Thanks to a quick response to a Jackpot Record’s tweet calling for people’s favorite Swedish group (me: El Perro del Mar), I was able to score two free tickets to the sold-out night show at Doug Fir Lounge featuring one of Brooklyn’s best multi-instrumentalist, St. Vincent.

Way before Ms. Annie Clark hit the stage, Sweden’s popular percussion duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums set the night off right with their crazy performance. Much like those who try to classify Animal Collective or Deerhoof, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using exotic adjectives and erudite music terms in order to whip up the best description (apparently Sweden didn’t want any part of this, preferring instead to award them Jazz Act of the Year in 2007 — something they DEFINITELY aren’t — and be done with it). I mean, how are you suppose to lump a band whose instrumentation consists of a nine-piece drum set, mallet instruments, steel drum, and oddball percussion into a category? You just can’t — and their unique sound is what draws most to their music.

Anchored by the raw talent of drummer extraordinaire Andreas Werliin, you can’t help but be hypnotized watching his arms chaotically flinging around as he reproduces some of the fat beats W&P is known for. In fact, I was almost positive both of his limbs were going to snap in two banging out “There Is No Light” — a fast pace no holds barred track with A LOT of tom-tom drums. Not to be outdone, singer (and Werliin’s wife) Mariam Wallentin goes all sort of Liz Bougatsos crazy on stage, erratically moving her body enough to make me coin the dance term Scandinavian Shake. With Wallentin, however, it’s not all flash as she proved herself to be more than musically capable with this performance. Belting out soulful lyrics left-and-right while playing some calypso steel drums, she was able to draw my attention from Werliin on several occasions, which was no easy task!

It’s more than befuddling to me that there are no SXSW dates scheduled for W&P, as they are slated to wrap up their US tour opening for St. Vincent at the end of February and then head back home to Sweden. Unique enough to be set-apart from the thousands of bands that descend upon Austin annually as well as their ability to generate a lot of energy in short set times, to me, they are the perfect SXSW band. Who knows, they might get a change of heart in the near-future as they pick up hoards of fans with this tour.

Needless to say, the crowd swelled to capacity and the anticipation grew to feverish levels during the intermission between sets. Although performing an early matinee, apparently it wasn’t enough to satiate Portland’s St. Vincent appetite.

Taking the stage in a tight-fitting black dress with elaborate circular shoulder ruffles, the petite Annie Clark looks like the antithesis of a rock star, and with an album cover more Forty Year-Old Virgin than Andrew WK, I have to say I was more than eager to see how she would carry herself on-stage. Opening with “Stranger”, the beginning track to 2009′s Actor, all doubts were squashed about her rocking ability when she got to the noise-filled guitar line midway through.

Alternating effortlessly between Andrew Bird-like woodwind melodies and My Bloody Valentine shoegaze, it seems like Clark suffers from the musical equivalent of bipolar disorder. With the ability to change gears instantaneously (at one point, hammering the shit out her guitar with her hands before gently plucking away a measure later), the performance was definitely not lacking surprises. There were several times the music sounded like perfect bedtime songs for children and then *BAM* blood-red lights flooded the stage and Clark looked like she was getting an exorcism performed on her. I wouldn’t be the bit surprised if the little kids who accompanied their parents to the earlier all-ages day show had nightmares when they went to bed.

Championed by the Vivian Girls, Finally Punk, Pearl Harbor, Explode Into Colors, and Best Coast, all-girl low-fi garage bands seem to be making a resurgence. Females are slowly gaining market share in a male-dominated occupation, however they are still being treated as second-class acts by critics, relegated to an inferior, almost novelty, genre of “girl rock” (you know, all the “they’re a great band — for girls” high-school bullshit statements). With her music, St. Vincent seems to be taking these pervading sexist stereotypes and shattering them to pieces. To my dismay, one of my first comments after the show was how unexpected and kick-ass her performance was. Afterwards, it got me wondering why that was. After all, why can’t a small, skinny girl that isn’t tatted up produce mind-blowingly good rock music? I mean, plenty of guys do that, so why can’t a girl, right? Although women have done a lot to break through the musical glass ceiling the past thirty years, realizations like these tend to show how much more they have to go.

You can check out the setlist from the concert as well as some more photos below. If you want to see the full set of pictures, head on over to my flickr page. Also, I threw in one of my favorite mp3s of hers for good measure and a live recording of “Dig a Pony” someone else took at the show.

