St. Vincent in the Park

Ages and ages ago, my parents went to Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in the Park - their first reunion, featuring an appearance by Ed Koch. I've spent most of my life a little bit impressed and a little bit jealous. Now that I'm back in Chicago, it is possible to go to a concert in the park - Millennium Park, that is - at least once a week.

The city sponsors free performances three or four nights a week in the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Concert Pavilion, which looks out over a big lawn and gardens. This past Monday, St. Vincent and Allà kicked off their New Music Mondays series, drawing a young cohort even further from the candelabra-wielding, Ravinia-going crowd of outdoor-music-goers than the usual Millennium Park fare. While a slight rain kept the lawn crowd down slightly, the seats and most of the grass pretty much ran the gamut of hipsterdom, from steampunk'd men to gamine, Urban-clad ladies. It was the kind of crowd that had me wondering if I'd see someone I followed on tumblr. Even with worn out Chucks and a Manhattan Portage bag, your faithful correspondent was way outgunned.

Allà (pronounced "Aiya") opened with long jams that occasionally veered towards a 1970's fusion jazz sound. Their songs and their performance as a whole were notably light on words, except for a slightly misplaced shout of "viva México!" from the lead singer. Since I'm a sucker for lyrics and stage banter, I wasn't quite won over. While Allà's borderline psychedelic music wasn't something I'd normally seek out, their biggest problem may have been the setting. The crowd had to have been the largest they'd played for, and in spite of its relative responsiveness to the music, the performers had not quite figured out how to translate their music to such a large, open venue. I suspect they would have seemed much less awkward indoors, or in a club.

St. Vincent - guitarist/singer Annie Clark's nom de pick - had no such problem. I first saw her the summer of 2007 at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC, just after her first album, Marry Me, came out. This venue is on the smaller, darker end of the three major DC indie rock options, and, after a shouty opening set by Scout Niblett, St. Vincent really made the room work. A friend I dragged along to the show bought her album because he "felt like [he] had to after she'd made that much eye-contact" with him. Clark, who is now touring in support of her album Actor, didn't quite manage this level of intimacy, but still commanded the venue well, with her violinist and saxophonist (extra points for good use of brass) fanned out across the stage. In an interview I recently saw, she described her guitar playing as "violent and dirty." Not typically = my cup of tea, but the rough instrumentals balance nicely with Clark's resolutely bright voice. Even having introduced "The Party" as a sad song, she kept it from real bleakness with her vocals.

The set was nicely balanced between new and old material, beginning with "Marry Me John" and "Now, Now," a song of which I was very glad to be reminded. I admit that Monday was also my first time hearing "Actor Out of Work" and "Save Me From What I Want," both of which encouraged me to give Actor a proper listen. My favorite new song by far, however, was "Black Rainbow," something which I haven't been able to track down online.

The real treat of seeing St. Vincent at the Rock and Roll Hotel was hearing her perform "These Days," her signature encore and one of my top-ever songs - sadly I had to run out a bit early to catch a train, so I'm not sure if Millennium-Park-goers had the same pleasure.

Check out Allà on myspace (link above), and a smattering of St. Vincent below.

"Now Now" by St. Vincent from Marry Me
"These Days" by St. Vincent which possibly appeared on an EP called Paris Is Burning?
Buy Marry Me from Insound here.