San Diego was the first stop on the tour featuring the “superduo” of Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett, playing shows together for the first time in support of a new LP Lotta Sea Lice which was released today (Friday, October 13, 2017)…
When the LP was announced a few months back, fans were delighted and immediately snatched up tickets to the tour. Joining them on stage were the backing band known as The Sea Lice, which included Janet Weiss who drums for Sleater-Kinney.
Here’s what went down on the tour opener, easily one of the best shows I’ve seen in a while. Here are all the amazing reasons why you need to go see these two on tour while you can…
1. Jen Cloher opened the show with a 30 minute acoustic set, which she said was her first-ever show in the United States.
Beautiful music and a warming invite to the rest of the show. Bonus points for the fact that Jen and Courtney are real-life girlfriends, and Cloher’s set had a few references of the journey in life she’s taking with Barnett and it really added an emotional punch to the show that really felt good to me. The whole night felt like a family affair.
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2. The songs they released together as singles got played in the 1-2 slots.
These songs immediately take on a new life for me the morning after, seeing how emotionally poignant it is to see these two sing together makes the recordings that much more lush. If you haven’t heard “Continental Breakfast” or “Over Everything” do yourself a solid and watch these videos asap.
3. The print for the show is incredible.
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4. The new songs are amazing. Can’t wait to dig into the new release.
5. These two just look really really really really really cool on stage together.
6. They played “Depreston”. I may have teared up a little bit.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaIx4DajScD/
7. They played “Life Like This” off Vile’s b’lieve i’m goin down… LP.
Amazing accompaniment on this one with a real-life Wurlitzer laying the base down as the duo traded parts of the verse.
8. Name a more iconic duo…
9. There were some serious Courtney fans there last night. Who can blame them?
10. Janet Weiss crushed it. And wore an awesome hat, too…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaJ7g7dAyiP/
11. Someone created a #cutestplatoniccouple hashtag and I fully support that.
I couldn’t get over how damn cute they were.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaJzfS6ld9w/
12. They played Vile’s “Pretty Pimpin'” in the encore and got people all riled up.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaIvWDZgefd/
13. Vile is so real, man.
14. They covered Gillian Welch’s “Elvis Presley Blues” with no backing band, a truly beautiful moment.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaKhhbiFnLB/
Wow. #chills
15. A lucky moment for those in attendance was something that wasn’t even on the setlist… the band finished the show with “Avant Gardener”!
If you’re a fan of either one of these two, get yourself a ticket to this special show. I’m really hoping we’ll see more out of these two troubadours in the future, because the power they possessed when together on stage was like something out of a dream.
