Review: Kurt Vile and the Violators at Fremantle Arts Centre

Kurt Vile and the Violators at Fremantle Arts Centre
w/ Erasers
Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Kurt Vile is a real slow burner. The enigmatic indie rocker from Philadelphia has been on the periphery for years, something of an underground favourite, but it seems he’s slowly, lackadaisically stumbled his way into the spotlight, with his guitar and long hair hiding his face. And if ya don’t mind, he might stay a while.

Vile (his real name) has been plying his trade for many years now, steadily releasing albums of his custom brand of fantastically laidback, casually virtuosic guitar jams. Since his early days playing lead guitar with his good mate Adam Granduciel in The War On Drugs, Vile has well and truly made his own mark with his own Violators, having now released nine albums. Influenced by Neil Young and John Prine, as much as Pavement and Dinosaur Jr, he’s established himself as one of the greatest new talents of his generation, a unique voice, defining a new sound for American slacker, indie rock songwriting, without seemingly trying, or caring.

He has seen his popularity grow each time he tours down here, since his breakthrough 2013’s Wakin on a Pretty Daze. This time he was here on the back of his latest album, and one of his best, Watch My Moves, which came out last year. Vile made a whirlwind visit to Australia in November last year, but only played one show in the whole country, at the inaugural Harvest Rock Festival in Adelaide (he also made a cameo with The Avalanches, the next day). He hasn’t been to Perth since he played in The Rosemount carpark four years ago, and this time he was in the much more picturesque surrounds of the Front Garden of the Fremantle Arts Centre, on a perfect autumn evening.

The lush, green venue is surrounded by many big, beautiful, old trees, as well as the walls of the Arts Centre itself, with the small, low stage up against one wall. Early on the grassy area in front of the stage slowly filled with people sitting down and securing a spot. First up was local drone-pop duo Erasers. An act that’s been around the scene over a decade now, producing their unique take on synthy vocal melancholy.

They conjure a distinct vibe. Rebecca Orchard’s moody vocals are occasional and resonate with the droning sounds they both create on their synths, with Rupert Thomas utilising guitar sometimes as well. While they have a cool, polished sound, it was a bit droney and a samey. A bit low energy, and an odd choice of support for Kurt, but maybe it was to give the notoriously lo-key Vile some room to move.

After a short break Kurt Vile arrived on stage in his flanno with his long hair flowing, and the Violators in tow. They launched straight into OKV in Reverse, with the band sounding loud and clear, well mixed, with Vile’s voice up above the music.

While understandably new-album focused, the setlist contained tracks from a lot of different albums.

Loading Zones from 2018’s Bottle It In made an early appearance, with a nice instrumental near the end. And Bassackwards from the same album featuring some nifty acoustic fingerpicking.

“This song’s off my new record, and these guys play on it! It's called Hey Like a Child,” he announced. The live rendition sounded even better than on record, with the cruisey fretwork and bends shining in the fresh night air. The low slung groove of Check Baby had more of a swing to it, that got the crowd movin’ and groovin.’

The banter was minimal, apart from the odd thank you. But he did seem to be enjoying himself, the lovely location and receptive crowd. “Been a long time since I been here, so I'm pissed!”

Vile prefers to let his music do the talking. As he picked up the acoustic and launched into Runners Up, he brought the crowd to silence with his intricate finger-picking work and smooth drawling vocals of the highlight from his 2011 LP Smoke Ring From My Halo. His talent really shines through in these moments, with the way he almost effortlessly glides through the songs, playing the guitar like its an extension of himself.

He’s an incredible and underrated guitarist, and he swapped between acoustic and electric, customizing his sound for the vibe of the track. The Violators hold their own too – his solid backing band keeping it locked down, with a tight rhythm section, and adding colour with guitar and keyboards.

Another great inclusion in the set, was the beautiful folky acoustic number, How Lucky – the inspired pairing of Vile and the late great folk legend John Prine, on a duet version of the Prine classic.

A couple of highlights off the new album came next with Flyin (like a fast train) and the brilliant song about “where I live” Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone), a cruisey masterpiece with some dreamy slide guitar work.

He finished the set strong with a couple of his finest – the bouncy Pretty Pimpin, and the epic Wakin on a Pretty Day featuring a scorching extended solo on the acoustic-electric, issuing forth a wall of sound more dense than his thick wavy locks that obscured his face most of the night, his smirking grin peeking through, as he occasionally let out the odd “woo!”

And he finished the set on the surprising, big-riffing, whale of a song Hunchback, from his Childish Prodigy album way back in 2009.

They put their instruments down and waved as they left the stage to huge applause. But it wasn’t long before they returned for a short-but-sweet two song encore of a couple of fine tracks off the new record – the loping, psychedelic sounds of Like Exploding Stones and the classic rock sounds of Cool Water, a perfectly paced, soothing melodic elixir, floating up on the gentle breeze to take us off into the night, having witnessed the hard to explain magic and genius of Kurt Vile.

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Adrian Thomson