St. Vincent at The Pabst Theater
The proggy guitar wizard shows her sweet side
CJ Foeckler
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Annie Clark, the comely singer-guitarist better known as St. Vincent, apparently was walking around RiverSplash! on Friday, thwarting some playful come-ons by Milwaukee’s most charming festival-goers. “They were like, ‘Hey mama,’” she laughed, telling the story between songs at her show that night at The Pabst Theater. That’s the thing about Clark: You wouldn’t necessarily expect she’d be someone who can brutalize an electric guitar like Robert Fripp. So watch your step, fellas.
St. Vincent’s orchestral indie rock is as fascinating as it is endearing, especially now that the petite bandleader has overcome her past on-stage reticence. She’s also gained some backing musicians—the last time she was in town opening for The National, she performed as a one-person band, playing guitar loops and making beats with pedal drums. This time she had a five-piece ensemble, and each band member two or more instruments: The bassist doubled on clarinet, and the keys and horns players did a round-robin playing sax, flute, synths, and percussion instruments. But Clark was still clearly the star of the show, fronting the group with her sweet vocal swoon and dazzling guitar chops.
The set started with the title track from St. Vincent’s 2007 debut album Marry Me, followed by “The Strangers,” the opening song from Actor, which elicited a steady stream of concertgoers from their seats to the front of the stage. In a live setting, “The Strangers” best showcases Clark’s ability to go from art-house Disney pop to riff rock and back again all in the same song.
While songs like “Save Me From What I Want” wowed me with odd time signatures and exotic guitar tones, St. Vincent never came off as overly proggy or oppressively “experimental.” Even though Clark shreds extensively on “Actor Out Of Work,” and has some pedal-gazer moments on “Now, Now,” mostly it’s her broken-doll lyricism that engages the audience’s attention.
