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Kurt Vile an American singer sitting in his studio.

Kurt Vile & The Violators

31 March 2023

In the Concert Hall | Contemporary Music

Returning to the Opera House for the first time in seven years, Philadelphia’s psych-folk rocker Kurt Vile brings his guitar wizardry to the Concert Hall for one night only with his band The Violators.

Philly’s psych-pop master makes his long-awaited return

The wait is over for fans of psych-pop master Kurt Vile. Seven years after his last appearance at the Sydney Opera House – and with a critically acclaimed new record in tow – the Philadelphia guitar guru is set to return to the Concert Hall with his band The Violators, playing all his fan favourites and music from the new album for one night only.

Since his departure from mid-2000s cult faves The War on Drugs, the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist – who cheekily dubbed himself “Philly’s Constant Hitmaker” – has carved out one of the most admired careers in indie rock, drawing on the rich, fried guitar-pop tradition of artists like Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr., the Meat Puppets and Pavement. Vile’s 2013 breakthrough, Wakin on a Pretty Daze, brought the guitarist’s brand of cosmic stoner rock to a wider audiencewhile 2015’s b’lieve i’m going down yielded his biggest hit, the existential but goofy “Pretty Pimpin.” He’s since collaborated with Australian star Courtney Barnett (on 2017’s misfit duet collection Lotta Sea Lice) and one of his key influences, the late John Prine (on 2020’s bittersweet EP Speed, Sound, Lonely KV). Vile’s major-label debut, 2022’s irresistibly vibrant and meditative (watch my moves), features a collaboration with Cate Le Bon and a memorable cover of Bruce Springsteen’s eerie “Wages of Sin.” It was released to acclaimed reviews, with the NME calling it a “spacey and sprawling dream-pop adventure” from “the great modern American songwriter.”

Kurt Vile & The Violators will play for one night only in the Concert Hall. Get ready to tune in, rock on, and zone out with one of the millennium’s most idiosyncratic guitar-pop talents.

Sydney Opera House Presents

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