Original image by There Stands the Glass.
St. Vincent isn’t cancelled after all. More than 2,000 admirers attended the concert by the controversial musician on Thursday, October 7, doubling the attendance of the previous St. Vincent show I’d witnessed. Dismissing the negativity swirling around the artist born Annie Clark was the right move. Her appearance at Grinders KC is a contender for the concert of the year.
The 90-minute performance possessed most of the elements essential to memorable old-school rock shows: guitar shredding, noisy freakouts, absurdist comedy, imaginative staging and an incredible band. The seven accomplished ringers on stage with Clark included guitarist Rachel Eckroth (Chris Botti, Donny McCaslin, etc.), Jason Falkner (Jellyfish, The Three O’Clock, etc.) and drummer Mark Guiliana (David Bowie, Brad Mehldau, etc.).
Fresh arrangements of old material and songs from Clark’s excellent 2021 album Daddy's Home took advantage of the formidable lineup. Clark is a fiercely iconoclastic artist. Even so, her soul-based innovations and gleeful embrace of the campiest aspects of glam rock made Thursday’s concert the most gratifying de facto David Bowie tribute I’ve encountered.