As nobody has ever really said, the most satisfying experiences tend to be the briefest. On stage just after 9pm, but off it before 10, following a three-song encore, New York’s highly regarded Vampire Weekend came and went while some students were waiting to be served at the bar.

They missed a treat and for the rest of us, better lean bliss than the so-called “value for money” of three hours of stodgy drear.

“Our goals for this evening,” explained helpful singer Ezra Koenig, “are to play new songs, to play old songs and to make eye-contact.” As bar-setting goes it was hardly Olympian but even so, Koenig and his three fellow Columbia University graduates offered the King’s freshers their first university challenge.

Their unobtrusive, doe-eyed demeanour may suggest indie geek, but as glorious melody wrapped itself around glorious melody, there was an appealing impishness to their catholic musicality. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa was cut from the same exuberant cloth as Paul Simon’s Graceland, the fairground swirl of Walcott resembled Dire Straits’ Walk Of Life, while A-Punk was the great crowd-pleaser.

Their self-titled debut of 2008 sold 100,000 but on this evidence Contra, due in January, will be a great leap forward. Horchata, a tribute to the non-alcoholic Spanish drink, was greeted like an old friend, but though less familiar, the stentorian Run and furious-paced Cousins suggested Vampire Weekend are realising how good they might become.