On a chilly Tuesday night, along a narrow cobblestoned lane in the New York neighborhood known as Lower East Whoville, about 150 Rolling Stone staffers, Meta guests, and influencers lined up for our seasonal celebration, which featured a performance by “Holiday Party” queen St. Vincent.
Every Who down in Lower East Whoville liked the holidays a lot, but one notable attendee, the Grinch, who lived across the Bowery in SoWho, did NOT! Nevertheless, once the festivities kicked off, and DJ Tasmin started playing a mix of rock and soul classics, the Grinch’s small heart grew about 300 sizes, and he was soon posing with the other guests at the photo booth in the back. The party had begun.
Rolling Stone’s Holiday Party, billed as “An Evening With St. Vincent,” took place at the Silver Lining Lounge, a small cabaret decorated with the magazine’s recent Tate McRae and Lady Gaga covers, as well as rock memorabilia, silver snowflakes on a silver baby grand piano, and a shimmery disco ball. With the exception of the Grinch, who wore a Santa suit, guests rubbed elbows in everything from sequined gowns to pink hoodies. The cocktail menu featured libations including the “Chris Martini,” “Paul Mezcal,” and “Spicy Gaga Rita” — all nods to RS’ 2025 cover subjects. It all set the scene for a warm, inviting evening filled with good vibes, great conversation, and incredible music.
At about 8:45, Rolling Stone senior writer Angie Martoccio (who wrote the Tate McRae story, as well as this year’s revealing Sabrina Carpenter cover) hit the stage and welcomed everyone. Annie Clark, better known as St. Vincent, then joined her for a wide-ranging and often hilarious and illuminating interview that honestly felt more like listening in on a conversation between friends.
They chatted about the holidays and how Clark enjoys the “moribund” feeling she gets from listening to Vince Guaraldi’s music for A Charlie Brown Christmas, as well as the unusual stagings of A Christmas Carol that she puts on with her family. Clark told the crowd that the first issue of Rolling Stone she remembers buying, in the Nineties, likely featured grunge icons on the cover — she namechecked Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden — and talked about the full-circle moment in 2014 when she fronted Nirvana at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (a performance Martoccio said she’s watched enough times that she’s responsible for half the 3.5 million YouTube views). The half-hour Q&A also found Clark professing her ardor for Nick Cave (she found her stage name in one of his songs), reveling in the genius of occasional collaborator David Byrne, and the thrill she felt performing with a 60-piece orchestra at the BBC Proms earlier this year.
Harold Baez for Rolling Stone
After a short break, St. Vincent returned to the stage with pianist Rachel Eckroth for an emotional and exciting set of songs perfectly rearranged for the cabaret setting (think Masseducation, not Masseduction.) After a moving and sparse rendition of “Hang on Me,” she kicked things up with “Los Ageless,” offering up a “How you doing?” to the bar after the lyric “The Los Ageless hang out by the bar,” and flexing her voice into harder-rocking tones for the “I tried to write you a love song” outro. She flexed her jazz guitar skills on “Violent Times” and conjured up an eerie drone for the segue into “Slow Disco” that sounded like a distant echo of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music (but was really just Clark holding an eBow to the strings of her custom Music Man). That song proved cathartic for some audience members who hooted and hollered as soon as she started the fan favorite.
Then she shifted gears, telling the audience, “This song is called ‘Holiday Party.’” For as much as Clark is accustomed to large venues, she still knows how to work a small room, and she spent the song playing with audience members’ glasses and generally getting in people’s faces to elevate the loungy feel of the night (earlier, while discussing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” during the Q&A, she affected a perfect Judy Garland impression, so she knew what she was doing). And with the crowd clapping and snapping along, she closed the evening with “New York,” a love letter to the city she was singing in. And, in a throwback to her orchestral gig earlier this year, she classically conducted the final notes of the song.
After Clark left the stage, the crowd gathered around the bar and enjoyed more Chris Martinis while embracing the most wonderful time of the year. And all was well in Lower East Whoville.
St. Vincent set list:
“Hang on Me”
“Los Ageless”
“Violent Times”
“Slow Disco”
“… At the Holiday Party”
“New York”
