Kurt Vile and the Violators at the Bowery Ballroom

At age 14, Kurt Vile was given a banjo by his father. The young lad began writing songs on the banjo. Three years later, Vile created his first "mass-produced" tape at 17, forging what he knew would become a career in music. This began with musician and songwriter Adam Granduciel; the Philadelphia-based duo formed the indie rock band The War on Drugs in 2005 and released a debut album, Wagonwheel Blues, in 2008. Vile is now the 33-year-old leader of Kurt Vile and the Violators, which is comprised of multi-instrumentalists Jesse Trbovich and Rob Laakso, drummer Vince Nudo and, for the current tour, Steve Gunn on guitar. Vile has recorded five albums under his name, the latest of which is Wakin on a Pretty Daze.

At the Bowery Ballroom tonight, Vile and the Violators’ modest onstage persona put the focus entirely on the music, not the show. For Vile, each song was its own epic, starting with lyrics that were often inaudible and filled out with ingenuous musical accompaniments. The music ranged from folky acoustic to thrashingly electric, from tender to raucous, and from psychedelic to noise. The performance borrowed elements from traditional folk rockers like Neil Young, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, but the soundscapes were often closer to more cutting edge artists like Pavement, Yo La Tengo and other indie bands. Vile’s concert was not for the mainstream, but for those who were willing to have their minds bent a bit.