Vampire Weekend performed “Dangerous Night,” written for I Think You Should Leave, last night at the Hollywood Bowl, inviting star Tim Robinson to join them onstage. The song was penned by frontman Ezra Koenig for the second season of the Netflix series, which aired in 2021.
Koenig played a few minutes of the song during the band’s headlining performance at the Bowl before telling the audience, in reference’s to the track’s intro, “Now, you know this song is about a guy. This guy used to be a real piece of shit. But people can change.” He added, “This guy is here right now, right tonight, come on man.” Robinson took the stage, hugged Koenig, and bowed to the crowd. “Thanks for coming out, sir,” Koenig added before finishing the song.
While Koenig wasn’t credited in the I Think You Should Leave episode, fans quickly recognized his voice. During an appearance on Mark Hoppus’ After School Radio show on Apple Music in December of 2021, Koenig explained the origin of the tune.
“Basically through the producer, Akiva [Schaffer] from Lonely Island, I’d met Tim Robinson before over the years,” he said. “He’d come to a show. I was a huge fan. He’d always been cool. And then, Akiva hit me up just saying, ‘Hey, the guys need a song for the next season of the show. Could you do it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ Anything for that show.”
Koenig continued, “We got on the phone with them and they basically wanted not a bad pop song, but kind of a… They played me references and stuff for what they were looking for, and they already had some lyrics. So, it’s not like they were wanting a song that sounds like me or Vampire Weekend, they just wanted to know if we’d have fun with it. The best way I could describe the kind of music that they were looking for is pop music that came two or three levels after Frank Ocean and Bon Iver. The kind of not so great pop music that was very influenced by that music. I don’t even know how to describe it. I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but I was like, ‘OK.’ So we got the assignment and then I did it with my boy, Ariel [Rechtshaid].”
Vampire Weekend released a new album, Only God Was Above Us, earlier this year. They are currently on tour in North America, with upcoming stops at Colorado’s Red Rocks and Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena.