On a mild Autumn evening, the edgy Factory Theatre in Marrickville teemed in anticipation for the imminent St. Vincent performance. As 9pm approached, the Melburnian duo, Oscar & Martin, began their compelling supporting set, presenting an eclectic fusion of r’n’b, hip hop and electronica. Whilst the crowd were predominantly subdued throughout the set, there was the occasional toe tapping, and in some instances, even a little rocking out, particularly during the semi-tribal, entrancing elements of the set.
Enter Annie Clark, the brilliance behind St. Vincent. Clark, previously a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ touring band (and also associated with a number of other eminent acts, including Bon Iver and The National), began her solo career as St. Vincent with her 2007 release Marry Me (the title of which was inspired by the cult TV show, Arrested Development).
Despite being a pedestrian Monday evening, by the time the punctual St. Vincent came on stage (at 9.50pm, some 10 minutes before schedule), the standing space of the cosy Factory Theatre had filled out completely. Whilst the gender distribution of the crowd was mixed, this particular gig was male dominated, and understandably so. Not only is St. Vincent captivatingly stunning but she is also an undeniably talented musician, with her supreme ability to pluck catchy yet intensely intricate guitar solos.
St. Vincent’s unique style of music is somewhat difficult to define and should not be pigeon-holed; sometimes channelling sounds reminiscent of Portishead, Mogwai or Coco Rosie, but with an ethereal, “futuristic 80s” undertone that could, at times, be almost mistaken for the soundtrack to Blade Runner. St. Vincent herself has described her music, particularly her most recent album, as resembling that of an anxiety attack, with the sound of a particular song seemingly following a particular mood, only to take a complete directional change, leaving the listener in a curious state of semi-confusion.
St. Vincent performed an impressive selection of songs from all of her three albums, Marry Me, Actor and Strange Mercy. Strange Mercy, however, her most recent release, dominated the set, with the opening song none other than the forever-quirky ‘Surgeon’. This was followed with two more tracks from the album, being ‘Cheerleader’ and ‘Chloe in the Afternoon’. Briefly departing from the new album, St. Vincent performed the buoyant yet chaotic tracks ‘Save Me From What I Want’ and ‘Actor out of Work’, before returning to Strange Mercy with the track, ‘Dilettante’.
Clark then assertively approached the microphone to give the crowd a light-hearted spiel on her next song, explaining that she had recently filmed the video clip, which involved her being abducted by a motherless family. She was, however, interrupted mid-story by the evidently clever crowd who guessed only too quickly what her next song was to be. Clark stopped her story abruptly and expressed with a confident cheek: ‘Fine. I’ll just play the song then, will I?’ and launched aggressively into ‘Cruel’.
St. Vincent took respite from her chaotic, semi-anxiety attack inducing tracks with the mellow tunes ‘Champagne Year’ and ‘Human Racing’, before returning to a more manic-style song, ‘Marrow’ and the upbeat ‘Northern Lights’. She also performed the debut of her latest song, ‘Crocodile’. Annie deemed Australia an apt place to perform this song for the first time, given the pertinent link between the name of the song and the man-eating reptiles that typically reside in the northern states of Australia. Much to the crowd’s delight, St. Vincent jumped confidently off the stage and danced around the crowd in a pinball-like fashion, bouncing from person to person.
She ended her set with the alluring, melodious track ‘Year of the Tiger’. The crowd waited in excited anticipation for an encore. Eventually she reappeared and wryly approached the stage. As the crowd screamed, “We love you, Annie!” along with a number of song requests, Clark sardonically responded, “Well… I’m not going to play any of those songs. I’m just going to play ‘American Pie’ six times over and watch you all trail out.” The crowd chuckled, clearly amused by her dry wit, and then nervously turned to each other, brows raised questioningly, as if to say “Er… wait… is she serious?” Soon after, she commenced her encore with a dramatic rendition of ‘The Party’. Closing her eyes, hands firmly clasped around the microphone, she serenaded an entranced audience. The crowd swayed, eyes reciprocally closed, clearly immersed in the blissful intimacy of the moment. ‘The Party’ was without a doubt one of the highlights of the set, perfectly illustrating the range of Clark’s unfaultable, soothing vocals.
She closed with the poignant ‘Your Lips Are Red’, which, with all of the song’s unusual beats and directional changes, admittedly almost left the crowd on the brink of an anxiety attack. Modestly thanking everyone for making her welcome in Australia, St. Vincent departed the stage, leaving the crowd stunned and yearning for more, despite having played for just short of 1.5 hours. Clearly this extraordinary set by an irrefutably gifted musician made it all too easy for the audience to forget that midnight was approaching on an otherwise mediocre Monday night.
– Lee Schofield
