by Jacob Singer
When St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, takes the stage there is a certain glow about her. You can’t mistake her with some other musician. It’s that combination of curly black hair, ivory skin, and crimson lips. She is romantically beautiful, as in one of kind—completely unique and stunning.
That look perfectly matches her sound. It’s impossible to mistake St. Vincent with some other band. First off Annie plays guitar without a pick which allows her to pull off some tricky jazz stuff one second and throw down some strong power chords the next. She’s as comfortable playing a chaotic electric guitar solo as she is finger picking on a nylon-string acoustic. Throughout the set the audience watched the music come through her. Sometimes it’s in the form of Tourette-like head tics, and other times it’s in a porcelain-doll stare. Her performance dramatizes the music and captures the room’s gaze.
What gives St. Vincent such flexibility onstage is her skilled band. Their irregular set-up places the bass and violin in the back, drummer along the left, multi-instrumentalist on the right, and Annie front and center. Their live version of “Jesus Saves, I Spend” perfectly exemplifies their absolute command of the material. It swirls out of control leaving the audience feeling like they are riding a tilt-a-whirl shortly after consuming a bag of mushrooms. It’s not the sound of mushy dormitory jams but of professional chaos.
Another great example of her band’s skills came later when the clarinet and violin hint at Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.” In interviews Annie talks about writing songs inspired by old Disney films. While many associate the studio with movies safe enough for the entire family, it used to employ a greater sense of danger—just like many great classic fairy tale. So much of that danger is felt in the musical score. Throughout the set Annie’s band teases motifs from those memorable soundscapes.
Twice the band leaves Annie on stage alone. The first time is towards the end of the set. With a playfully nervous tone, Annie discusses the last song played on the PA before the band took to stage: Ice Cube’s 1993 hit “It Was a Good Day.” She works through the plot points of the song before introducing “…one of my favorite songs, I didn’t write it. How egotistical would I have to be to love one of my own songs
that much?” Annie begins to pick through the opening section of Jackson Browne’s “These Days.” Her clean voice emotes. She tilts her head to one side as she sings with absolute clarity, and it pains everyone in the best possible way. Her performance is reminiscent of Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah.” While she didn’t write the song, she owns it. Again she is alone for the first song of the encore, “Paris is Burning.” She effortlessly plays the song’s bass notes by hammering on them with her left hand—a difficult guitar skill. By that point in the show everyone is aware of her virtuosity as a musician, songwriter, and vocalist.
The band rejoins her for the last number, “Your Lips are Red”. Annie powers through the song with down strokes on a single chord—a complete shift from the previous number. The song boiled over and left her on the ground pounding her fist against the body of her guitar in order to create sustained feedback. The sold-out audience cheered Annie on as she took one final bow before leaving the stage. From one song to the next, St. Vincent bobbed and weaved, keeping the audience on the tip of their toes only long enough to knock them out with a final blow.
She has an amazing voice, wish I could’ve seen her cover the Cube.