Let’s start at the finish: St. Vincent in a spotlight on stage at the Greek Theatre, singing “Somebody Like Me,” one of the loveliest, most personal songs in her catalog.
“Does it make you an angel / Or some kind of freak,” the musician born Annie Clark sang to the hushed full house on Friday. “To believe enough / In somebody like me?”
Oh, they believe in you, Annie. And why wouldn’t they? Seven albums and 17 years into St. Vincent’s career, she remains one of the most mesmerizing performers in modern music, making art rock with heart, industrial rock with warmth, lounge music with soul, and much, much more.
The night opened with “Reckless,” Clark singing softly over a slow piano melody before the rest of the band came in, a long industrial grind beneath her keening vocal. “Fear The Future” was propelled by the skittering guitars of Clark and Jason Falkner and the relentless rhythms of drummer Mark Giuliana.
Like every St. Vincent show, there’s a lot of care put into the staging. Clark arrived on stage singing from inside one of three arches, which throughout the show rolled into different positions, lit up in different colors, serving as minimalist pieces of an ever-changing stage set.
As the squelchy synths of “Los Ageless” slid seamlessly into the similar groove of “Big Time Nothing,” the small video screens behind the band filled with close-up, black-and-white images of Clark’s face flickering past in double time.
Often compared to David Bowie, her oft-acknowledged inspiration, the songs in the set as on her albums slipped chameleon-like through different interests and inspirations. Her friend and collaborator David Byrne and his former band Talking Heads, ’70s stars such as Steely Dan and Stevie Wonder, ’90s heroes including Nine Inch Nails all are home in her musical memory banks.
The funky synth grooves of “Pay Your Way in Pain,” a highlight in the first half of the set, brought the spirits of Bowie and Prince into the night. “Digital Witness,” with its electronica-meets-marching band horns, is a clear link to “Love This Giant,” St. Vincent’s 2013 duo album with Byrne.
“I know when I was growing up in Texas, I didn’t really feel like I belonged,” Clark told the audience midway through the show. “So I figured out a way to invite 5,000 people to the party. This one is for everyone who never felt like they belonged but they still figured out a way to make it the party.”
“Sweetest Fruit,” one of seven tracks drawn from the new album, “All Born Screaming,” followed, its lyrics a call to stay strong in the face of obstacles, going out on a limb to seize the sweetest prize.
As the show peaked, Clark grew more and more animated. The clang-clash percussion of “Broken Man” devolved into herky-jerky dance moves. The noise-punk dissonance of “Krokodil” saw her stagger around the stage, fall and flail on the floor, and ultimately crowd surf into the pit and back.
The final run of songs slowed things down again with the dreamy new “Hell Is Near” sung standing still, eyes closed, one hand aloft with fingers crossed. “Candy Darling,” from the 2021 album “Daddy’s Home,” placed Clark center stage in a single spotlight, singing its lovely melody over the keyboard accompaniment of Rachel Eckroth.
“I have to say I wrote the next song before I’d fallen as deeply in love with Los Angeles as I have,” Clark said by way of introducing “New York,” one of her most-adored songs. Feel free to substitute your own L.A. landmarks in place of lyrical references to 8th Avenue and Astor Place, she suggested to laughter and cheers from the crowd.
“All Born Screaming,” the title track to the album, closed out the main set, its swirling rhythms sliding into an extended outro with Clark and the band softly singing the title words over and over and over again.
That might have been it – judging by online setlist aggregators there haven’t really been encores on the tour. But the crowd cheered loudly for a few minutes, and it is her hometown now, so Clark returned for one more song and “Somebody Like Me.”
“Does it make you a genius or the fool of the week / To believe enough in somebody like me, baby?” she sang as Eckroth accompanied her on piano. “Oh, I guess we’ll see (I guess we’ll see) who was the freak.”
You, me, we’re all the fool, the genius, the freak, the angel. All born screaming.
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