David Emery OnlineBut of course I would say that
12 July 2009
It had been a while since the last gig I went to – which was the sublime Pixies gig almost a month ago – so it was nice to get back into the swing of things and head down to the ICA to see the awesome pairing of St Vincent and Blue Roses.
Every now and then I feel it’s probably worth bringing up, in the interests of full disclosure, my inherent biases when it comes to this sort of thing. Both St Vincent and Blue Roses are on labels that I work for, and not only that but I project managed the building of their websites so obviously I have a vested interest and probably can’t be trusted in the slightest to give a unbiased opinion.
Having said that, we probably have about 100+ acts on our active roster and you don’t see me talking about all of them on here, so make of that what you will. While I like to think that I only write about things I genuinely like what I will readily admit is that I do get exposed to a hell of a lot of music that I wouldn’t normally listen to, and I think both St Vincent and Blue Roses would fall under that.
Blue Roses more so then St Vincent I think (Miss Clark has the benefit of lots of guitar on record, which may well have drawn me in anyway) as slightly folk-y female singer-songwriter isn’t traditionally my cup of tea. What elevates Blue Roses above and beyond my traditional mild distaste of the genre is her stunning voice; the girl can sing, and live I think quite frankly I’d happily watch her sing anything she’s that good.
I’m sure I’ve written plenty about St Vincent on here before so I’ll spare you too much waffling, Suffice to say she was brilliant; this time out she was with a full band behind her which gave a real weight to the songs which works very nicely. I’m unsure whether I prefer the full-fat experience or just her on her own (which is how I’d previously witnessed the Annie Clark Experience) – with a band you get a lot more ‘omph’ but solo you get to really see how skilled a guitarist she really is.
And she really is good.
