SAINTS BE PRAISED: St. Vincent, First Unitarian, Last Night [CLICK TO ENLARGE]
1. St. Vincent sounds even better live than on record. Highlights of the evening were the opener, “Now, Now,” and “Marry Me,” the latter leaping to the top of the list of most heart-wrenching songs I’ve ever seen live on stage.
2. St. Vincent was very happy to finally be in Philadelphia for the tail end of her two-week tour, telling the crowd that she had drove through “the mountains, the desert, the ocean, the Siberia, and Seattle” to make it. Personally, I am of the opinion that driving in an underwater car with St. Vincent to get to Philadelphia would be pretty cool.
3. St. Vincent can shred! Equipped with her Jack White-esque Silvertone, she threw down some surprisingly heavy licks that contrasted her sweet voice in almost every way possible. In a word: badass.
4. St. Vincent might be a bit nuts. As though the theme of being adorable wasn’t enough, she announced midway through the set that the show’s theme was that “we’re giants in a psychedelic forest.” The theme returned to adorable, however, when she revealed that her and her band painted the miniature wooden trees on the tour bus (or underwater car, as it were).
5. St. Vincent is a beautiful human being — it would take a pretty grinch-like indie kid not to immediately fall in love with her as she took the stage. Only someone with a blacker-than-black heart and a hatred for Jenny Lewis and/or springtime could help themselves from being lost in her chestnut-sized eyes.
TEXT & PHOTOS BY MICHAEL DONOVAN