When St. Vincent took the stage at the 9:30 Club on Saturday for part one of her two-night stay in DC, something magical happened. It wasn’t just the anticipation of the night’s performance that was about to happen before our eyes, and it wasn’t even the overly striking appearance of the evening’s supremely talented and toned siren. It was the culmination of both.
There was in fact this precise moment at the show’s beginning, when the spotlights first snapped on to reveal her captivating yet sullen profile, when you could feel every motion and sound in the venue slow down for just a few seconds—a lull in time if you will. The venue’s sold-out crowd went into a continuous roar to welcome the beloved singer back to DC to play her flawless set.
For St. Vincent (Annie Clark), her stunning stage presence and electrifying performance sits just atop the mere surface of her ever-evolving career. This multi-instrumentalist and now somewhat prolific vocalist/lyricist has planted some very deep roots along her musical journey. She has collaborated and recorded with indie-rock and new-wave music royalty, the likes of Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, Michael Gira of Swans, The National, and David Bryne of the Talking Heads, with whom she released the collaborative album Love This Giant in 2012.
She’s fun to watch on many levels: as a vocalist, a performer, and a guitar player. She certainly captivated the audience of the 9:30 Club on Saturday, with semi-robotic and calculated dance moves mixed with charming pop-inspired vocals. Her voice at times has this slight growl and a somewhat darker effect process on it, even more so than on her recordings. I really enjoyed her eerie yet darkly sweet stage persona.
Her guitar sound was airy, yet just punchy enough to be prominent when it had to be. She could blend down her sound pretty well to almost transparent levels, then hit her stomp box and cut through the mix when she wanted to be heard. Her guitar licks and solo parts stood out just enough when they had to be the center of attention and to me reinforced her musicianship as a guitarist.
Her set list included “Rattlesnake,” “Digital Witness,” “Cruel,” “Birth in Reverse,” “Regret,” “Laughing With a Moth of Blood,” “I Prefer You Love,” “Pieta,” “Every Tear Disappears,” “Surgeon,” “Cheerleader,” “Prince Johnny,” “Year of the Tiger,” “Marrow,” “Huey Newton,” “Bring Me Your Loves,” “Northern Lights,” “Krokodil,” “Stange Mercy,” “Chloe in the Afternoon,” and “Your Lips are Red.”
Kicking off her “Digital Witness Tour” in late February 2014 to coincide and support the release of her fourth full-length studio album, the self-titled St. Vincent, the talented songstress will be heading across the US and back again before touring Northern Europe in May of this year. Holly Herndon supported St. Vincent on the first five dates on the North American leg of the tour, including both nights at 9:30 Club, and Noveller joins her through tour dates in April.
