That time St Vincent played with Nirvana – and 4 other stand-out performances

“In some ways, I think I’m an artist who has to be seen live to be understood,” Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, says during our interview. It is impossible to be bored at a St Vincent performance – Clark is dead serious about putting on a memorable show. She’s often moving through a series of choreographed sequences in whimsical, big-production looks, but she is also mesmerising when she reverts to the form of heart-on-sleeve singer-songwriter at more intimate gigs.

Here are five of the artist’s performances to warm you up ahead of her Clockenflap set:

Dave Grohl’s guest performance on All Born Screaming isn’t the first time the pair have worked together: Clark has known Grohl since at least 2014, when St Vincent stepped in for the late Kurt Cobain for a performance of Nirvana classic “Lithium”. A lesser artist may have tried to imitate Cobain’s raspy, growling vocals or assume his nihilist pose, but Clark knows better. While Cobain often looked lost in his own world during performances, Clark stares intensely at the audience with her head up as she sings, strumming her guitar in a mad-Einstein haircut against a slideshow of old Cobain photos.

St Vincent performs here dressed in a sleek black bodysuit, at once doll and dominatrix. “I can’t turn off what turns me on,” she sings, gasping as she hits the high notes in the chorus of “Masseduction”. ­It’s steamy enough as it is, but then Dua Lipa appears from the fog behind her with a matching bob haircut. The pair perform with their backs touching, exchange sensual looks and smile, mirroring each other’s movements like doubles. The tension is palpable, and Clark even throws in a shredding guitar solo during Dua Lipa’s song “One Kiss”.