St. Vincent performs with the San Francisco Symphony on Wednesday, July 30 at Davies Symphony Hall. Tickets start at $139 and are still available — here's what you need to show up.

St. Vincent performs with the San Francisco Symphony this Wednesday, July 30, at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. Music starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $139 at sfsymphony.org — still available as of this writing.

St. Vincent — Annie Clark — has spent two decades building one of the more unpredictable bodies of work in contemporary rock: arena-loud guitars that resolve into delicate arrangements mid-song, theatrical staging, albums that follow no obvious commercial template. She doesn't play a setlist so much as she constructs an event. Putting her in front of a full symphony orchestra is not the "rock star gets strings added" formula you might expect. It's a stranger, more interesting proposition: two distinct musical forces, each operating at a high level, working out the same room at once.

Davies is the right room for that kind of tension. The 2,743-seat hall was built to give the SF Symphony a permanent home, and the acoustics show it — there isn't a truly bad seat anywhere inside. A 7:30 p.m. weeknight curtain also leaves room to do the evening properly: Hayes Valley is immediately outside the doors, and a pre-show dinner before the house lights go down is easy to arrange. For a late birthday, the venue does significant atmospheric work on your behalf.

Getting there: BART and Muni Metro both run to Civic Center, a short walk north on Van Ness — the cleanest approach, per the Symphony's own visitor directions. Driving? The Performing Arts Garage at 360 Grove St. is the Symphony-recommended lot; prepay through SFMTA directly to guarantee a space (no assigned spot, but you're in when you arrive). Rideshare drops at the Van Ness or Grove Street entrances. Use e-tickets — Davies uses frictionless security screening, and a paper ticket at the door slows the line.

Two-hour version: Arrive by 7:15, grab a drink in the lobby, and find your seats before the lights drop. The evening arranges itself from there.