The sun set a little earlier Thursday night, a reminder to Pioneer Park patrons that this would indeed be the summer’s last show in the 2015 Twilight Concert Series. Rockers Best Coast and St. Vincent closed out the series with uproarious, even slightly sacrilege sets. St. Vincent’s Annie Clark left everything on the stage.
Unlike a lot of Twilight openers, Los Angeles’ Best Coast had a strong contingent of fans there just for them; the band could very well have headlined a different show. They were far from just stage placeholders while St. Vincent’s fog machines began warming up nearly two hours in advance. Touring in support of their recent album “California Nights,” the band played “Boyfriend” the album’s title track, and “Feeling Ok” among other dreamy, beachy, punk songs. Singer Bethany Consentino’s voice was as good as recordings, if not better, and Bobb Bruno’s guitar drove the band confidently through their melancholy beach-rock set, rarely shying away from a little extra feedback. In true punk fashion, a nervous Consentino kept away from talking too much between songs with the crowd. She moved the band’s set through quickly, seeming much more comfortable playing their music than chit-chatting or even introducing the songs.
St. Vincent (the stage name of former Polyphonic Spree member and all-around space alien goddess Annie Clark), on the other hand, seemed to regard her audience with an uncommon level of respect and courtesy, apologizing gracefully before restarting a song when an instrument came unplugged. She even did research for a tongue-in-cheek aside “for the freaks and others” on “famous Utah-ians,” and shared a David Cassidy quote.
One thing easily missed if you are watching St. Vincent’s videos or streaming her music is how amazing a guitar player she really is. Clark’s hands (yes, sometimes both) fly frenetically up and down the neck of the guitar, so fast, sure and easy it looks more like she is playing the harp than a six-string. Rarely a song went by that didn’t have her stepping away from the mic for a riff break, and the crowd at the park welcomed it.
The stage show was equal parts spacefunk and sacriliege. “Cheerleader,” “Rattlesnake,” “Digital Witness,” “Birth in Reverse,” “Actor out of Work,” “Marrow” and “I Prefer Your Love” all took place on a stage covered in light and movement. A tall platform upstage served as St. Vincent’s official guitar shredding area, and she cast huge pink and blue shadows on a black banner with a white cross that hung behind the band.
With a respect to St. Vincent’s art rock vibe, the crowd sported a few more pairs of glasses than usual. Clark’s last tour was with Talking Heads lead singer David Byrne after the release of their fantastic collaboration album “Love This Giant,” and she has picked up a lot of Byrne’s moves: halting geometric choreography and plenty of stage symbolism. It was hard to find a single person whose full attention was not wrapped up in St. Vincent’s stage show and harder still to find anyone complaining after the lights came up.
