I`d wanted to see Kurt Vile for some time having missed him last year at the Moseley Folk Festival. He`s been described as a “psych-pop master” and has been tagged in the slacker rock genre although nine albums in fourteen years is no slacking in musical output.
There`s little fuss as Kurt and his band the Violators, which currently includes Jesse Trbovich, Kyle Spence and Adam Langellotti arrive on stage and share `Palace of OKV in Reverse` a song loosely based on the construction of his home studio from his last album `(watch my moves)`. He dips into the `Bottle it In` album with the quite psychedelic `Loading Zones`, the fairly melancholic `Bassackwards` with it`s kind of stream of consciousness lyrical content and trippy `Check Baby` with its occasional yelps from the singer.
`Baby`s Arms `is stripped back with the singer and an acoustic guitar as is `He`s Alright`.Three cuts from the last album come with the fairly mesmeric `Flyin (Like a Fast Train)`, rolling `Say the Word` and dreamy `Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone)` a song that the singer says is written about his favourite place in Philadelphia.
The show closes out with the meandering `Walkin on a Pretty day` which becomes a bit of a jam session, identity searching `Pretty Pimpin` and the emotional `Hunchback`.
The band return for a three song encore which includes a couple of numbers from the latest release with `Like Exploding Stones` which I read is a portrait of anxiety and the calming `Cool Water`.
A cover of The Silver Jews `Punks in the Beerlight` ends this nigh on two-hour show and sends us all homeward.
I think I needed a few hours to really ponder the intensity of tonight`s performance. The singer himself shared that he felt a sense of unease and called for the strongest beer his road crew could provide so maybe some of this transferred. It was an interesting mix of folk rock, psychedelic rock with lo-fi leanings but if felt a little disjointed at times but maybe I had too much invested in my expectations. There was much to enjoy and i`m sure I’d head to see him again now that i`ve finally had an initial baptism.
