David Byrne & St. Vincent Bring Bonnaroo to a Beautiful, Bizarre End
As the stifling Tennessee heat gave way to light but persistent rain on Sunday evening, Bonnaroo 2013 came to an end. Tom Petty had the honor of closing the fest and A$AP Rocky led the day's wildest set, but a razor-sharp set from David Byrne & St. Vincent was the day's most fascinating show.
Anyone who's heard the Love This Giant album knows how effortless and invigorating their collaborations are. Happily, those songs sound even more robust in the live concert setting. The brass backing band—which flawlessly executed album highlights like "Who," "Weekend in the Dust" and a mixture of their separate material—gave their arty co-compositions a welcome element of understated New Orleans funk.
But as organic as their collabos are on record, you don't fully appreciate the odd beauty of these two working together until you observe them on the same stage. Seemingly drawing on her musical partner's fondness for oddball onstage choreography (she told us Byrne helps her feel "fearless"), St. Vincent moved about the stage at Bonnaroo in a way that would have smacked of arty pretension if she hadn't made it look to strangely natural. When it was her turn to sing on their duet tracks, St. Vincent would take baby steps up to the mic as if her ankles were chained together by invisible shackles. And when her part was over, she'd shuffle backwards quickly and quietly with almost imperceptible foot movements.
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