This gig was postponed from earlier in the year, May or thereabouts, for undisclosed reasons, probably just the fact that Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, has suddenly become in demand and tours of Scotchland were not top of the priorities list – but fair enough, here she is in our midst in late August after a run of festivals and TV appearances – quite the international star. The guest vocal performance for Nirvana Reunited (look it up readers) also didn’t hurt perhaps, but not really an indication of what she is really about.
BM is a long term St Vincent loyalist and witnessed (digitally or otherwise, did take pictures then, but we’ll come to that later) her last solo gig at Stereo back in 2012. It was a small and sweaty affair (and Betty has had a few of those in her time, readers but we won’t talk about that); however, this was something else.
Indications of a more OTT theatrical stage performance had been brewing for a while, BM kind of sidestepped the St V/Byrne collaboration show last year due to historical hatred of Concert Hall carpet (70s flashbacks) and a slightly too obvious, (two of Betty’s favourite artists collaborating, could only lead to disappointment) love-in scenario, but no offense (tribute “s” to you Yanks) meant.
And by the way why did we not get David Byrne at the Commonwealth Opening Ceremony, the gawky man would have knocked that parody of himself Rod Stewart off the stage and possibly done a DD (sorry, Donald Dewar) impression to boot? Anyway, enough bitching for one review, no actually there can never been enough bitching for one review, so hold onto your hats, capes and marital aids, here we go…
This gig sold out a few days before it happened, according to that throbbing organ of digital truth, Tickets Scotland. The audience were varied in age and stage, very varied in fact, so Betty decided to do what she does in these circumstances, to gauge an audience’s age range and mood – she takes in a good whiff of the air. And yes readers, we had everything from CKOne to Cheryl Cole’s armpit juice to Mum, by Mum, and that’s just the girls, we won’t even talk about the boys but some of you should be ashamed of yourselves, have you not heard of beard deoderant?
Support band sounded promising but were duly missed due to childcare issues (the little bastards can just wait outside next time) and it was an as-per-usual brutally early 8.45pm when the lights went down, you clockwatching fascist ABC management people, love you all really.
A recorded announcement requested that people not digitally record anything, still did not stop a few selfish c((((ts doing it anyway. Sorry but was this irony or what, when someone has requested you specifically not to do it, it smells of pure abuse and disrespect, BM is tempted to suggest that their ticket numbers are traced, perps rounded up in front of the Tickets Scotchland office at 6am one Monday morning and stapled to death… only joking, of course, readers… However BM does believe that the militant wing of the Old Bastards Alliance is planning just such an event.
The crunching first track (as in most sets BM has viewed recently) was new album track ‘Rattlesnake’ and as the lights went up there she was, so… petite, my gosh, there is almost nothing of her, hair braided tightly down on her head and wearing a sparkly t-shirt and short skirt combo, so small. But what a voice. And what guitar playing. From the very start, despite the largely electronic parps, polychords and sequences provided from the two keyboards/sample effects people and the essential live drums, this was about St V’s, or AC’s, virtuosity.
BM noticed this back in Stereo but it is even more apparent on a bigger stage, St V is one of the most talented guitar players that this writer has even witnessed. We are talking about somewhere on the outer edges of Prince and Hendrix, yes readers, that good. And the fact that she can also sing in such a variety of registers and styles is just quite overwhelming, Betty could feel her nips react on a number of occasions as the guitar lines went just completely off the map, concluding almost every song with a squawling, screeching but very planned climax. Like major surgery gone wrong, the solos tend to start with some surgical cuts or a theme played along with the band, then just get a life of their own.
Despite originating somewhere in Texas, St V is channelling directly the lineage of mainly East Coast/NYC artists from Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Blondie, Sonic Youth down to LCD Soundsystem and of course the usual Englishers Bowie and Eno – the angularity and formality of some of the songwriting and instrumentation will have BM decoding it for weeks to come; nothing much like it at the moment.
It is hard to give a full narrative of this gig without getting into a song by song analysis – BM will try to capture the essence in a couple of specifics, but firstly just to say that there were a couple of flaws, if BM could be so bold, Ms Clark:
two speeches, one given after the first 3 songs, around 5 minutes of couthy advice, how we all struggle through life etc, in her gorgeous (yes readers Betty certainly would) drawl, (see Laurie Anderson’s ‘O Superman’, and this was deliberate, not just a “thanks Glasgow” type thing, perhaps her therapist had suggested it?)… the second one even longer, have to admit that BM was enjoying a brief break at this point, not what you think readers; however these two rather self-indulgent breaks were met with rapturous attention from the audience when in fact we’d paid for music and she could have played, just for example, Betty favourite ‘Northern Lights’ or even ‘Chloe (fnar) in the Afternoon’, not its actual title but never mind, minor carps I suppose.
And yes, the theatrical miming, full of fan worship for Kate Bush but some of St V’s stuff was a bit US college drama course 100, plus some obvious comparisons with Byrne again. The funny scooting steps around the stage did remind me of Alien Girl from Mars Attacks, no? Just me then.
But these slights aside, and it is her show after all, cripes, we are talking about an 18 or so song set, mainly culled from this year’s album ‘St Vincent’ plus a handful from ‘Strange Mercy’ and one or two older tracks.
‘Strange Mercy’ track ‘Cheerleader’ is a live monster and absolutely wiped the floor with the opposition in the drippy, preppy-but-with-pert-nipples-under-her-silk-blouse-deadeyed-Lynchian-overtones-possible-abuse-victim-scenario stakes (and that means you, Lana del Ray), just not in the same league.
To the encore – ‘Your Lips are Red’ which developed from a torch song into almost torching the building as St V and band attempted to self-combust in a maelstrom of feedback, guitar abuse and other odd effects. The whole thing lasted about 15mins and there was not time for a further encore after that, a shock and awe attack which again emphasised the singular and determined approach St V is taking, even despite commercial success – so BM takes back all the stuff about the speeches, really girlfriend, you can do what you like, you are scarily possessed of that elusive talent and attitude quotient, it is in the room tonight and BM for one was, oohh readers, just very excited.
This was one of the gigs of the year, what the flip did we do to deserve this?