St. Vincent, Guitar Nerd - SXSW

With only two shows in Austin, the singer-songwriter St. Vincent - born Annie Clark - has had the luxury of actually seeing other bands. She turned up at the Decemberists on Wednesday night and checked out her friends the Dirty Projectors at the NPR showcase on Thursday afternoon, a pretty enviable schedule. But she also has the benefit of festival experience: for several years she toured as part of the blissed-out collective the Polyphonic Spree. Before her solo show on Wednesday at the Central Presbyterian Church, she talked in the green room - if a church can have a green room - about how performing with them turned her into a guitar nerd. And don’t be fooled by the confluence of setting and stage name: Though St. Vincent is the patron saint of charity, Ms. Clark said her inspiration was not the patron saint of charity but the hospital where Dylan Thomas died. (Though she did notice a typo in the Ten Commandments poster hanging in the church: “You shall no other gods before me.”)
Article by Melena Ryzik
Video by Julie Bloom
March 19, 2009