Concert review: St. Vincent @ Union Transfer
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
St. Vincent may be a cyborg, but she wants us analog creatures to know we have some things in common.
[ 2/28 ] St. Vincent may be a cyborg, but she wants us analog creatures to know we have some things in common. Among them:
- We were all born before the 21st century.
- Our families don’t know everything about us.
- Our favorite word is “orgiastic.”
Her strange observations of our commonalities may have been a reaching out for human connection in this digitized landscape of postmodern America. But Philly was reaching right back, ready to accept the white-haired robotlady. Annie Clark’s alter ego kept with the futuristic theme of her new self-titled album by putting on an otherworldly show at a sold-out Union Transfer.
Music reigned in this microprocessed paradise. From the gorgeous warbling of “Prince Johnny” to the illustrious, industrial guitar plucks heard on singles like “Digital Witness” and “Birth in Reverse,” the performer showed off her prolific talent even while rolling herself down stairs and seeming to lose bodily battery power at the end of every song. Perhaps most impressive, though, was her ability to keep a straight (plastic? titanium?) face for the entirety of the show. She represented the automated being in all of us who really, at the end of the digital day, just wants to be loved — and who wants to have a few cybernated orgasms while doing it.
