Show Review: Kurt Vile and the Violators, 21 June 2026

Published on June 28, 2026

I first became aware of Kurt Vile in late 2012. Dinosaur Jr. were playing their 25th anniversary show for You’re Living All Over Me in Manhattan’s Terminal 5, and “Kurt Vile and the Violators” were opening. Judging by the name and that he was opening for Dinosaur Jr., I assumed it was something like protopunk, even a forgotten act from the early 1970s. But I was incorrect: Kurt Vile is his birth name and the music he was making back then was laid-back lo-fi indie rock. That Dino Jr. show is still one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, nearly 15 years on, and Kurt joined them for Alone.

At the time, I thought they were fine; solid but didn’t really mesh with where I was at and what I was listening to at the time (Isis and Sigur Rós were in heavy rotation). This was a few months before he released Wakin On A Pretty Daze, which is where most people would say he got his “mainstream” break and transitioned from low-key, lo-fi indie folk, to low-key lengthy guitar jams. The transition from Smoke Ring for My Halo and Wakin… was far and away his biggest stylistic change between albums. KV has a distinct style and gradually evolves on it. People joke that KV likes to listen to himself play guitar, and that he isn’t particularly adventurous. But if I were dialed in and could play like him, I would be the exact same way. He’s carved out his niche and mastered it. It’s far from entirely repetitive, but he’s got a handful of lyrics and melodies he likes to reuse and play with, like a comedian’s call-backs, and I appreciate them to the utmost degree.

I haven’t been to as many shows as I’d like recently, and right now I live close to the Stone Pony, so obviously I went to that show. Plenty’s been said about the Stone Pony as a venue, and it’s a good one! I like the guitars covering the walls, though as a Telecaster player, I’d love more Tele representation—not like Bruce plays one or anything [/s]. I’m a Stratocaster player too, so I’m still represented.

The Sadies opened for Kurt. I wasn’t at all familiar with them beforehand, and I had no thoughts or expectations about them at all beforehand. I was very impressed. Travis Good, their frontman and guitarist, is incredible. He plays catchy, complex stuff while singing and gets even crazier with it when he’s not singing. It’s both technically astounding and fun to listen to. I anticipate having a Sadies phase sometime soon. Way more on the country side than KV, though he’s always had a toe or two in that pool, especially on the Luke Roberts Classic Love EP.

Kurt himself was great. Since he just released a new album and he’s touring to support it, he played plenty of songs off of it. He sings on the live version of “Red Room Dub,” a nice surprise and apparently common to all his live performances of it. His setlist also had plenty of representation of (watch my moves), which was a little surprising. In fact, most of his back catalogue was featured, from big songs like “Pretty Pimpin” to somewhat lesser known ones like “Blackberry Song” and opener “Jesus Fever.” He hopped on keys for the bridge of “Like Exploding Stones,” which was cool to see. Speaking of switching up his instruments, he took out the trumpet for “Avalanches of Snow,” which was also cool. He’s not unknown as a trumpet player, he played it on a Blues Control album that I need to revisit, shout out to my buddy Taylor who told me about it.

Most of the songs were ever so slightly reworked from the studio recordings—not to the extremes that KV’s hero Bob Dylan enjoys to live, but the Violators clearly know them inside out and have fun tweaking them on stage. They’re comfortable playing together, which makes sense as I’m fairly sure that most of them have been playing together for 15+ years. Most of the change-ups weren’t wild, a tweak to the meter of the lyrics here, a brief guitar solo between verses there, but they convey that the Violators on stage are exactly as they come across on record: a few guys hanging out and having fun playing their instruments. There was minimal stage banter, as you’d expect, since the man’s lyrics and delivery are practically conversational most of the time; he’s already telling you what he’s up to and how he’s feeling on “Wakin On a Pretty Day,” “Girl Called Alex” (a live standout and one of my favorites by him), “Zoom 97,” and the entire set, really. They let the music and their chemistry speak for itself, and anything else would be incongruous with everything about them.

Very good show overall, and a great way to kick off the summer. If you’re into rock or guitar stuff, I highly recommend trying to catch them live. They’re touring all over Europe and the Americas through the end of the year, so there are opportunities.