St. Vincent at Sokol Auditorium, April 1, 2014.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Annie Clark looked like a kabuki toy standing center stage in her pretty outfit, a field of red rose petals covered the front across and down her skirt, her face painted / powdered white, cheeks blushed with rouge, her hair bleached and punk, a porcelain anime doll with big round eyes, a beautiful painting incomplete until the tech walked out and handed her a black electric guitar.

Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, her voice thin and raspy, stared straight forward while she sang. When she wasn’t plucking out an electronic melody on her ax, she moved and bent and contorted her arms like a pantomime robot, doing Shields and Yarnell (look it up) with her fellow guitarist / keyboardist / vocalist. If Clark learned anything from touring with David Byrne it’s how to “dance” like an alien life form trying to communicate through arm gestures and hand signals. I don’t remember such theatrics the last time she came through town, so I have no choice but to blame Byrne who made a career out of his geek spastic dance motions throughout his time as a Talking Head.

I like it when Byrne does it; it seemed to make sense with his music. I don’t mind it when Clark does it, either, though her actions felt disconnected to what she was singing, as if she were trying to force a mechanical element onto something meant to be purely organic. The same thing can be said about her music. While I like the sterile beats, the oddly archaic rhythm-cut instrumentation (contrasted by a sonic blanket of synths), too often her melodies were reduced to elevating vocal tones crawling up and down a pentatonic scale.

All the while, Annie Clark was hatchet lit from below or shadowed by blazing-white LED panels that burned the retinas of a packed house who stood mesmerized more than moved by her music.

Between song sections, Clark performed short, pre-written monologues recited dryly and rehearsed. She told stories of how she and us weren’t so different. In fact, we were the same, as evidenced by her shared memories of lighting fires with a magnifying glass, feeling ill after telling a lie, admitting that her (our) friends don’t know us as well as they think they do.

I’m sure turning her concert into prolonged musical theater sounded like a good idea during tour rehearsals. The whole are-we-not-human? shtick worked well for Devo because it was weird and different and their matching jumpsuits made you want to believe it. Costumes are everything. I’d like to tell you that it was more interesting than previous St. Vincent shows, but it wasn’t. It looked and felt forced and uncomfortable, purposely rigid and thoroughly counter to the loose-and-rough spontaneity of rock. Instead, it was more of an attempt at art rock, but without the limitlessness of a Laurie Anderson.

Worst of all, after about a half hour, it became boring.

I fear that the bigger Clark/Vincent gets, the more disconnected she’ll become with her audience. I liked her better when she spontaneously paced around stage with her guitar and blazed the fretboard with the confidence of Prince. We saw a glimpse of the old Annie during the encore. After a quick wardrobe change, Clark reappeared alone on top of a tower of boxes and performed a sweet version of “Strange Mercy” off the 2011 album of the same name. For the first time that evening, her guitar sounded like a guitar, and her voice sounded oh so human.

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Side notes…

If you’re looking for a set list for (and a different perspective of) last night’s show, Kevin Coffey has both at the OWH website, here.

With this show and last Saturday’s Neutral Milk Hotel show, I can’t remember Sokol Auditorium sounding better, in fact sounding better then I ever thought it could. I’ve seen some boomy shows at the ol’ gymnasium/dance hall (Regina Spektor comes to mind). Today’s audio technology can make any room sound awesome. Sokol has always been an alternative for shows too big for Slowdown. Now it no longer seems like a compromise. Conor, The Faint and Manchester Orchestra are all booked at Sokol for upcoming shows. Get your tix while you can.

I’ve also figured out how to park at sold-out Sokol shows — just put it on 16th St. and walk down the hill. When the show’s over, it’s a straight shot back to downtown.

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There’s another in this week-long string of amazing show going on tonight.

Warpaint plays at The Waiting Room. The band’s new self-titled album, released on Rough Trade, was produced by Flood (PJ Harvey, U2, New Order) and is one of my favorites this year (I like it a lot more than the new St. Vincent record). And get this: Digital Leather is opening. $17, 9 p.m. See you there.

Also tonight, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead plays at The Slowdown. They’ll be performing Source Tags and Codes. La Femme opens. $20, 8 p.m.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

St. Vincent at The Slowdown back in May 2012. She plays tonight at Sokol Auditorium.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Tonight’s St. Vincent Show at Sokol Auditorium will be the fifth time I’ve seen Annie Clark and her band perform in Omaha. She’s gone from doing small, sparsely attended shows at The Waiting Room (in 2007) to sold-out Slowdown big room gigs (in 2012) to now the famous cow barn on 13th St.

I’ve always said she had the potential to be “the next PJ Harvey.” With this show — and her latest album — you could argue she’s exceeded PJ. I say that knowing that tonight’s show has yet to sell out; I have no idea if PJ could sell out Sokol Aud (though I’m skeptical).

I like the new self-titled record. Its brittle, sometimes sterile beats and compositions sound modern without losing (too many) elements that make the songs swing. Sure, at times it sounds like plastic robot music and can become somewhat static, but Clark pulls in earthy elements that help ground the songs, including horns and her own gossamer vocals.

What you wouldn’t know if you’ve only heard her records is that Clark is a guitar virtuoso, a real ax grinder that can shred with the best of them. That’s lost amidst all the electronics and effects on the album that make her guitar sound like a buzzing synth. Wait ’til you see her play guitar on stage.

Opening is Noveller a.k.a. Sarah Lipstate. Her instrumental music (mostly guitar) has been called “mind-wrecking noise.”

Like I said, this one is still not sold out, and is a steal at $20. Show starts at 8 p.m.

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Speaking of shows, Harrah’s has announced the Stir Concert Cove line-up for this summer and it’s right in line with shlock slated for this year’s Memorial Park concert (Sugar Ray, Uncle Kracker, etc.).

In Harrah’s defense, the casino doesn’t program its concert series with indie music fans in mind, obviously. But with their facilities and the size of their budget, they could get some real hum-dinger acts instead of Pat Benetar (who played at Memorial Park for free last year), Stain’d, Collective Soul, Alice in friggin’ Chains, etc. Willie Nelson is the biggest name on the sheet *yawn*. The full line-up is here. Is this the kind of music gamblers like to listen to when they’re counting their chips? I guess so. The only show on the slate that holds a modicum of interest is Fitz and the Tantrums, but even that’s a stretch for >$20 ticket price.

Stir’s announcement would appear to leave the field wide open for Maha to book an impressive concert this summer. Expect an announcement in the near future…

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2014 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.