I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 21, 2026] Kurt Vile & The Violators

My wife has become a huge fan of Kurt Vile in the last few years, so any chance to see him, we’ll take.  She had never been to The Stone Pony before and as a Jersey native, she really ought to have been there at least once.  This was my third time there and I really haven’t enjoyed the vibe at any of the shows.

And tonight’s was weird too.  The Stone Pony is a weird venue–it’s very wide and very shallow.  It may also slope down away from the stage (It probably doesn’t but it feels that way).  After checking out the beach for a few minutes we headed inside and saw that it was pretty crowded.  We found our spot and then realized the guys in front of us were really drunk.  They moved soon after Kurt started (and eventually the one guy fell over and the had to be removed).  But then a very tall woman who was near us suddenly wound up in front of us.  Which sucked.

After a few songs behind her, I had to move a few feet over to be able to see.  Halfway through when the drunk guy fell over and had to leave I was able to get back to my wife and we enjoyed the show together.

So this tour was for his new album Philadelphia’s Been Good To Me.  And yet he opened with two songs not on the album.  All subsequent show, he jumped right to the new album.  So I’m not sure why we got Jesus Fever (which no one else did, but no complaints, it’s a great song) and Hey, Like A Child was earlier in the seton this tour.

I was pretty fascinated to see just how many people knew the words to all of his songs.  He was pretty excited to play The Stone Pony (his first time) so maybe he gave us an extra song or two.

And then it was on to the new album.  Red Room Dub is a delightful instrumental (is this is first instrumental, I don’t know), but he put words to it (no idea what they were though).  Zoom 97 is slow, chill song with the fun line “jump n my whip (yeah!)”  His backing band is always so solid–they never show off, they just keep things going as they need to. 

Rock O’Stone is another slow, mellow song.  This one has spoken lyrics, which are always fun.  It’s interesting to see him doing a song like this live because he can do it at whatever pace he wants (and I love to hear him drawl “stone.”  Every time I look at you followed.  It’s a sweet song about his kids (perhaps a little too long?).

Because I didn’t know the new album (and I don’t know his really old albums) I didn’t know that Blackberry Song was from his 2009 Childish Prodigy album.  I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it.  But the song was delightful–simple and repetitive like the best KV songs, with a juicy melody and inscrutable lyrics.

Sadly, my wife started to feel a little unwell  around this time and had to step outside for fresh air.  Luckily the Stone Pony is kind of setup for this.  She didn’t feel bad enough to go home, but getting to lean against a railing made the last few songs much more enjoyable.

And then just as it felt like the whole night would just be a chill out session, he brought the roof down with a stellar Chance to Bleed.  The crowd was into it, Kurt was into it (he yipped and yelped throughout) and they jammed it out for a suitably long time.  After playing A Girl Called Alex, he returned to the new album wit 99 BPM.

From there it was back to some older songs.  I’ve rally liked Mount Airy Hill (with that wild falsetto) which he also played last time we saw him.  It’s a fun piece and was followed by the slow but fun (more “stones”) Like Exploding Stones.  Much like the last time we saw him, he ended the set with this and then a really fun Pretty Pimpin and the delightful Walking on a Pretty Day., which brough the crowd way up.

When he came back for the encore, he joked that Bruce was not coming out tonight.  But he did play a Bruce song, Wages of Sin.  I don’t know the song.  And I see that he’s mostly playing Bassackwards in the encore.  I would much rather have had Bassasckwards, but I understand why he played the Springsteen cover and I’m sure everyone else was thrilled with it.

The rest of the encore included one more new song–the fun Avalanches of Snow.  I wondered why the people next to me kept clapping twice at various parts in the song.  After listening to the song again, I see that the claps are, indeed, in the song and these folks knew the album well enough to know that.  Impressive.

For the final song, Cool Water, he brought back up Travis Good from the Sadies which was fun.  Travis added lots of guitar parts to the song for some good jamming.  I don’t really know what songs KV fans really like, so I’m not sure if this was the show ender people wanted.  I would have loved to hear Loading Zones–possibly my favorite of his songs, but no such luck this time around.  My wife also has several songs that she loves (and which he apparently almost never plays).  Maybe if we see him again, we’ll have to send in requests.

Amazingly, we scooted out pretty quickly and were able to grab some merch before the line built up (it was massive when we arrived).

He’s playing the Make the World Better Festival in July and I wonder if the set will be very different (I assume not).

¶ Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me (2026)
⇔ Back to Moon Beach EP (2023)
∞ Watch My Moves (2022)
Ø Bottle It In (2018)
£ Lotta Sea Lice (with courtney barnett (2017)
⇓ b’lieve i’m goin down… (2015)
∇ Wakin on a Pretty Daze (2013)
♦ Smoke Ring for My Halo (2011)
© Childish Prodigy (2009)
God is Saying This to You (2009)
Constant Hitmaker (2008)