Wow. St. Vincent. Annie. Clark. You had me at the sound of your guitar doing wild and crazy things. A little over a year ago I heard these whispers that St. Vincent was pretty good at playing the guitar. Then I heard a passerby say impressive. She must have heard the same because her newest album is heavy on what she can do when it's just her and an electric guitar. Yes there's a band, but what she does is at the forefront.  On stage, sitting from afar, I only caught a glimpse of her stage presence. A lithe singer/songwriter one my guess at first glance, but looking a bit closer you see a strength. A thin arm is suddenly more, a shadowy bicep with definition appears. And there's the power stance that's all her own. A stance that tells you she's about to do something nasty with that guitar of hers.

Here's a clip of her guitar solo on the song Surgeon. Halfway through she's shaking her head but more so in agreement or approval with what the guitar is doing I suppose. 

Here's what Pitchfork had to say about her newest album.
            
"And anyone who's seen the Berklee dropout do her seizured duckwalk in concert while soloing on unhinged tracks like "Your Lips Are Red" knows her not-so-secret weapon is a lurching guitar style somewhere between Robert Fripp's sheet-metal prog and Tom Morello's 10-ton riffage. On Strange Mercy, she ditches Marry Me's naivety and Actor's ostentatious arrangements, boosts the inventive guitar playing, and ends up with her most potent and cathartic release yet."

At different points during the show I was both in awe and disbelief. I had seen her once before but this time it was more in-your-face and brutal. A good brutal and in-your-face. As I walked out of the show one thought was constant. I've got to get me an electric guitar. I've got to at least attempt to make sounds like the ones I heard throughout the night. Oh and that Annie Clark is a bad, bad guitar player.