Like being in a dream, running
through the meadow in the warm
sun, gently caressing the wheat
stalks, then getting woken up with a
bucket of ice water……..Well, OK, it’s
definitely not that extreme, and it
only applies to a few songs anyway.
The whole album is delightful and
enjoyable for it’s creativity and fresh
perspective.
Find it on LP and CD.
St. Vincent, Live at the Bluebird
Theater
I showed up to this one fully
expecting everything I’d seen in a
few poo-tube videos I caught the
week earlier. My mental picture;
Annie Clark, alone, trying to
multitask instruments and hold a
show like a street busker, while
everyone in the crowd’s shifting
anxiously with crossed arms.
Not at all!
She showed up with a whole backup
crew that was exactly the same
lineup as Dave Matthews and Jimmy
Buffett, as she embarrassingly
admitted to the crowd.
The live show is strong…..Annie
switches up the vocals with two
mics. One for her standard vocals,
and another right next to it with a
little reverb set in for that
“omnipresent-god-... that seems to
come from everywhere. She switched
between them constantly……….. Nice
touch I thought.
The energy is picked up a lot from
the mostly dreamy album, adding in
saxophone, and a lot of violin to
change up the pace. Besides that,
Annie’s guitar comes in a lot
stronger live…..And of course, louder.
I would say that the low end of
everything was entirely bloated and
out of control, something I’ve come
to expect out of this particular
venue, but despite all that, the airy
centerstage vocals came out great
and brought out a lot of the subtle
shifts in Annie’s voice.
St. Vincent

Shows