Photo Credit: Isabelle Greenberg<\/p>\n
Review by Jonny Malyon<\/p>\n
Kurt Vile is a singer-songwriter currently singing the praises of his hometown, Philadelphia, on tour with his band, The Violators. The album on display, “Philadelphia’s been good to me,\u201d was released on May 29 of this year and pays homage to Vile\u2019s upbringing and the place that he calls home. Fittingly, the backdrop displayed cartoon depictions of a Philly cheesesteak, Philadelphia\u2019s city hall, and Philly-style pretzel floating in space surrounded by stars. <\/span><\/p>\n On stage, Vile and his guitar stood at the center, except for a few songs when he stepped back to plunk out a keyboard melody. Immediately behind him was Kyle Spence on drums. Jesse Trbovich was stage left on guitar, bass, and keys, Adam Langellotti was stage right on bass and keys, with Matthew Jugenheimer just to his left playing keys. The band mostly stuck to their parts, letting the groove into their bodies only occasionally. Spence\u2019s bursts of activity were the most notable as they came in the form of rambunctious drum fills. Kurt Vile and The Violators played almost every song from Vile\u2019s recent project, starting off with \u201cRed Room Dub\u201d and \u201cZoom 97.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Vile got the crowd moving with\u00a0 \u201cHey Like a Child\u201d from his 2022 album \u201c(watch my moves).\u201d The crowd energy was high during this early part of the set. Returning to “Philadelphia’s been good to me,\u201d Vile continued with \u201cRock o\u2019Stone\u201d and \u201c99 BPM.\u201d As the hypnotic, laid back energy of the set settled in, the crowd swayed back and forth, their eyes glued to Vile and his intimate vocals.<\/span><\/p>\n Vile had the band leave his side and continued to dive deep into his catalog. Vile went on with a stripped performance of \u201cBlackberry Song\u201d from his 2009 album \u201cChildish Prodigy.\u201d The steady guitar of Vile\u2019s solo performance illuminated the whole set.\u00a0 Vile\u2019s singing was non-traditional, emphatic on emotional delivery and less technique or pitch. Similarly, his guitar playing, while tackling impressively written pieces, was imprecise and raw. The emotion of the song was captured above all else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The band returned for another deep cut, \u201cGirl Called Alex\u201d off of Vile\u2019s 2013 album \u201cWakin on a Pretty Daze.\u201d They rejoined Vile seamlessly, cued into the paramount importance of a mellow energy for the song\u2019s delivery. The supporting Violators stuck reliably to the music, allowing Vile to improvise and have fun on stage with his music. This imperfect, casual, rock and roll approach to live performance reached a peak on the standout track from the recent album, \u201cChance to Bleed.\u201d The crowd jumped around and belted the chorus along with Vile. Vile let out an unrestrained brief scream in the middle of the song, which only increased in frequency as the show progressed.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> With the crowd’s energy at an all time high, Vile grabbed a beer from next to his guitar amp, chugged it, and tossed the empty aluminum can toward the back of the stage. Despite his ability to write some of the best late-night drive songs of all time, Kurt Vile is a rocker through and through. While the set continued with \u201cLike Exploding Stones,\u201d also from \u201c(watch my moves),\u201d I suddenly felt like I was watching a group of dads play a show in a garage. While Vile\u2019s songwriting transcends that of a garage band , the rawness, roughness, and intimacy of the performance felt familiar and authentic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0While the star of the show was Philadelphia, it was clear that Boston holds a special place in Vile\u2019s heart. He announced that this was the penultimate night of their tour, and they were returning to Philly the next day. He introduced \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know Cuz It\u2019s My Life,\u201d a song dedicated to Philly. Vile told the crowd that he used to live in Boston and reassured us that \u201cBoston is home too,\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s close enough.\u201d This marked the return to a hypnotic energy, the crowd swayed along to \u201cPretty Pimpin,\u201d \u201cMount Airy Hill (Way Gone),\u201d and \u201cWakin on a Pretty Day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Vile and the Violators abruptly waved and exited the stage after this final song. The crowd continued to cheer; Vile really made the crowd work for it. Finally, they returned to the stage for an encore, starting with \u201cBassackwards\u201d from the 2018 album \u201cBottle It In.\u201d Partway through the song, the Boston rapper, Esoteric, of the hip-hop duo \u201c7LES\u201d bounded on stage and delivered a rapid-fire verse over the chill, groovy instrumental. While the crowd was stunned by the jarring transition, Esoteric was clearly so happy to be there, and Vile was smiling ear to ear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The show closed out with \u201c99th song\u201d and \u201cEvery Time I Look at You,\u201d delivering a more conventional encore performance.\u00a0 Vile introduced his band by name, making sure to let us all know that both Langellotti and Jugenheimer are Massachusetts natives, and thanking us and the venue for a wonderful night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo Credit: Isabelle Greenberg Review by Jonny Malyon Kurt Vile is a singer-songwriter currently singing the praises of his hometown, Philadelphia, on tour with his band, The Violators. The album on display, “Philadelphia’s been good to me,\u201d was released on May 29 of this year and pays homage to Vile\u2019s upbringing and the place that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26199,"featured_media":54188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1525,1523,15],"tags":[249,701],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54187"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54193,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54187\/revisions\/54193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}