St. Vincent at Queen Elizabeth Hall

St. Vincent

Cate Le Bon

Queen Elizabeth Hall, 10 November 2011

After seeing Annie Clark in such tiny venues a couple of years back it was strange to see her play the much bigger and totally sold out Queen Elizabeth Hall. That said, it was no surprise really, aside from all the buzz surrounding her new album, Strange Mercy, her talent (and let's be honest here, her appealing pixie looks too) meant it was only a matter of time before she was discovered by a wider audience.

I do admit that it was much cooler and exciting seeing her play up close in those tiny intimate concerts not so long ago but I'm not going to deny that her music and stage presence does suit a bigger stage. For one thing the light show, with criss-crossing green and red strobe lights, was something out of a prog rock concert and funnily enough the first song of the evening, Surgeon, featured a more prominent synthesizer part that sounded straight out of Rush's Tom Sawyer (which amused me quite a bit considering that half the hipsters in the audience would be mortified by that comparison). Her band was pretty different this time too, last time I saw her she had a clarinet, saxophone and guitars backing her up, this time it was just the drums and two people on keyboards, looking kinda like a dance band was performing, definitely not as exciting but I guess it kept the focus on Annie herself who looked as beautiful and petite as ever in a flowing white chiffon top and leather shorts.

The whole show was pretty much a showcase for her new album, with 10 of the 17 song set from Strange Mercy, which was fine by me since it's certainly one of the year's best and the song's were even bigger and scarier live with Clark's intricate jazz-punk guitar-playing the centrepiece of each one. Because Annie's guitar style on record is never flashy, it's there to serve the song and its atmosphere (as it should be), it's easy to forget just how spectacular she truly is but live that's certainly not the case as she really gets to let loose, her fingers often going at amazing speed, and it's fantastic to see a woman who is every bit amazing as the male guitar heroes out there. At one point, during the epic finale of Northern Lights she even jumps down into the seated audience, still playing her guitar and letting the crowd strum away at it, Lindsey Buckingham-style.

Tonight she was less talkative than previous times I've seen her and a couple of times she starts telling us something and seems unsure how to finish it but I guess that's the nature of bigger venues such as these. She does tell us an amusing and quirky story though about a designer friend who had been hired by a rich elderly lady in Manhattan who wanted her never-changed 50s decor to be redone but exactly the same and that is what inspired the song Just The Same But Brand New.

Probably the most interesting but bizarre moment of the night though was when she invited Mark Stewart of the Pop Group on stage to perform a blistering cover of She Is Beyond Good And Evil, with Stewart and Annie swapping lead vocals and Annie shredding away on her guitar. Stewart looked amusingly reluctant to be on stage (even though it was he who offered to join her tonight for the song) and walked off stage before the song had ended in true punk "I don't care" style but it was exciting to see and hear Annie aggressively rocking out and showing her prowess on her instrument in sharp contrast to the gentler, more haunting moments of the night such as the poignant title track Strange Mercy.

The final song of the night was the majestically building Your Lips Are Red, the sole outing tonight from her debut album Marry Me, which ends in some impressive soloing from Annie and swaths of beautifully noisy feedback. The three times I've seen Annie Clark each time has been completely different so she is always worth seeing, I can't wait to see what she does next.

Also, I must mention St. Vincent's support act, the very lovely Cate Le Bon. I must admit I have a soft spot for the Welsh accent in music and Cate's was particularly pleasing on her sadly sweet folky tales appropriately played alone on an acoustic guitar. The melancholy sound of her music though sits in contrast to her cheery stage presence and it was definitely pleasant to hear and fun to be in her company for a short while.