Photos and review by ALYSON CAMUS
LOS ANGELES – Annie Clark, AKA St. Vincent, looks like a rock goddess on stage; she definitively has the charisma of a rock star, has all the moves, and shreds her many signature electric guitars through pedal distortion galore.
The Greek Theatre was one of St. Vincent’s stops on her “Born Screaming” tour and, at the moment she took the stage, an overwhelming sense of excitement was palpable. It was already a warm summer night, but the heat pumped up a few degrees and the anticipation of a memorable show rose from all around. And she did not disappoint.
Two acts opened the night. First, the electro-pop artist Maiah Manser played her ethereal music while wearing an incredible outfit made of jewelry. She looked like a fairy princess with operatic vocals floating above the gentle beats. Her voice – she sure could reach incredibly high notes – and her graceful moves were probably the most appealing part of her set, building an interesting ambiance seemingly drawing influences from Caroline Polachek, Grimes, and Florence & the Machine.
Fronted by Alexandra Drewchin, Eartheater sounded more nostalgic and slowly immersive. With only two musicians on stage, Drewchin’s melancholic vocals soared above electronica, trip-hop production, and acoustic guitar.
The music was often partially experimental, exploring unusual takes on pop lullaby ballads with swirling synth and trip-hop beats, while her voice, sensual and powerful, was swimming through ambient layers and punchy beats. After a few songs (“Sugar Cane Switch,” “Crushing,” “Face in the Moon,” “Clean Break”, “Below the Clavicle”) she did a beautiful acoustic cover of System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!”
All Born Screaming is St. Vincent’s seventh studio album and the exaltation coming from the crowd was a scene to witness when she launched the show with the somber “Reckless” that soon exploded in a raucous number. “I’ll tear you limb from limb or I’ll fall in love” she sang with boldness and confidence.
Dressed in a sexy but elegant black ensemble with fishnets, her jet-black shiny hair reflected the light, and her statuesque silhouette was the center of everyone’s attention the entire night. Besides the new songs, she gave us a large selection of her previous work with, for example, titles from “MASSEDUCTION” (“Fear the Future,” “Los Ageless”), and no matter how many times you have heard the songs, she managed to surprise the crowd with bold moves and unexpected sonic detours.
St. Vincent’s music, filled with experimentation, distorted guitars, and creative arrangements, has always defied expectations as Annie Clark never comes up with your average bridge or takes the same musical path twice. The striking “Big Time Nothing” was filled with funky guitars and sexy exotic beats contrasting with the sprawling sonic palette that followed. Drawing her influences from many artists – David Bowie and David Byrne whom with she collaborated always come to mind of course, but there are many more – she never sounds like a copycat and never repeats herself. And the new “All Born Screaming” is another example of her vast inspiration.
All night long, she was a guitar heroine, standing tall and triumphant in front of heavy mics while shredding like nobody else, trashing the stage with the help of Jason Falkner on guitar or Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Sean Lennon’s partner) on bass and even rolling her back on stage.
She even took a deep dive into the audience, crowd-surfing her way through an entire song for the joy of many. She also became a vulnerable chanteuse, sprawling the stage with a mic in hand, making uninhibited moves at the image of her music, taking magnificent and impossible poses, a leg in the air, and an arm stretched toward the crowd. It was always intense, chaotic but majestic, messy with the apocalypse in mind, a primal scream of a show at the sound of groaning guitars, and complete musical freedom.
“I am so glad to be a recent convert to the cult of the Angeleno,” she told us after a few songs. There was little talking but a lot of action, although she introduced her new song “Sweetest Fruit” with a few details: “When I was growing up in Texas, you know, I didn’t really feel like I belonged. So, I figured out a way to invite 5000 people to the party. Anyway, this song is for everybody who feels like they don’t really belong, but they figured out a way to make it to the party.”
The musical landscape was a creative widescreen, sometimes even odd and foreign with psychedelic outbursts, jazzy reveries, tender tunes, explosive guitar battles between Annie and Jason, or epic drum solos by drummer Mark Guiliana – he did a fantastic one at the end of “Cheerleader.”
The explosive badass number “Broken Man” – with lines like “On the street, I’m a king-sized killer/ I can make your kingdom come” – was simply amazing to watch and was immediately followed by the biting punk fun of “Krokodil” thrown our smiling faces. Did I say that the first rows were screaming all the lyrics of all the songs?
“Hell Is Near” was calmer and immersive with ghostly ambient tones, while “Candy Darling” may have been the sweetest moment of the night, a retro wobbling keys tune that she tenderly sang with Jason on backup vocals.
We got two more of “MASSEDUCTION,” the catchy hand-clapping-sing-along “New York,” and the playful, in-so-many-ways inventive “Sugarboy,” before concluding with the album title track, “All Born Screaming;” at first, this sounded a bit too restrained for such a title, but all the sounds slowly built up into something bigger and wilder.
Annie came back for one song – and this was probably the only disappointment of the night, really, only one song for the encore? – the beautiful and luminous “Somebody Like Me.” We all were hungry for more…
With fiery vocals, bold arrangements, daring surprises, sprawling influences, and an incredible range of experimental tunes served by badass guitar heroism, Annie Clark meant every raucous note, every fierce word, and every dance move. Fully connected to her crowd, she and her fantastic band managed to fuse many sonic layers and pack a lot of action during a fantastic show for a great LA summer night at the Greek.
Setlist
Reckless
Fear the Future
Los Ageless
Big Time Nothing
Marrow
Dilettante
Pay Your Way in Pain
Digital Witness
Sweetest Fruit
Flea
Cheerleader
Broken Man
Krokodil
Surgeon
Hell Is Near
Candy Darling
New York
Sugarboy
All Born Screaming
Encore:
Somebody Like Me
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