Setlist:

• The Strangers
• Save Me from What I Want
• Laughing with a Mouth of Blood
• Actor Out of Work
• Jesus Saves, I Spend
• Just the Same but Brand New
• The Bed
• Solo Acoustic Track (?)
• Black Rainbow
• Marrow
• Your Lips Are Red
• Dig a Pony (Encore)
• The Party (Encore)

St. Vincent // Actor Out of Work

So my European concert binge is finally coming to a close and I couldn’t think of a better ending than seeing Antony & The Johnsons performing for a massive crowd inside a circus tent. I shit you not. It was one of the most bizarre and surreal combination of artist and a venue I have ever seen — prompting Antony to quip “I expect a trapeze artist to come down from the ceiling at any moment.” Needless to say, the twenty minute “dance” introduction only heighten the absurdity the situation. However, when Antony took the stage, nothing else really mattered as I, like everyone in the audience, became hypnotized by his fluttering vocals.

Once my thesis gets turned in on Friday (YAY!), I’ll be sure to do a complete write-up of the show. Highlights had to be the new song “Hope Mountain” about Jesus’s return as a women to save humanity stuck on a mountain after a Noah-esque deluge.

Antony & The Johnsons // Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground

Sorry for the brevity as I am about knee deep in thesis writing write now, but I really wanted to pass this one along.

I caught the Handsome Furs show live in Munich the other night, and man was it a great! Chock full of high energy songs for the main set (bookended by the exceptional “Legal Tender” and “Radio Kaliningrad” off of their newly released LP Face Control), they slowed it down a lot for the encore, closing with “Dead + Rural” and this new piece called “Apathy”.

As always, I have the pictures I took posted on my flickr page, so check them out! After May 1, I’ll post a more complete account of the show, I promise…

Oh yeah one more thing, the opener, Dag för Dag, was REALLY amazing. I went head an bought three of their about-to-be-release EPs so I can give them out sometime. You can check them out at their myspace, but I have to say seeing them live solidified my fandom.

EDIT // The video I took got picked up by the good guys down at iguessimfloating!

Opening for the night was Munich’s own Mondo Ray which, if you recall from previous shows, proved to be a nice set-up to the Wavves show a while back. Although 59:1 is small, it definitely isn’t as small as the coffee shop sized Kafe Kult where they performed last. This provided a not-so welcoming atmosphere for them as the dreaded European force-field extended about ten-feet from the stage providing an awkward buffer from the crowd to the band. Regardless of the weird dynamic, Mondo Ray put on a hell of a show with their high energy garage rock/punk that would have fit in nicely with anyone’s SXSW line-up had they been there. Oh yeah, and the drummer is ridiculous, beating out hard-driving tempos and slamming downbeats like there was no tomorrow.

After they left, it was only a couple of minutes before Jay and the crew (bassist Stephen Pope and drummer Billy Hayes) took the stage for a non-stop fifty minute set where even switches between instrumentations were filled with heavy noise guitar providing absolutely no relief. The antithesis of banter-filled bands, Jay Reatard only spoke (or more like shouted) the names of each track prior to playing them. And play them did he ever…

Chaotically rushing through hits from 2006’s Blood Visions and 2008’s Matador Singles, Jay was in his element gracefully sliding up and down his guitar neck without missing a beat even during the head-banging choruses. It was like witnessing a real-life guitar hero game. Without a doubt, the highlight was his rendition of “My Shadow” on speed, taking the 3+ minute track and shrinking it into a mindboggling 145 seconds. Absolutely unreal. Needless to say the one-minute “It’s Not a Substitute” was more of a blur than a song. Although exuding energy from every pore of their body, it somehow didn’t stick with the audience. Contrary to the more boisterous Black Lips turnout, Reatard was able to draw the elitist garage punk enthusiasts who were incredibly bashful even for European standards.

Regardless, Reatard completely owned the night. When the last inkling of reverb faded out after they left the stage, I was left to compile my thoughts and try to sort out the auditory haze I just experience. The question of “what just happened” never got fully answered and only until my neck became less stiff and my hearing less buzzy did I feel recovered – and that was a good three days later. So yeah, it was a great night.

Setlist:
An Ugly Death
It’s So Easy
Not A Substitute
My Shadow
Oh It’s Such A Shame
See/Saw
All Over Again
I’m Watching You
Blood Visions
Nightmares
Fading All Away
Trapped Here
Greed Money Useless Children
Hammer I Miss You
Waiting for Something
Let It All Go

Jay Reatard // See/Saw

Jay Reatard // Always Wanting More