St. Vincent’s Tour Certifies Her Rock Queen Status: Concert Review

St. Vincent has done some pretty high-concept tours over the past decade. Coming out in support of her 2017 album “Masseduction,” her synth-pop-glowing “Fear the Future” tour featured pop-art video projections on the big screen, mask-clad band members, and plenty of latex in the dressing room to amplify her candy-colored, sultry appearance. By contrast, on the 2021 tour that followed “Daddy’s Home,” she combined pretentiousness with genuine warmth, allowing retro touches to push aside some of the avant-garde trappings. There, she went blonde and led a team of backup singers through an old-school soul show laced with psychedelic touches.

What's her position now? The big concept in 2024 is to have a rock show.

Of course, with St. Vincent, nothing can be that simple. Her show still invites deep thoughts as well as primal responses. But aside from whatever neural pathways she might tempt you to go down while contemplating her lyrics and themes during the concert, what sets the All Born Screaming Tour apart is how simple it is. With no video screens, no backup singers, no graphics, and lots of electric guitar, it’s the purest distillation of St. Vincent we’ve had on stage in a few years. And while we love the sharp, conceptual stuff, too, she’s such a captivating talent that you’re drawn to get as close as you can, with or without the bells and whistles.

To keep the rapport alive, we caught her at a rare club show booked on her current tour, which usually takes place in huge auditoriums and amphitheaters. Before playing to a packed house at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles over the weekend, St. Vincent played a show at a venue less than a sixth the size of the venue, the Knitting Factory in Boise, Idaho, which seats 1,000 people. It was as immersive as you’d expect if you’re a fan, and if you’re a fan of Eye Contact With the Stars. St. Vincent loves to get fans up front on this tour, and if you like the idea of ​​screaming, “Hey, what are you looking at? When you hear her live—as you do on “Broken Man,” the first single from the “All Born Screaming” album—you know she might be staring at you as if expecting an answer.

There’s not much on this tour that’s quite like “Daddy’s Home”; it could be night and day. As sad as many, if not most, of the songs were, there was a certain joy to that last album and tour, with all the funky ’70s beats and R&B and literally bleached hair. It was like St. Vincent was trying to humanize herself a little, even if it was through disguise. Now, Annie Clark (her unofficial pseudonym) is still that same human onstage, even if her current haunted rock ‘n’ roll style is leading her down some darker paths. Leonard Cohen titled one of his last albums “You Want It Darker,” and that might be fitting for St. Vincent’s new album, too, though you can’t say “All Born Screaming” doesn’t make her point, too.

Clarke noted that she and her band visited the Boise escape room on their day off. (She seemed particularly pleased that her guitarist, Charlotte Kemp Mull, appeared to be terrorizing some blond-haired locals on the street outside with her appearance, which could reasonably be described as a bit gothic.) But escape from realityin and of itself, is not necessarily something specific to St. Vincent—at least not in “All Born Screaming,” which deals with death, mortality, and grief as primary themes.

Clarke showed some chutzpah in this regard, starting the current setlist with the slowest, most stern track on the new album: “Reckless,” whose title translates to “breathless,” meaning, perhaps, deceased. Anyone who wandered in looking for a good time might wonder what they got themselves into, with the opening number being so dramatic and melancholic, with keyboardist Rachel Eckroth playing electronic piano parts that made the song sound like one of Trent Reznor’s least happy tunes. But there’s a reason “Reckless” is such an effective concert opener: Almost as soon as it settles into its quiet funeral dirge, it explodes with some powerful, semitone chords, signaling that the somber intro was coming to an end.

From that ominous opening, to the more energetic oldie “Fear of the Future,” the rest of the 80-minute show was a veritable celebration of life. Clarke can’t help but see herself as a melancholic character—and that goes for some of the older songs, like “New York” (with its chorus of “I’ve lost a hero, I’ve lost a friend,” which never fails to be poignant), as well as the newer songs about loss, like “Sweetest Fruit” and “Hell Is Near.” But the music was so exciting, and Clarke’s demeanor between songs was so friendly, that, well, hell or heaven or whatever lay ahead seemed so far away. For anyone who enjoys the dynamics of well-played rock ‘n’ roll that feels like something is at stake, it’s hard to imagine a more uplifting show.

One of the few things this tour has in common with the previous one is the presence of co-guitarist Jason Falkner as her onstage sidekick. He moves around everywhere—some music fans may have seen him jamming with Beck right before the St. Vincent tour began—but Falkner and Beck have much less physical contact than Falkner and Clark. They’re equally strong on electric guitar, and it was especially exciting when they played in unison, as they did on the penultimate song “Sugarboy,” where they delivered an intricate double-part before separating, even as they grappled with each other’s backs like mischievous schoolboys.

The two share the band’s most obvious team spirit, but there was plenty to be said for the others’ contributions. Falkner and Clarke put their arms around each other’s shoulders, like friends, watching drummer Mark Juliana launch into a rousing, sultry riff on the closing track “Cheerleader.” (Thought St. Vincent was too artistic to deliver anything as old-fashioned as a drum solo? Think again.)

What's intriguing and compelling is how much of a dramatic presence Clarke can have on stage – which is no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention since 2006 – but beyond that, it's amazing how friendly She’s capable of being in the public eye. Given the old comparisons between him and David Bowie, it seems as if Ziggy Stardust took the time to chat a little friendly nonsense every now and then. She told Bowie’s audience that it was her first time in Idaho, and as the concert drew to a close, she assured everyone that it had been a “fantastic first date.” Her topics of conversation ranged from Idaho’s history to her recent search history. “I want to tell you everything I’ve learned about your beautiful city so far,” she said. “According to Wikipedia, Lewis and Clark came over the mountains from Utah, which was very dry, and they said, ‘Le Bois!’ — and somehow it became ‘Boise.’ I’m very happy about that.” “And the second thing I learned about your state is that if you try to do what a normal person would do on a vacation in a nice city, which is lie in a hotel bed and look at PornHub, it makes you…” she added, drowning out the crowd in her explanation of what loop she was required to go through for this recreational activity.

So, St. Vincent is clearly not one to hide her sadness in concert, despite her “All Born Screaming” album being a shocker. However, even a novice to her music can probably recognize that there are solid foundations to the songs that can sound so much fun live. There were plenty of highlights at the end of the set, especially her first-ever live performance of one of the best songs from “Daddy’s Home,” “Somebody Like Me,” a melancholic song about insecurity and hope that’s as emotionally simple and sad as anything she’s ever done. Who knows why she didn’t sing this beautiful song on her last tour, or in the first half of this one, but it deserves to remain on the setlist forever.

She then closed the show with “All Born Screaming,” which, judging by its title alone, seemed like a depressing way to end a night of entertainment. But when St. Vincent encouraged the audience to sing along to the hypnotically repeated title phrase, it became clear: A little screaming is no bad thing in her world, and anyway, it’s He is “Everyone was born screaming,” not “Everyone died screaming,” so it was actually meant to be a gentle hymn of hope. By the end of the show, it might have made everyone feel like they were born again.