diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
index 74336c6ae2..057deadad5 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb
@@ -184,7 +184,8 @@ class AbstractFileDownloadStrategy < AbstractDownloadStrategy
       with_system_path { buffered_write("bunzip2") }
     when :gzip, :bzip2, :compress, :tar
       # Assume these are also tarred
-      with_system_path { safe_system "tar", "xf", cached_location }
+      tar_flags = ARGV.verbose? ? "xvf" : "xf"
+      with_system_path { safe_system "tar", tar_flags, cached_location }
       chdir
     when :xz
       with_system_path { pipe_to_tar(xzpath) }