LIVE: St. Vincent – SWX, Bristol, 31/05/2024

If you know anything about Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, you probably know that he has a reputation as one of the pre-eminent forces on the international live music scene today. Each of her previous world tours was an expertly crafted thematic piece, but never overshadowed her raw talent as a musician. She is widely considered to be one of the best guitarists of the 21st century.

With that in mind, it’s hard not to be excited to head to Bristol’s SWX for the first show on St. John’s European leg. Vincent’s 2024 All born screaming tour. Used to filling huge venues like the Hollywood Bowl and tonight’s show at the 1,800-capacity SWX, barred between dates at the San Francisco Masonic Auditorium and the Royal Albert Hall, I know tonight will feel positively intimate by comparison.

SWX is unsurprisingly sold out tonight. The look of the venue hasn’t changed from its previous life as the Odyssey (a cavernous city center nightclub that previously held the title of Bristol’s most famous MD20/20-fueled meat market). Since SWX is standing room only in the main room and mostly on one level, it’s not that easy to get a great view of the stage unless you get there early. I arrive a good half hour before the support act The heartworm are about to take the stage to secure a half-decent seat, but legions of die-hard St. Vincent have already claimed their seats and are not budging an inch. I watch Heartworms’ 80’s guitar, goth and synth set delivered with serious aplomb from the edge of the stage, almost balancing on tiptoes, so after it’s over I stick my neck down… packed crowd, saying goodbye to any chance of going to the toilet or bar for the rest of the night.

But all that is forgotten once the lights go down and Saint Vincent appears on the darkened stage through a cloud of dry ice. In a relatively simple outfit of crisp white shirt and black mini skirt – reflecting the monochrome aesthetic of her new album All born screaming (no haute couture sweets or bubblegum-pink 50s waitress outfits) – it’s immediately clear that St. Vincent doesn’t need theatrics or multiple outfit changes to own the room; her captivating stage presence is enough on its own. Pausing only to spit her gum into the audience, causing a palpable wave of ecstasy in the crowd, she opens with “Reckless” second track from All born screaming.

The first four tracks are delivered under the same monochrome lighting, which serves to highlight the precision instrumental music production and raw talent of not only St. Vincent, but every musician on stage tonight. She does early drops of two of her biggest hits — Los Ageless‘ and ‘Big time nothing’both of which the adoring crowd goes wild for, pre-2009 ‘Marrow’ ushers in a more dance-inspired beat, red-infused imagery and a whole lot of raw sexuality as she lets rip a pure white version of her beloved self-designed and self-titled guitar St. Vincent (seriously, I think most of the audience wish it was that guitar tonight, myself included). In fact, one of the most captivating elements of watching St. Vincent live is the raw sexuality of her stage presence, without ever seeming to try too hard to be “sexy.”

As the set unfolds, she effortlessly transitions between two equally captivating personas. The first is that of controlled genius, smiling, cool and talkative – this is evident in the obviously genuine enjoyment the whole band take to be on stage with Annie as she sings with clarity and precision, feeling her full vocal range and power I’m also slightly restrained when he charms everyone in the room when he stops the set to pay tribute to Bristol’s rich musical heritage, proclaiming “Seriously, there’s something in the Bristol water and I appreciate it“. The second is a raw, wild energy that builds up and returns briefly until it launches into “Broken Man” eleven tracks into it she is fully at the audience level of sweat-soaked, lipstick-stained intensity, seemingly eye-catching with everyone in the audience as her gaze sweeps the venue and demands responses from each of us to “What are you looking at? Who the hell do you think I am? ” The set then reaches maximum intensity with — Crocodile-A piece of grieving theater, stumbling, browsing the crowd, the fuck of guitar, simulation of cunniligus, which reaches the climax with the feedback from the guitar and the scene being submerged in the dark.

Just as I’m beginning to wonder if Annie has really collapsed out of sight into a tangle of threads under the weight of the orchestrated chaos of the last fifteen minutes, the impeccable, savvy, creative St. Vincent is back, cool and collected in her. The stage girl of the natural habitat, bathed in warm light, leading the audience by the hand in the last half hour of the set to its end, in a purely joyful way. – Sugarboy‘ and an extended, multifaceted version of “We all die screaming‘, by exalters, sincere greats such as ‘Candy Darling’ and ‘New york‘, which has the whole audience eating out of her capable hands.

The set ends abruptly without an encore, but the abruptness of it, while leaving me feeling a bit rushed, doesn’t leave me or anyone in the audience unsatisfied. It was enough to say that I got my first in-person confirmation (or, in the case of many audiences, my second, third, or fourth) that the hype was real—to see St. Vincent performing live is something everyone should experience at least once.

Photos: Gay Darke