Philadelphian Kurt Vile and his three-strong band, The Violators with their slightly melancholic, guitar-led psyche-folk drone do an end of Summer show in Glasgow to promote his fourth album – ‘Smoke Ring For My Halo’.
Vile drifts on stage to open with a haunting solo version of Blackberry Song with echoing vocal reverence and guitar fingerpicking. Immediately afterwards he’s joined by the rest of the band who present a live wall of sound as one of the guitarist works a multitude of pedals and switches to complement his strumming, whilst the other switched between guitar, saxophone (for the gloriously cacophonous “Freak Train”).
The band when they hit on the effect-laden guitar swirls of Baby’s Arms reminded me of Dinosaur Jr and they end a great show with a near psychedelic breakdown cover of New Wave Hippies by Pschedelic Horseshit.