St. Vincent Covers the Beatles at All Points West

Posted on Aug 2nd 2009 7:03PM by Mike Ayers
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Midway through her All Points West headlining set, St. Vincent's Annie Clark politely asked her band to exit off the stage so she could take a solo. She had quite a view from her vantage point: downtown New York to her left, the Statue of Liberty to her right. Before taking the necessary time to tune her electric guitar, she told the crowd that the spectacle of it all made her want to channel Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond's 'America' and the 'Star Spangled Banner' all at once if she could. She then played a few bars of the National Anthem before grinning and saying "just kidding."

But that was mild compared to what she had in store. Clark started up the chords to the Beatles 'Dig a Pony,' soliciting a handful of grateful cheers from the crowd. But while it could've been just a joke, she continued on playing the classic tune with grace and conviction.

St. Vincent's set was short but sweet and mostly drew from her sophomore set 'Actor,' with standouts including the saxophone/violin duels of 'Save Me From What I Want' and the more orchestral electronic fusion of 'Marrow.'

St. Vincent will be on tour for the rest of the year, starting with a few headlining shows this coming week in the Northeast US, a slew of festival dates in Europe and an opening slot for Andrew Bird starting on September 29 in Indianapolis, Indiana.