St. Vincent wrapped up her critically lauded orchestral tour run in her “adopted hometown” of Los Angeles at the Hollywood Bowl Sunday night, enlisting the venue’s famed orchestra to help turn her discography into a full-on theatrical experience.
The concert marked the culmination of a concept years in the making, starting with when the singer-songwriter — real name Anne Clark — was first invited last year for BBC Proms, where she collaborated with conductor Jules Buckley for a concert at Royal Albert Hall. That resulted in St. Vincent’s latest album, Live in London!, which dropped in March, and a now-completed two-month trek that had her and Buckley playing with local symphony orchestras all over the country from Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Detroit, among many more.
Still, the Hollywood Bowl is the only locale appropriate to wrap up something as cinematic as this, and Clark delivered, bringing an hour-and-a-half set that flew by as she added yet another layer to her already genre-bending mix of art-rock and pop.
The orchestral accompaniment lends itself well to St. Vincent’s music, adding a certain dramatic flair to an already very visual discography. The strings help bring out the Bond Theme quality of “Violent Times.” “Smoking Section” gets a bit more grandiose and takes on an almost Spaghetti Western vibe, while “Los Ageless” gets scaled back, going much more intimate from its hardened industrial rock, with swelling strings and piano emphasizing the longing in the song’s chorus: “how could anybody have you and lose you and not lose their minds, too?”
