She came out to the stage in a dress with shoulder ruffles that looked like budding black flowers that I think I’ve seen her play in before. Perhaps that fact was only in a dream and maybe I was sleeping Thursday night at the Metro as St. Vincent nee Annie Clark walked out into the packed and humid room on Clark Street in Chicago, cradling her red, white and black guitar that perfectly complimented her outfit, from the wild shock of brunette hair to the aforementioned black sheath to her red flats. With the lights bathing her in an eerie violet glow; her dress at times appeared to morph into ruby red “paint the black hole blacker” as she sang in her set opener “The Strangers”.

This review, if you can’t tell from the opening paragraph, will be fairly biased. I am a fan; I think she’s brilliant; I think she’s beautiful. She plays guitar. See… you’re enamored now too.

For her set at the Metro, Clark concentrated on tracks from her latest release on the 4AD label, “Actor”, with the sporadic tune from her debut “Marry Me” mixed in. According to her, “Actor” is all about losers. Unhappy, lonely people who are struggling to tread water. As mentioned earlier; in her first song of the evening “The Strangers”, Clark sings “Lover, I don’t play to win/for the thrill until I’m spent/Paint the black hole blacker… What do I share/What do I keep from all the strangers who sleep where I sleep?” This set the tone for an evening heavy on down tempo numbers punctuated at times with burning intensity. A welcome surprise (although I think she plays this a lot given the set lists I’ve seen) was a cover of Nico’s “These Days”; her beautiful voice wafting on the smoke of her singular guitar.

Even as she lulled us into a blissful haziness, Clark proved with this set that she can work a guitar. On “Marrow,” and “Actor out of Work”, her walk in place; staccato movements make the already stunning visual all the more intriguing. Her lilting tenor over gritty, hardened guitar lines is mesmerizing. See… biased.

Clark ended the show with a two song encore that included Marry Me’s “Paris is Burning” and “Your Lips are Red.”, the first an entirely solo endeavor. On the latter, her band’s musical prowess was fully on display, capping a night filled with saxophone, violin and clarinet and pounding backbeats. It was a fitting end to a great night of music and I’m already looking forward to her set on the closing night of the Pitchfork Festival in July.

For whatever the beauty of the music or the musician; a closer listen to her album will find her lyrics working their way into your subconscious. If “Actor’ is all for losers; count me as one.

Filed under: February 2010, Music by M