Beach Fossils and Kurt Vile at Ottobar

October 29th, 2013 by WLOY Staff

On Sunday, October 27th my travels took me to a local favorite, The Ottobar. The grungy little bar featuring a tiny  stage, and an equally small dance floor to match is one of the best venues in the city to see live music, and on Sunday, Beach Fossils and Kurt Vile shared the stage.

-Beach Fossils- Live at The Ottobar

I arrived just in time to see Beach Fossils take the stage. The Brooklyn based quartet don’t look a day over 21, they wouldn’t look out of place on any college campus, but they’re right at home on stage. The venue buzzed with energy that lacks in a lot of modern music, and the dance floor swayed slowly, as the hipsters showed their approval. Fast paced songs like “Birthday” got the crowd dancing, but the highlight came during “Clash Of Truth” when frontman, Dustin Paysuer, jumped off stage and danced with the crowd before returning to stage to close their set.

-Kurt Vile

After one quick soundcheck Kurt Vile was on stage. Backed by his band, The Violators, Kurt opened up the show with a cut off of his debut album “Freeway” but followed it up with his lead single off of Walking On A Pretty Daze, “Walking On A Pretty Day”. The set continued for several tracks, some old, some new before the band retired from the stage leaving Kurt Vile to perform solo acoustic. This segment of the show was spectacular, but it did lack the energy that the opening songs, and Beach Fossils had bolstered. Even so watching Kurt Vile shed on guitar was like watching a painter slave over his canvas. Each track would build and build until finally the total focus was on Vile shredding on his guitar before coming to a screeching holt. This went on even through his acoustic set until the end of the show that left the audience begging for more.