Austin – I listened to St. Vincent‘s debut album quite a bit when it first came out. The theatrical sultry vocals of Annie Clark was definitely something to behold. I guess I was not the only one enchanted by this Texan singer on Friday night at Antones, judging by the amount of ‘Marry me Annie!’ chants there were. Luckily for her, she also has a song by that name and can simply reply ‘Oh, that’s the song we are playing next’. I had previously seen her a few years ago at Horseshoe, but much to my surprise, this time around, Annie Clark had a rather large band with her, one of whom looked like a greaser from the 50s. Once again, technical difficulties delayed the start of this concert, but once it got going, all it took was a simple ‘hello, We’re St. Vincent’ to get everyone in the place to shut up.
Dressed in black while other band members dressed in white, Annie Clark debuted mostly new material of her upcoming album for the crowd of 200 enthusiastic fans. Even with the addition of a chamber pop backing members, the new material still sounds pretty similar to the old ones, high on lounge quality. I almost think that if you transported St. Vincent back to the 30s, they would be the biggest thing ever. Just as quickly as the set began, the show ended. I guess this is what happens when you play at 12:30 am. No ‘Stars are Aligned’, no ‘Human Racing’, no ‘Paris is Burning’ yet I was still satisfied. St. Vincent has that star like quality about her, when she sings, everyone pays attention, she looks fragile, but then you see her shred the guitar and it’s like whoa. Quite mesmerizing.