St Vincent at Clinton Castle, NYC – Jul 10, 2008

by Andy Sosnowski in Concert Reviews, Song Reviews, bands to watch

I did not start out to write a series of reviews of women with musical muscles but it’s turned out that way. Here is the latest in the series about Alpha Females who make music with abandon.

St Vincent, fronted by Annie Clark, brought a 6 piece band including electric violin, flute, and French Horn. They made dynamic high-contrast music to go with their Black and White outfits. In this concert the live music sounded as good to me as the recordings; the songs were varied in style and mood. At times she wielded her electric guitar as mentioned before with abandon and force. She ends her songs unexpectedly and interestingly.

Her lyrics combine seriousness and humor. In Landmines:

“I’m crawling through landmines/I know ’cause I planted them”

In Marry Me,

“Marry me, John, I’ll be so good to you/You won’t realize I’m gone…

Oh, John c’mon we’ll do what Mary and Joseph did without the kid“

She also played some great-sounding new material for a forthcoming album; one was a slow jam influenced by Prince.

She ended the concert with Your Lips are Red, a very catchy number about a murder.