Posts Tagged “fiona apple”

Aug 25 2006

Fiona Apple, 06-29-2006, Sleep Train Amphitheatre (Concord, CA)

Posted by: dave in concert, tags: fiona apple, Sleep Train Amphitheatre

In yet another unremarkable story about someone who I managed to not see live at the start of their career who went on an extended break from releasing music, this summer I saw Fiona Apple. I admit that I haven’t listened to her latest album Extraordinary Machine a lot, but I was a big fan of her debut album, so I went to the show not necessarily expecting a lot. Mission Accomplished.

It should be no huge surprise to the fans of Fiona that her favorite album is her second album, When The Pawn… I’d heard some recordings from the tour behind that album and she seemed very proud of what she was doing, and I suppose the disappointing sales, bad press and other negative aspects of that album from the mainstream world was enough to turn anyone off from the idea of putting out any more music. Clearly, she’s not interested in letting that portion of her career be forgotten and she definitely showcased the album at the show. Out of the 18 songs performed, 8 of them were from that album (woe to the two songs that didn’t make an appearance), which I found to be a curious thing. Normally when an artist on a major label tours behind an album, they showcase their latest work, and throw in a handful of “crowd favorites” so everyone goes home happy. Not so much at this show, although I’m willing to bet that nobody went home disappointed. She did all the expected hits from Tidal, the standouts from Extraordinary Machine, and inbetween showcased her unfortunately overlooked second album. I hadn’t listened to the second album at all for the most part (it came out at a time when i just wasn’t listening to that sort of music, but fortunately I recovered), so the entire show was a very big surprise to me. I was expecting surprise with some of the newer songs, but for the most part the only things I really knew were from Tidal.

I was also expecting a different type of performance perhaps, having seen a lot of Tori Amos performances. What I got was more of a “diva” performance (and I do hate to say that) where Fiona did a lot more standing in front of a microphone singing, rather than sitting behind the piano and playing as well. At first, I was a little disappointed seeing that sort of thing happening (after all, only prepackaged American Idol quality artists just stand around and sing rather than being involved in their own music right?) but it didn’t take long to realize that Fiona puts everything she has into her performances. The performance actually improved when she wasn’t behind the keys, and she became more intense and emotional at the center of the stage, almost like the piano restrains her and forces her to divert her attention in too many ways at once. Fortunately she only spent roughly a third of the show at the piano and the rest of the show front and center.

I, for one, hope there’s not another five-year delay between this album and the next.

setlist: