Paperback Rider: Chris Baio from Vampire Weekend

Reading his wife's romance novel & closing out "Hope" alone at MSG

CHRIS BAIO is my second guest for Paperback Rider, a series about musicians reading on the road.

Chris plays bass in Vampire Weekend (touring hard behind Only God Was Above Us, their tip-top fifth LP) and has released three albums along with several singles and EPs with his own project, BAIO.

I saw Vampire’s Madison Square Garden shows earlier this month; a Saturday night and Sunday matinee. Randy Fibiger said it was the first daytime rock and roll show at MSG since The Concert for Bangladesh. That was two shows on the same day, August 1, 1971. The first started at 2:30pm, then again later that night with a slightly different setlist.

My favorite moment across the two VW gigs was Baio playing the final measures of “Hope” alone on stage, staring into the arena’s air, as present as I’ve seen anyone on the big stage.

For Paperback Rider, Baio selected 3 BOOK QUESTIONS and 3 TOUR QUESTIONS from many options, so he had input on the routing for our Q&A below.

Thanks for reading,
🖤AV

PS: you can …