St Vincent live review
Playing the slot immediately preceding a festival’s hottest property can be tricky business, as any witness to Primal Scream’s pre-Stones embarrassment at Glastonbury will attest. Thankfully though, any worries that St Vincent’s Annie Clark will be cowed by Arcade Fire’s enormous hexagonal lighting rig hanging above her are brilliantly assuaged by a show as commanding as any over the weekend.
Clark’s mesmerising poise and glacial beauty make for a heady pair, and when that’s combined with her latest songs, full of wit, infectious melody, and effortlessly swaggering guitar playing, the effect is spellbinding but also oddly rapturous: the frequently over-obedient Primavera crowd whoop spontaneously following Rattlesnake’s mid-song guitar shred, and Marrow becomes an unexpectedly singalong delight.
The performance culminates with Clark’s slow-motion tumble down a central podium, the most extravagant of several choreographed set pieces that elevate her show from mere festival gig to a display of utter confidence and performing authority. Her latest album is her best yet; shows like this match it in both ambition and realisation, and augment Clark’s current hot streak further still.
