St. Vincent rocks a career-spanning show at the Hollywood Palladium with hope for the digital future

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St. Vincent at Hollywood Palladium (photo by Andie Mills)

Annie Clark and her band — Toko Yasuda (bass, background vocals), Daniel Mintseris (keyboard) and Matt Johnson (drums) — looked splendidly sci fi on stage at Hollywood Palladium Monday night. Mintseris and Johnson in particular looked like they just rolled off the cyborg assembly line, with no faces and matching friar hairdos that personified the tour’s theme, “Fear The Future.” Bobcat Goldthwait introduced the show. He’s currently directing “a project” with St. Vincent, which involved filming the night from multiple angles, including a camera on a crane that towered over the crowd. Goldthwait had asked the audience not to climb the crane or look directly into the camera, even if it came right up to their faces. The audience did their best. Clark commented that Goldthwait’s instructions about not hamming it up for the camera reminded her of “One of my favorite pastimes, which is watching television. Not for the story line, but watching television to spot the overacting extras,” which was met with laughter. The 90-minute set spanned all her albums, those being 2007’s “Marry Me,” 2009’s “Actor,” 2011’s “Strange Mercy,” 2014’s self-titled release, 2017’s “Masseduction” and this month’s “MassEducation,” a stripped down version of her 2017 record.

The night’s message was best encapsulated by Clark’s introduction to the song “Digital Witness:” “No matter what’s going on outside these four walls, we’ve got each other. We’ve got a reason to be joyful. And there’s always a reason to DANCE!” She dedicated “Fast Slow Disco” to anybody who’s ever walked into a place and felt like a freak, felt like an outsider, who’s ever felt more alone at a party than in your own room. And it seemed she choked up a little as she played.

On a playful note, Clark changed up the lyrics to “New York” by improvising some words about Los Angeles. It went something like this…

“L.A. isn’t L.A. without you love
So far in a few blocks in traffic on La Cienega
If I saw you at Erewhon
But I don’t wanna ever see you again
Because that bulletproof coffee’s really fuckin’ … (trailed off as everyone laughed and clapped)
You’re the only — (a guy in the audience yelled “motherfucker!” and she laughed and said, “That is so rude!”) — You’re the only motherfucker in the city who can stand me right now.”

Photos by Andie Mills