St. Vincent and Doveman at Mastercard House
photo by Amanda Hatfield

St. Vincent & Doveman played piano versions of 'MASSEDUCTION' songs at Mastercard House (pics, video)

Mastercard is hosting a series of free Grammy week shows at their popup location at NYC’s Skylight Studios, Mastercard House, and St. Vincent started off the series on Tuesday (1/23) night. After an opening set from Maggie Rogers that included a cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” Annie Clark took the stage with frequent collaborator Thomas Barlett, aka Doveman, who also plays on MASSEDUCTION (one of our top albums of 2017).

St. Vincent’s tour in support of MASSEDUCTION has included her playing the album in full during the second half of shows in a tightly choreographed audio-visual display that’s as much theater as it is rock show. While she played most of the album at Mastercard House (only “Sugarboy” and instrumental transition track “Dancing With a Ghost” were missing), the show otherwise couldn’t have been more different from the others on this tour. Like she occasionally has in the past, Annie left her guitars behind on Tuesday night, singing while Doveman accompanied her on piano. The alternate piano arrangements of MASSEDUCTION‘s songs gave them even greater emotional depth – “Pills” in particular was totally transformed. A slowed down version of “Young Lover” was haunting, especially when Annie got to the final yearning vocal section. For the final song “New York,” after asking the crowd to sing or clap along, Annie climbed off the stage and into the crowd, where she wound up in a circle of audience members singing along. Watch video of that, and a few clips from the rest of the show, below, and find pictures in the gallery above.

Mastercard House continues through Saturday, including free shows from SZA, Portugal. The Man, Francis and The Lights, EPMD, Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, and Ghostface Killah with Raekwon. St. Vincent’s tour also continues, including Coachella and Boston Calling.

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Setlist: St. Vincent @ Mastercard House, 1/23/2018 (via)
Fear the Future
Savior
Los Ageless
Masseduction
Young Lover
Smoking Section
Happy Birthday, Johnny
Slow Disco
Hang on Me
Pills
New York