August 16, 2024
Reviewed by Claudio Vernight
I attended the St. Vincent concert with a totally open mind. I never saw her, never even knew that it was a "her" and thus had no bias at all. What I ended up witnessing was a rebirth of early Bowie, mid-life Madonna and some Talking Heads meet Devo. This young lady is that good.
Annie Clark, from Oklahoma via Texas, exploded on the Greek stage last night with a band that could have backed up Ziggy Stardust and David Byrne. The latter is not surprising as Byrne co-produced one of her LPs. In town for her All Born Screaming tour, she warmed up the crowd at the Crypto the night before, singing the National Anthem before the Sparks game, LA's WNBA team.
A member of the Polyphonic Spree band, she has emerged as a force to be reckoned with as she is supported by excellent musicians. The music pounded and crunched and was supported by four killer musicians: Jason Falkner on lead and rhythm guitar, Mark Guiliana on thunder drums, Rachel Eckroth on an array of electronic keyboards, and Charlotte Kemp Muhl - bass guitar, bass synthesizer. What we witnessed was a powerful, highly choregraphed, extremely visual, new rock opera.
She is called a guitarist, but I don't play guitar like that. Playing her signature Ernie Ball Music Man HHH guitar, she smashed chords a la Nirvana and Ozzy, yet seemed to play in an open tuning most of the night with her index finger across the neck. And in that tuning she would perfectly fret tight lines that were sometimes doubled with her vocal or Falkner's guitar. The two then entered into some street theater sex act, sawing guitar necks like Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley of KISS and humping each other on the stage floor (never missing a beat.) Falkner's sound was very reminiscent of Mick Ronson in his Ziggy Stardust-Mott The Hoople days.
There were times she evoked Pete Townsend from early thrashing Who days. Other solos were drawn from Jimi Hendrix. Her evocative poses were all Madonna (Strike a Pose) especially with the leg up on the doorjamb. And the "eyes right-eyes left" routine we have seen with Devo and even Kraftwerk. The lady is a force to be reckoned with, but I repeat myself.
See for yourself. Here is her single, "
Flea
," (https://youtu.be/C7N8nIR36eA?si=s2iivLj4iQhayYDf)
where they all mimic Devo at times. And here is a
"Cheerleader" snippet
(https://youtube.com/shorts/oLib0MbmEO0?si=21UKF4lZtGDgYrV_)
which demonstrates the great dynamics of the band. And, brother, they were bringing the volume at times. The Greek as a very strict rule of a maximum db SPL level so it just seemed that they were loud because of the pianissimo intro.
We must talk about the AV that was experienced. The ever-present fog and back-lighting in the doorway was clever, but not new. What was new was the prepared videos that were cast on three screens behind the band. Sometimes those screens had live cameras fed to them. Oh, gee, we can see her cavities on one. And her from behind looking out to the audience on another. Never a dull moment.
She played a normal (90 minute) set with these twenty songs. Everything was tightly managed and choreographed and there was minimal jabber in-between tunes.
1.
Reckless
2.
Fear the Future
3.
Los
Ageless
4.
Big
Time Nothing
5.
Marrow
6.
Dilettante
7.
Pay
Your Way in Pain
8.
Digital
Witness
9.
Sweetest
Fruit
10.
Flea
11.
Cheerleader
12.
Broken
Man
13.
Krokodil
14.
Surgeon
15.
Hell
Is Near
16.
Candy
Darling
17.
New
York
18.
Sugarboy
19.
All
Born Screaming
Encore:
20.
Somebody
Like Me
Seems her tour heads east to sell outs, then to Europe where she is selling out already. Watch out. St. Vincent is a force to be reckoned with.
