Review Mon Feb 22 2010

Review: St. Vincent @ Metro 2/18/10

I was first exposed to the exquisite voice of Annie Clark, otherwise known as St. Vincent, back in 2007 when she opened for Arcade Fire at the Chicago Theatre. She only had to speak the words, "Jesus saves, I spend," and I was hooked. I didn't know a thing about her at the time, so discovering that she was a member of Polyphonic Spree and had toured with Sufjan Stevens, two acts I adore, was only icing on the cake. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to catch her live since then (though I hear she gave a breathtaking performance in Millennium Park last summer). Seeing as though Actor was one of my favorite albums of 2009, I jumped at the chance to finally see her again this past Thursday at Metro.

The show was sold out and the place was packed. Annie's bombastic, haunting tunes were entrancing and, in combination with her intense blue and green lighting, she had no problem filling up the room. However, the major downside of the packed house came when she broke into some of her more downtempo songs. The crowd became disinterested, and there were times when I couldn't even hear her over their chatter. This most likely could have been prevented if I hadn't chosen to stand near the bar, which is never a good idea.

I'm usually one to avoid set list spoilers as much as possible, but going into this show, I'd already heard about the bluesy cover of The Beatles' "Dig A Pony" that she's been playing on her current tour. Seeing as though "Dig A Pony" is one of my all-time favorite songs, I couldn't keep myself from checking out videos of her playing the song on YouTube in anticipation of hearing her "roll a stoney" in person. Well, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, because apparently Ms. Clark decided to play the song on every stop of her tour except the Metro show. Instead, she announced she'd be playing a cover song, and went into a long explanation of why Ice Cube's "Today Was A Good Day" is one of her favorite songs. The idea of a St. Vincent cover of an Ice Cube song was almost enough to quell my heartache over not hearing "Dig A Pony", but the story was a fake-out, and she settled on a cover of Jackson Browne's "These Days".

Nonetheless, she played some of my favorites throughout the evening, including "Actor Out Of Work", "Black Rainbow", and "Save Me From What I Want". She ended the night with overwhelmingly captivating renditions of "Paris is Burning" and "Your Lips Are Red", and left the Metro with a roar of energy.

If you missed her this time around, she's already confirmed to play Pitchfork Fest on Sunday, July 18th. Hurry to snag your tickets, because I'd venture to say with Pavement as the headlining act that night, Sunday will most likely be the first day of Pitchfork Fest to sell out.

— Stephanie Griffin