Rostam Batmanglij, better known as Rostam, is not limited to his former band. Though he was one of the founding members of Vampire Weekend, the 34-year-old multi-instrumentalist decided to pursue solo projects in 2016.
The XL Recordings signee has flourished since flying solo. In 2016, his collaborative effort with Hamilton Leithauser “I Had A Dream That You Were Mine” received critical acclaim, and his solo debut “Half-Light” was a solid single. While elements of his Vampire Weekend contributions are present in his music, Rostam’s style is all his own. His chamber and electropop tones are ethereal and sentimental but not once mawkish.
All things considered, a Rostam performance should be an intimate experience. But at his Saturday show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Rostam showed that while it was intimate, the performance was not meant for such a limiting venue.
The Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium was an interesting choice. The room is set up like a high school theater. Rows of seats uniform in width all lead down to a tiny stage at the bottom. It did not help that on stage were two tiny speakers that kept the audio unbalanced. What followed was an extremely quiet concert.
First to take the stage was Philadelphia-based Joy Again. One of its frontmen, Sachi DiSerafino, addressed the crowd with a dry, humorous tone, talking to the audience’s “football fans,” about the Super Bowl as a clash between Boston and his hometown. Joy Again’s performance perfectly contrasted Rostam’s. Starting with their track “On A Farm,” the band’s lo-fi style was anchored by loud drum patterns and nasally vocals.
The members took few breaks to address the audience. When they did, they took a similar passive-aggressive tone, almost as though they didn’t want to be there.
Nevertheless, the band’s passion was fully palpable throughout its performances. When the set concluded, frontman DiSerafino thanked the crowd one last time and they departed. No gushing. No aggressive promotion. It was just a good opening band playing good music.
Following a 30-minute intermission, Rostam and his bandmates — a percussionist, three violinists and a cellist — walked on stage. The auditorium was the loudest it had been all night. The eruption of cheers from the sold-out crowd reverberated around the small room.
The speakers filled the auditorium with dainty strings and piano progressions as Rostam performed his “Half Light” closer “Don’t Let It Get To You (Reprise).” The song was a light starter to a setlist that would become much more involved.
As he addressed the audience for the first time, Rostam mistakenly called the song the “first song on [‘Half-Light’].” After a quick chuckle, he proceeded to play the actual first song from the record, “Sumer.”
One he and his bandmates started, it was clear that this small auditorium at the MFA was the wrong stage for Rostam to be on. The layered instrumentation of the “Half-Light” track list deserved more than the mere six-person ensemble. Each of them did an incredible job, but with each song it sounded like the instrumental was being played half by the musicians and half from a laptop.
This was most apparent when the members performed the song “Bike Dream.” The studio version of this track is simultaneously upbeat and emotional. Rostam’s dulcet voice is processed through a low-fidelity filter, backed by a distorted electric guitar.
In the live version, the instrumentation felt dim. It couldn’t hold a candle to the original. This is not to say that any of the performers did a poor job. Instead, Rostam needs more performers and a bigger, louder stage to capture the full spectrum of sound from his studio songs.
Rostam was strongest during his slower and more ambient performances. His dreamy performances of “EOS” and “Young Lion,” a track from Vampire Weekend’s “Modern Vampires of the City,” were absolutely encapsulating. One of the more notable songs came during his encore when he covered singer-songwriter legend Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon.” Rostam picked up his acoustic guitar, and with string backers, paid a beautiful homage to the late singer.
To conclude, Rostam came full circle by playing the full version of “Don’t Let It Get To You,” an involved and fast-paced version of the aforementioned reprise and a good way to round off the show. His setlist was 14 tracks long but he completed it in just over an hour, even finishing five minutes before his 9:30 time limit.
Rostam is certainly an artist worth seeing live. He has the charisma of Sufjan Stevens, musical ambience of Perfume Genius and vocal characteristics of his former partner Ezra Koenig. All he needs now is more musicians and a better venue.
