Kurt Vile, Twisted Teens, They are Gutting a Body of Water, Pavement, Ratboys, et The Violators

Take one look at the man and the band in front of you onstage: all that hair, all those electric guitars, there’s a plaid shirt or two…this is going to be some kind of noisy grunge nonsense, isn’t it? Well, in short, no. Kurt Vile doesn’t do noise. He’ll give you some dope psych/folk jams, though. Vile is perhaps the most unassuming man to ever take to the stage. He hides behind his hair as he and his band The Violators run through extended versions of tracks from Smoke Ring for My Halo, not saying very much and when he does, it’s all delivered rather nervously. What matters most, though, is not that Vile is lacking “bantz”; Vile’s languid solos are what matter, as he takes a track like ‘Jesus Fever’ and lets the running time extend and bend until you don’t recognise the song anymore thanks to his astonishing liquid playing. Even when he drops the electric and picks up an acoustic guitar, Vile manages to manipulate a song so that one minute he’s Dylan, the next he’s Springsteen – this kid is talented. It’s not all completely laid-back mind you; Vile and the Violators can rock out with the best of them and there’s almost a punk element to the glorious ‘Freeway’ and it shakes you right out of the cosmic reverie the preceding tracks had put you in. You won’t come away thinking you were in the presence of a star and showman, but a Kurt Vile set gives you what you need – cracking songs.

It was fair to wonder when the Pavement went on hiatus after touring in support of their final album Terror Twilight if fans would ever get to see them live again.

It took a number of years, with band members scattered across the country and participating in multiple new projects, but the band have begun performing live again. Although time has passed, the group easily capture the slacker majesty of their heyday as kings of the '90s indie scene.

If the band and audience are a little bit grayer these days, that's OK too. Indeed, a surprising number of people in the audience at a Pavement show are likely far too young to have seen them the first time around and appear to be there to take in the experience as new, rather than relive past glories. The band's sprawling, two hours-plus setlist leaves no one disappointed.

Mercurial frontman Steve Malkmus (whose departure for a solo career shelved the band originally) seems especially energized at these shows, bantering with the audience and belting out should-have-been hits like “Cut Your Hair” and “Stereo” with surprising and obvious joy.

The band's once loose sound has been tightened up considerably, as well. That being said, when the group kicks in to the shambolic, shaggy genius of “Summer Babe” (usually reserved for the encore), they still play fast, loud and jagged and demonstrate why they remain one of the most exciting groups of the past twenty years.