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

Before taking the stage later in the evening at Doug Fir Lounge (one of the hippest venues I’ve been to), San Francisco based ungoogle-able lo-fi group Girls graced the citizens of Portland with a free show at Jackpot Records. Although the quarters were small and the stage was even smaller, Christopher Owens and company put on a very pleasant sounding show for the cramped crowd.

The group performed six songs from their critically acclaimed debut, including favorites “Laura” and “Lust for Life”. Owens, dressed in an 80s looking magenta and teal track jacket (one can assume to match his painted fingernails) was hindered throughout the set due to space constraints, allowing for more shoegaze than I can imagine is in a typical Girls set. Energetic numbers, like “Morning Light”, fell a little flat performance-wise, however, they nailed it sonically as each song was almost an exact replica of the album. Here is one more shot from the show of bassist Chet “JR” White who has some of the most bad ass chest hair I have ever seen.

Girls // Lust for Life

Girls // Hellhole Ratrace