Vampire Weekend returned to Studio 8H to perform songs from their latest album.
During the May 11 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by former cast member Maya Rudolph, the Ezra Koenig-led rock quartet delivered a pair of tracks from their fifth studio album, Only God Was Above Us, which debuted at No. 27 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in late April.
The Columbia-bred rock outfit opened their SNL musical guest gig with “Gen-X Cops” and closed with “Capricorn.” Both tracks appear on the group’s new set, the follow-up to 2019’s Father of the Bride, which took home a Grammy Award for best alternative music album.
Saturday’s episode marked the “A-Punk” band’s fourth time on SNL, after making their first appearance in March 2008, not even two months after the release of the self-titled debut album that put them on the map.
Elsewhere during the episode, Rudolph reprised her role as Beyonce for a hilarious parody of the chicken wing-themed YouTube series Hot Ones. In the sketch, a follow-up to her parody from 2021, the comedian dons a cowboy hat and red, white and blue getup similar to the outfit Queen Bey sports on the cover of her latest album, Cowboy Carter, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in early April.
Rudolph also performed a glitzy Madonna-inspired song during her monologue in honor of Mother’s Day on May 12.
Saturday Night Live‘s season 49 finale on May 18 will be hosted by actor Jake Gyllenhaal and musical guest Sabrina Carpenter.
Watch Vampire Weekend’s SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes.
