St. Vincent, Bristol Thekla

St. Vincent

July 9, 2009

To quickly admit and establish something from the get-go: I’m a huge fan of St. Vincent. I may not have the massive crush on the lady that a lot of the lads seem to be developing but, nevertheless, I would certainly rate Marry Me as one of my favourite records of 2007 and I would contend that her new album Actor succeeds in expanding the already broad sonic horizons of her debut.  Going to see Annie Clark in the live setting, I was already very much on her side. Regardless, I’m still more than confident that St. Vincent would have made a huge impression on me even if I weren’t such a huge fan-boy. (Even, indeed, if I weren’t the sort of fan-boy that would nearly faint if he noticed Annie flash a tiny smile upon noticing the fan-boy singing along to ‘Now Now’. Not that that happened or anything.)

The most pleasing and remarkable thing about St. Vincent in the live setting is how refreshingly full bodied her touring instrumentation is. The opening act, Blue Roses, are a mesmerising duo who build some fantastic textures using obscure instruments which I can’t even guess the names of (although I could guarantee that their names would be spelled with some silent letters). St. Vincent, however, ups the stakes on the instrumentation front by pretty much replicating, and often enhancing, the studio renditions of Annie’s aural creations. A handful of multi instrumentalists flit between violins, keys, flutes, clarinets and horns to create textures richer and more powerful and, crucially, more organic than their studio counterparts – the beautiful instrumentation hits you on a visceral level unrivalled by the album recordings.

On the subject of instrumentation, Annie’s guitar work can only be described as badass. What really strikes the listener about Annie’s guitar playing is her unbelievable sense of control – something highlighted by Annie’s mid-set lapse into an utterly captivating solo rendition of ‘Paris Is Burning’. Effortlessly, Annie commands her volume dynamics, knowing exactly when to pull back into gentle arpeggios and when to let rip into a cascade of sound. Indeed, songs like ‘Marrow’ and the breakdowns of ‘Now Now’ or ‘The Stangers’ see Annie and the band shred their instruments in an epic way but yet have an almost unbelievable awareness of the very beat in which to snap back to swooping, restrained melody. No matter how chaotic the noise and rhythm, the band know exactly where they were headed.

The set itself is comprised of a smooth blend of songs from both of the St. Vincent albums. Arguably, however, the most memorable song is the closing number ‘Your Lips Are Red’. After spying this song on the setlist halfway through the show, I’m more than excited to hear it based on the amazing musicianship displayed during the set. Especially due to the band’s exhilarating willingness to abandon themselves to cultivated chaos. I couldn’t have predicted, however, that the band would come out with such an expansive and unbelievably rocking re-imagination of the track. Annie’s guitar work exceeds all previous flights of fancy; the drums are ferocious and the instrumentation is even more frantic than anything preceding it.

St. Vincent save their most glittering musical landscape for their finale and, if Annie continues to re-imagine her own material in such exciting and ear bending ways, the band could become an even more jaw dropping live entity than they already are.

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