St. Vincent, the American singer and guitarist, performed here in Charlottesville on April 12th, 2025. She played songs from her new album All Born Screaming along with previous hits to a sold-out Ting Pavilion.

A Los Angeles singer-songwriter named Wallice opened the show. Songs from her debut album, The Jester, covered birthdays, pessimism, and even her experiences performing as an opening act. Wallice’s band, a bassist and guitarist, brought chemistry to the stage and got cheers for their inventive riffs.

Once St. Vincent took the stage, the audience was captivated. Her distorted and physical guitar playing was a huge part of the show, finishing when St. Vincent played an electric riff while doing a backbend on stage during her hit song New York. Her four bandmates’ performances were also a sight to behold. Bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen and keyboardist Rachel Eckroth had an especially great time on stage, even doing ‘riff offs’ that lasted up to five minutes.

St. Vincent’s setlist mostly came from her new album All Born Screaming. The album’s highlights, “Flea” and “Broken Man”, were electric in concert. She also included previous hits such as “Now, Now” and “Masseduction”. While performing her 2017 hit “New York”, St. Vincent invested a lot of trust in the crowd of the Ting Pavilion and started crowd surfing. Even though she reported feeling “a little shaky”, St. Vincent played her guitar solo from the top of the crowd and made it back to the stage in time to finish the song.

St. Vincent has been making music since 2003. In the early aughts, she toured with Sufjan Stevens and Polyphonic Spree, where she developed her signature distorted and chromatic sound. She formed her own band in 2006. St. Vincent’s work as a solo artist has earned her six Grammys to date, as well as a reputation as “one of the 20th century’s greatest guitarists”, according to NPR.

She is best known for using distortion to tell a story with her guitar solos. On her new album, All Born Screaming, St. Vincent explores the limits of her instrument more than ever, in what Guitar calls “liberal use of an iconic guitar she’d previously avoided like the plague”. In her Charlottesville show, guitar was a huge part of her physical performance. St. Vincent herself described her new album’s instrumentals as “a pummeling”.

All Born Screaming doesn’t only rely on guitar, though – St. Vincent’s vocals and lyrics make the album worthy of its three Grammys.