Do you remember when you were a kid, just short of a growth spurt, and were given a t-shirt that was clearly meant to fit you, but was just a bit too big? It fit awkwardly, and its oversized nature only exaggerated your small size.

If you apply this metaphor to the Oct. 3 Vampire Weekend concert’s location at the Chaifetz Arena, you’ll kind of get an idea of what a bad fit the arena was for the New England rockers. What could have easily been a sold-out Pageant crowd instead barely filled the standing area by the stage and only translated to scattered clumps of people in the first level of the seating area.

Make no mistake, the acoustics at the stadium were mostly quite impressive and the three bands that night all sounded quite excellent, but the emptiness of the arena screamed of false delusions and the energy of the crowd was affected. I found the crowd to be more receptive and energetic when I saw the band perform in 2008 to a sold-out crowd at the Pageant, but that may just be exposing my own bias against arena concerts.

Openers the Very Best went on and performed what very well could have been a high-energy set of dance and hip-hop beats in the style of Malawi music. The crowd was, in a word, unreceptive to the majority of the set with only a few stragglers in the standing area dancing to the very danceable music sung in Malawi-born singer Esau Mwamwaya’s native Chichewa.

In fact, it wasn’t until the Very Best covered M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” that they received any response from the crowd at all. Throughout the set, Mwamwaya would shout, “Where you at St. Louis?” I wasn’t sure, either.

A quick set change later and glorious dream-pop duo Beach House were onstage. Admittedly, openers Beach House were the band I was most looking forward to seeing that night and they completely exceeded my expectations. Perched over her keyboard at center stage, singer Victoria Legrand filled the stadium with her soaring alto.

Beach House’s 2010 album, “Teen Dream,” may not be the sort of album one would expect to please a stadium crowd, but it worked. Tracks like “Zebra,” “Norway,” and “Take Care” all enchanted the audience with beautiful melodies over slow, contemplative tunes. I couldn’t help but notice that many of the audience members around me had their mouths agape.

After a comparably long wait, Vampire Weekend took the stage; greeted by the screams of a small, but remarkably enthused group of girls in the audience. My friend and I couldn’t help but roll our eyes.

The previously dormant crowd immediately awakened and danced its way through the majority of Vampire Weekend’s set.

The set included just about every song from Vampire Weekend’s two-album catalogue. The first half of the set was mostly compromised of favorites from their first album with high-energy singles from “Contra,” their newest album, such as “Holiday” and “Cousins” thrown in between. I was continually impressed by multi-instrumentalist and producer Rostam Batmanglij’s prowess in skillfully switching between various instruments.

Lead singer Ezra Koenig introduced the second half of Vampire Weekend’s set as more high-energy and started off the madness with the band’s most successful and energetic song off their first album, “A-Punk.” The crowd seemed to perfectly balance demonstrating that they knew the words and were familiar with the music, while also not overshadowing Koenig’s impressive live vocals.

When the band left the stage prior to their encore, the crowd shouted a refrain of “Vampire Vampire, Vampire…” until the band returned to the stage to play three more songs, including the ridiculously worded “Contra” single “Horchata.”

All in all, it was a fun night with a solid three hours of great music. What else could I have asked for?