Throughout nearly the entire Kurt Vile and the Violators set, my guitar-loving self was left thinking, “Why the hell have I not gotten into this guy before?” I’d known he’d been a founding member of The War On Drugs, as well as a heavily-talked-about solo act, and yet I’d stupidly never made the attempt to find out what his music was all about. And so I say thank you, Sasquatch! Because even despite his last name, everything about Vile was appealing to me. Particularly that of the slightly grunge, alt-country rock he appears to be a master of – it only helps that his hair, stature and presentation seem plucked straight out of ’92.
Vile’s vocals come off sounding like The Stooges-era Iggy Pop at times, and it’s terrific to hear his band play a more melodically rockin’, completely non-Stooges, music behind that voice. Don’t mistake that to mean Vile’s tunes are of the lighter variety – he’s got an edge to his sound that keeps it from going too soft or cookie-cutter.
As he went solo toward the end of the set, people were murmuring all around me about how great the show had been, and I couldn’t agree more. Vile definitely possesses a piece of the past with his music, but almost sounds better at what he’s doing than the forefathers he mimics.
