Blogs > Indie Outing (the secret jambands roots of indie rockers)

Indie Outing: Vampire Weekend

Name: Chris Tomson
Band: Vampire Weekend
Instrument: Drums

Indie-Jam Connection: One of the most outspoken jamband fans on the indie circuit, Chris Tomson grew up attending Phish shows, listening to jambands like String Cheese Incident and the Grateful Dead and even camping in dirt at the first Bonnaroo. A founding member of one of indie rock’s most recognizable bands, Tomson has helped bridge the words of indie and jam by sporting a grungy Phish shirt onstage at major festivals and SNL. Though not necessarily a Phish fanatic, Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig also played in a band that covered Greyboy Allstars in high school

Seminal jam moment: Tomson recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of his first Phish show on September 17, 2000 by headlining the same venue—Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, MD—with Vampire Weekend

Lot Talk: “I play up the whole Phish thing because I remember feeling very comfortable listening to them. You didn’t have to be a certain type of person to like them—they were the gateway to so many types of music for me, and I hope some of that translates into our music. Phish was the thing in my high school—I got super into it,” Chris Tomson, Relix