St. Vincent @ Terminal 5 (February 26, 2014)

St. Vincent stopped by New York City last night to play a sold out show at Terminal 5. It was a celebration show of sorts for her newly released self-titled album, which came out this week and is in fact, pretty tremendous.

Opening the show was Holly Herndon, an experimental electronic musician out of San Francisco. She studied music composition at Stanford, and it shows. Her set was an interesting blending of many different types of elements that all came together to create something very distinct to herself.

Before last night, I had never seen St. Vincent live, which is hard to believe considering I’ve been a fan of hers since the release of Marry Me. I just never got around to it (although I caught a song or two at Bonnaroo in 2012, but that doesn’t count). But that’s life, stuff happens.

This tour has been dubbed The Digital Witness tour and Annie Clark has reason for it. Before coming on stage, we were greeted with an automated message that cleverly asked the crowd not to witness the show through their phones (digitally) but to use their eyes.

Good advice, considering Annie Clark is an absolute delight to watch on stage. You can’t be fooled by her dreamy presence, this is a girl who is born to rock. Not only does she shred the hell out of her guitar, but she has no problem getting dirty on stage, singing while flailing on the ground, or literally crawling down the steps of an elevated stage. It represented that Annie was willing to put everything that she had into her performance.

Tracks of her new album such as “Rattlesnake” (which opened the show, just like it does on the album) and “Digital Witness” were stunners, as were old favorites “Cruel” and “Cheerleader.” Her encore featured a solo performance of “Strange Mercy” from Annie, as well as “The Bed” & “Your Lips Are Red.” The diversity of her music is highlighted live, as you are able to take in her gentler moments just as much as when she’s rocking out intensely on the floor during a light show freakout.

Annie Clark is a jack of all trades, truly one of the best female musicians out there. Her live show is not to be missed. Hopefully next time she returns to the big apple, you’ll join me.

Check out some photos from the show below, posted after the setlist.

Setlist:

1. Rattlesnake
2. Digital Witness
3. Cruel
4. Birth in Reverse
5. Regret
6. Laughing With a Mouth of Blood
7. I Prefer Your Love
8. Pieta
9. Every Tear Disappears
10. Surgeon
11. Cheerleader
12. Prince Johnny
13. Year of the Tiger
14. Marrow
15. Huey Newton
16. Bring Me Your Loves
17. Northern Lights
18. Krokodil