St. Vincent @ The Walker Art Center 10.02.11

There had been hints of the true brilliance of Annie Clark’s vocals throughout the evening during her second performance at The Walker Art Center.  I’m sure like most others, I was mesmerized by her guitar shredding abilities and the almost hypnotic state Clarke enters when she really gets into her solos.

However, it wasn’t until Clark, aka St. Vincent, came back to the stage sans guitars to perform a stripped down version of “The Party” that I began to realize the power of her voice.  Back in one of her hypnotic states, Clark snapped along as she layered her vocals during the song’s waltz-esqe chorus, the audience obviously enthralled as you could hear a pin drop at any moment.  Like, holy shit.

Maybe it was because I was literally sitting on the freaking stage of the Walker’s McGuire Theater with nothing but 12 feet separating me from St. Vincent and her band, but St. Vincent’s 10pm performance is one that I won’t soon forget.

First, let’s talk about the lights.  Colored lights, laser-like lights, flashing lights – and then the smoke, all combined and added to the temple like atmosphere at the show that would be fitting for a space 10x the size of the McGuire Theater.  Clark kicked things off with “Cruel,” although a little something was missing.  After about 30 seconds, Clarke ended the song and said, “I’m sorry you guys but you should really hear the guitar for this song.”  Oh right, her amp had been turned off.  Everyone laughed and I certainly appreciated how comfortable and casual Clarke and her band was about the whole thing.  The four musicians on stage started over from the beginning, and with that signature guitar line from the song now blaring out of the speakers, “Cruel” started off the evening on a pounding, celebratory note.

Choosing from a smorgasbord pedals and guitars lined up behind her, St. Vincent continued the string of songs from this year’s fantastic Strange Mercy with “Cheerleader,” which sounded just massive, followed by “Surgeon.”  You would have had no idea that St. Vincent’s two Minneapolis shows were the kick off to the Strange Mercy tour, as the band sounded extremely tight even as they stared lovingly at their leader, who noted “you’re up late tonight!”

The high energy continued with “Save Me From What I Want” and “Chloe In the Afternoon,” Clark nailing the latter’s chorus despite its odd beat.

And then, St. Vincent sent everyone to fairytale land with the sleepy and swirling “Just The Same But Brand New.”  The coma continued with an enthralling take on “Champagne Year,” only to be broken when the drums hit hard during “Neutered Fruit.”  However, the lobotomy was finally complete during the performance of the title track from Strange Mercy, Clark throwing in a naughty word during the chorus, singing “If I ever meet that dirty policeman who fucked you up,” maximizing the crescendo of that song to the extreme.

It was all beginning to be almost too much – the lights, the voice, Clark and I locking eyes at one point, her black ensemble complete with sequins.  And since no one got up out of their seats and there was a brief pause before an explosion of cheering from the audience after each song, I think it’s safe to say that everyone was completely intoxicated with the entire production.  At another point, a speaker even started to smoke and melt a little bit, Moog player Toko Yasuda pausing the show to make sure everything was all good.  Like, the speakers couldn’t even take the heat from Clark and her guitars.

So finally, after “The Party” opened the encore, Clark urged everyone to stand up.  “I know those seats are really comfortable, but this next song is kind of a jam.”  And with that, everyone kinda shook out of the St. Vincent spell and peeled themselves off of the seats (me off of the floor) to groove to closer “Marrow.”

Clarke thanked everyone, blew kisses towards the audience, and then looked directly at me again and at those other lucky few that got to sit on the stage before exiting as the house lights came up.

A show for the ages, I tell ya.