Review: Kurt Vile and the Violators - March 18th 2024

Kurt Vile and the Violators

March 18th 2024

Newport Music Hall - Columbus, OH

I’ve seen Kurt Vile perform a half dozen times stretching back to his days playing with fellow Siltbreeze brethren at Cafe Bourbon Street (Bobo if you prefer). I’ve seen him light up at the Newport Folk Fest, play solo, rip it in the Motor City, and more. If he’s playing within 20 miles of where I am, I’ll go.

His 2013 album Wakin on a Pretty Daze really cemented him in my mind and the rest of the NPR tote bag universe as the standard bearer of indie rock/folk troubadour and has been a mid-size font festival mainstay for the past decade-plus (not to mention former Violator and War on Drugs founder Adam Granduci).

But all those years and all those performances yielded different things in my mind. What set was I going to get? What Kurt? The chickn’ pickn’ virtuoso? The antagonistic crowd baiting with poor sound?

What I wanted but saw as idiosyncratic or uneven, that inconsistency has proved more refreshing than challenging. He doesn’t do what you expect, and if he does, it’s with a heaping spoonful of snark. Take for example his rock ‘n’ roll mannerisms or whooping sprinkled throughout the set. He has an attention to detail and every song is crafted with a sound, and thus requires a different guitar! It can come off as lackadaisical, I think I’ve only seen bands like the Grateful Dead spend more time tuning and farting around before every single song. But, at a set stretching well past the 90-minute mark, with a four-song encore, what fan wouldn’t be delighted? He marched out the hits, Pretty Pimpin’, Waking On Pretty Days, Loading Zone, and a John Prine cover that had the audience completely hushed - followed by a campus tidal wave of applause. He’s a man of a generation, my generation. I was overwhelmed thinking about what it must be like to play with those same guys for well over 20 years and have one of the OG Violators missing from the stage. Rob Lasko passed away last year too soon and his presence was definitely felt. Kurt was gracious in going so far as to thank Columbus multiple times and play a “lovingly f*cked with” version of Back to Moon Beach and name-checked the progenitors of the Shitgaze scene Rich Johnston (Matt Whitehurst), Mike Rep, and a heartfelt call out to Tommy Jay (RIP). The set was bolstered by fantastic sound in the otherwise dumpy/decrepit Newport of which every time I’m in there I’m always checking for the exit signs cautious that the place might crumble on my head. There were moments of transcendence.

I actively seek those hoping to manifest that ethereal bliss where I can lose myself for a couple of minutes and forget who I’m standing with but feel connected. I wanted the man to jam, and he did. He played soft and he played weird and he did what no one else is really doing out there right now still. He’s a blue-collar wizard, a pedal board savant. He asks if you’re in on the joke slightly. Are you? If you are then, it’s that much better.