Live Review: Kurt Vile, Mick Turner

Mick Turner strolls onstage looking like a dad at a barbecue, with sunglasses on his head and no shoes on his feet.

The always-laconic guitarist soon begins strumming plaintive chords that evoke pretty much anything but a suburban backyard. Turner's playing is difficult to describe without reaching for adjectives more commonly used to describe paintings: abstract, amorphous, impressionistic. What's clear is how central his mournful strums are to the sound of his regular band, Dirty Three.

As the sun sets, Kurt Vile slips onto stage, says, "Hey, guys, I love you," and starts plucking the chords for Feel My Pain. Vile's curtains of hair completely shield his face but his idiosyncratic vocal tics appear early and often, so we can be sure it's him. Vile's set draws from far and wide, including selections from his very earliest recordings — like a banjo-assisted Red Apples and My Best Friends (Don't Even Pass This) — right up to his recent minor hit Pretty Pimpin, in which every lyric is simultaneously profound and a punchline.

Vile seems relaxed and allows each song to stay awhile, befitting a show at which most people are sitting on picnic blankets. These rambling, mumbling live versions often have a rather tenuous connection to the songs' melodies. This could disappoint some newcomers and casual KV fans but, for those more familiar with his steadily growing oeuvre, such long and loose renditions are richly rewarding.

"You guys see that giraffe?" he says before playing All In A Daze Work, a funny and fitting acknowledgment of the strangeness of playing a concert in a zoo. Runner Ups and Blackberry Song are gorgeous, confirming that his slowest, prettiest songs are the ones best served by tonight's solo treatment. The only time Vile reaches for an electric guitar all night is for Deep Sea, which provides a welcome change in tone from the otherwise entirely acoustic set.

Vile departs the stage briefly before returning with the beautiful, quietly powerful Peeping Tomboy. As the final notes ring out, he says, "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here." We leave the zoo thinking how lucky the zebras and meerkats are to have been serenaded to sleep by the smooth sounds of Kurt Vile tonight.