We Speak Alternative

Kurt Vile and the Violators Play Summit Music Hall on November 14

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2026

Photo: @kurtvile

Kurt Vile spent three years making a love letter to his hometown, and now he is carrying it across the country. The KV’s Been Good to Me Tour reaches Denver on Saturday, November 14, when Vile and the Violators take over Summit Music Hall with Twisted Teens in support.

Kurt Vile & the Violators play Summit Music Hall in Denver on Saturday, November 14 at 7:00 PM. Twisted Teens, the New Orleans band newly signed to Sub Pop, open the show as part of their run of support dates with Vile through November. Ground Control Touring, Vile’s own touring agency, lists the Denver date as sold out.

The tour follows Philadelphia’s been good to me, Vile’s tenth full length album, released on May 29, 2026 through Verve Records and introduced by the single Chance to Bleed. He made the record from late 2023 into early 2026, largely self produced at OKV Central, the Philadelphia space he built out with Violators bassist Adam Langellotti, with drummer Kyle Spence, guitarist Jesse Trbovich and longtime boardsman Rob Schnapf all part of the sessions.

That home recorded looseness is the point of the album, and it is also what makes a room the size of Summit Music Hall the right setting for this tour. Songs like the title track and Chance to Bleed were built to sprawl, and the Violators give Vile the kind of band that can stretch a groove until it turns into something else entirely.

Denver gets the tour in its full stride, one week into the November leg and with a sold out club crowd waiting. For a songwriter whose records reward patience, a packed Saturday night in a small room is exactly the right exchange.

Darren Jessee Returns With Wistful New Single “Shoulder Season”

Published

1 day ago

November 6, 2026

We Speak Media

Darren Jessee. Photo by Dustin Condren.

Darren Jessee has been the drummer behind Ben Folds Five and the songwriter behind Hotel Lights, and his new single sounds like a man deciding not to put the pen down. “Shoulder Season,” recorded by Bonny Light Horseman’s Josh Kaufman, previews a forthcoming solo album due in 2027.

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Darren Jessee (Ben Folds Five, Hotel Lights) is proud to present “Shoulder Season,” the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist’s brand new single lifted from his forthcoming solo album that will see a 2027 release. Recorded by GRAMMY-winning musician and producer Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Kurt Vile), “Shoulder Season” traces the paths people chart in and around our lives over the years. The track also invites close listening, which in turn draws attention to Jessee’s evocative lyrics as well as the nuanced instrumental performances he and Kaufman captured on tape. “‘Shoulder Season’ … I liked the words by themselves,” Jessee says. “They suggest perseverance and resilience during a season of time. The term shoulder season means a transitional time of year.” Watch the music video for “Shoulder Season” on YouTube.

Darren Jessee was in a period of personal upheaval. His mother had recently passed away after a short illness. He was also touring as a drummer for the Americana act Chatham County Line, a gig that he enjoyed but one that kept him from performing much as a solo artist. And then his label rep at Bar/None, home of Jessee’s last seven albums, retired. In the wake of it all, Jessee found himself wondering if it was perhaps time to set aside the burden of managing a songwriting career and simply lean into his work as a drummer. “But then I just kept finding these songs and enjoying them,” he says of his forthcoming solo showcase that symbolizes a new beginning for the veteran musician — an organic, hushed and transcendent sound very much inspired by the blizzard that the album was recorded in.

Stay tuned for more music and information on Darren Jessee’s forthcoming solo album to be announced in the coming weeks. Jessee will be making the following appearances in November:

November 12 — Wake Forest, NC — Wake Forest Listening Room

November 18 — Greensboro, NC — Flat Iron (with Natalie Jane Hill)