Kurt Vile Shimmers at Denver’s Ogden Theater

Photos by Michael McGrath, Story by Amy McGrath

The Ogden set included standout tracks from his last half dozen albums.

The music of Kurt Vile has been a key element of my life’s soundtrack for the last ten years. 2011’s Smoke Ring for My Halo was in heavy rotation during the Spring Break when we packed two little kids into our VW Eurovan and stayed for several days in a nearly vacant campground at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico- a place already heavy with magic.

“Peeping Tomboy” anchors this memory to my brain: huddling around the fire with my boychild on my lap, Vile’s lovely, twinkling guitar intro echoing off the canyon walls at the back of our campsite, suffusing the night air with his uniquely happy/sad, sweet sound.  This memory and so many other camping expeditions, road trips, sun-drenched afternoons at the beach, hosting friends on our back patio- all set to the lovely, quirky, melancholy songs of Kurt Vile.

Vile opened his Ogden set the way he opens 2018’s superb Bottle it In, with “Loading Zones”

Thursday’s sold-out Kurt Vile show weaved together his virtuosic guitar playing, deeply laid-back but genuine stage persona, and all of the emotion and love connected to those golden memories into a lovely musical tapestry.

Vile opened his Ogden Theater set the way he opens 2018’s superb Bottle it In, with “Loading Zones,” his bright, uber-melodic homage to Philly, where- the hometown hero joyfully exclaims- “I park for free!”

Vile and the band evoke a number of influences from the heroin-fed jams of The Velvet Underground & others.

Vile’s rich, vibrant guitar sound and uniquely droll vocals were buoyed by the excellent work of his longtime band, the Violators. Vile and the band evoke a number of influences from the heroin-fed jams of The Velvet Underground through gritty, Nebraska-era Bruce Springsteen, to the aural edginess of Sonic Youth- all while maintaining a deeply original sound that resists steering into the derivative. The most genuine and magical moments are when Vile disappears behind his veil of hair and into his mesmerizing guitar solos. He also picks a wicked Banjo, as he did on the excellent “Outlaw.”

Vile’s wry wit and top-notch wordsmanship are all over his albums and his live performance.

The Ogden set included standout tracks from his last half dozen albums, but Vile encouraged his band to “keep it peppy for the Denver people” before launching into “Hysteria,” the track from Bottle It In that features the ridiculously memorable lyric “Mmmm girl you gave me rabies, and I don’t mean maybe.” Vile’s wry wit and top-notch wordsmanship are all over his albums and his live performance. And though his work can swing to the melancholy, his performance at the Ogden was largely sunny and expansive- a true gift to the winter-weary Ogden crowd.

A piece of advice to young parents: give your children a wonderful soundtrack.

A piece of advice to young parents: give your children a wonderful soundtrack. That music will solidify and codify their memories around something they will always be able to access. Kurt Vile is an important part of my family’s soundtrack- the years my children were children when we all slept snugly inside the rolling fort of our Eurovan when new adventures, experiences, and discoveries unfolded daily. I am grateful for his contribution to my life, and for getting to be in touch with it all at his stellar performance at the Ogden last week.