I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 16, 2018] Kurt Vile & The Violators

I have seen Kurt Vile three times.  Once with Courtney Barnett on their Lotta Sea Lice tour.  Then when Jen Cloher played Philly and Courtney Barnett was on lead guitar, Kurt was in the audience.  I was surprised they didn’t pull him up to play.  Then when Courtney came back through Philly to tour her new album, Kurt came out for an encore.

But I wanted to see him play his own songs.  So I was happy when he announced a summer tour with The violators.

I arrived at White Eagle Hall fairly early (the last time Sarah and I went there, the line was really long), so I wound up rather close to the stage, which meant I was able to watch Kurt do his thing (and the sound was still good, too).

The Violators are multi-instrumentalist Rob Laasko, drummer Kyle Spence and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Trbovich.  Spence was about twenty feet behind everyone, tucked into a dark spot.  I could barely see him all night, but he sounded fine.

Trbovich was on Kurt’s left playing guitar and bass and Rob Laasko was on Kurt’s right, right in front of me, playing guitar and keys.  The lightning was such that it was hard to get a picture of either of them.

But I was able to get dozens of pictures of Kurt and his panoply of instruments.

He played electric guitar(s), banjo, acoustic guitar and more electric guitars.  Almost a new instrument for every song.

He opened with “Wheelhouse” (brown guitar}, then moved on to “Jesus Fever” (white guitar).  I felt these songs rocked a bit more than on record, and they sounded better for it.

He switched to banjo for and awesome “I’m an Outlaw.”  Then back to the white guitar for “KV Crimes” and then back to the brown guitar for the pretty “Goldtone.”

He moved on to an acoustic guitar for “Girl Called Alex.”  It was at this point that we became aware of a very drunk guy in our midst.  He was spilling drinks and shouting his love to Kurt.

He moved on to an excellent sounding resonator guitar for “All in a Daze Work.”

Back to that brown guitar for “Dust Bunnies.”  I had a video of “Pretty Pimpin'” but Instagram won’t led me slide to the end of it (the more interesting part) so I haven’t posted it yet.

He played a hollow bodied electric guitar for “Freak Train.”  He ended the set with a different acoustic guitar for “Wild Imagination.”

The drunk guy tried to push his way to the front and a fight almost broke out.  Good grief.

I wasn’t sure what Kurt would do for an encore, since he’d played “Pimpin'” already. But I guess he knows his fans, because he played a wonderful acoustic version of “Baby’s Arms.”  But he wasn’t going to go out quite like that, so he busted out the black electric guitar for a scorching (for Kurt Vile) “Puppet to the Man.”

The printed setlist ended with “Tomboy” with a question mark.  I was really excited that he played it.  And again, it was such an intimate moment and a terrific show ender.

The bulk of the show was taken from the three discs I have, which was cool.  He played six songs from b’lieve I’m going down, four from Waking on a Pretty Daze, four from Smoke Rings for My Halo.  The one deep cut was the awesomely fun “Freak Train” and a track called Kroutz on the setlist, which I can’t figure out.

Kurt was not very chatty, but he said a few nice things to us.  Mostly he was there to play and sing.  And did he ever.  He sounded great (and it was cool to see his face–nearly every other time I’ve only ever seen his hair).

Here’s some more of Kurt’s guitars.

SETLIST

• Wheelhouse [BIGD}
• Jesus Fever [SRfMH]
• I’m an Outlaw [BIGD}
• KV Crimes [WoaPD]
• Goldtone  [WoaPD]
• Girl Called Alex  [WoaPD]
• All in a Daze Work  [BIGD}
• Waking on a Pretty Day [WoaPD]
• Dust Bunnies [BIGD}
• Pretty Pimpin [BIGD}
• Kroutz
• Freak Train [CP]
• Wild Imagination  [BIGD}
• encore
• Baby’s Arms [SRfMH]
• Puppet to the Man [SRfMH]

And a very blue picture of the setlist.