest – yet also one of the most well-composed – tracks; and returned for an encore of “Walcott,” arguably their bounciest, most endearing and enjoyable song (hey, at least the crowd thought so).

Although Vampire Weekend may be barely out of college and barely into adulthood, they know what they’re doing – the live show is something to behold, a blisteringly perfect exhibit of an album full of perfect songs. But more importantly, they don’t know exactly where they are going; poised on the brink of success, the band seemed pleasantly surprised by the whole night, full of the same wide-eyed confusion Alice has when she finally reaches Wonderland.

Yet what Alice finds when she travels through Wonderland and the Looking Glass is that her adventures were all just a dream. Thankfully for Vampire Weekend, their awesomeness is grounded in wide-awake reality.