“I think that I've discovered a new class of people,” gushed pop star Fiona Apple at her Saturday, July 22 show. The willowy diva was speaking about her dedicated fans that came to the beach for the show despite forecasted stormy weather. She faced a nearly packed Jones Beach Theater.
“That's a good type of person to be, I think,” she added.
Fiona fans were lucky, because as they sat with ponchos in rainy weather through the set of opener David Garza, followed by native Irishman Damien Rice and his band (complete with cellist, drums, guitar, and piano), the weather showed few signs of clearing up. But almost immediately after Rice’s performance, the wishes of everyone in the stadium were granted as the rain cleared and left only a cool breeze.
Fans screamed and cheered as Fiona, who donned a deep purple dress, and her four piece band took the stage and embarked on a 16 song set that was entertaining, emotive, and unquestionably memorable. The set was comprised of five songs off of Extraordinary Machine (2006), eight from When the Pawn… (1999), and three from Tidal (1996), followed by a two-song encore of two of her biggest hits, “Extraordinary Machine” and “Criminal.”
If perfection could exist in set-list form, this show had it.
Every beat put down had the crowd cheering and screaming frenzied, singing along, and some literally going insane (The intense Fiona fans are intense). The majority of the songs including “Limp” and “Sleep to Dream” were extended instrumentally; the band played each song out while Fiona danced around onstage, her quirky character shining, and her I-don’t-care-how-I-look-right-now attitude plain to see.
Fiona herself played piano on a number of songs, including “On the Bound,” her emotion evident as she pounded the keys (the piano was decorated with a drawing by the young daughter of Dave Palmer, Fiona’s pianist).
Her trailing voice during “Paper Bag” gave the old hit a fresh sound, while keeping its uniqueness.
The crowd was responsive to “Not About Love” from Extraordinary Machine. Fiona screamed the chorus This is not about love/ ‘Cause I am not in love!
, each time more powerfully. Each time was hauntingly genuine, followed immediately by her gracefully sweet singing voice.
With the night’s performance of “Slow Like Honey” from Tidal, the audience fell silent.
Fiona’s powerful vocals filled the stadium accompanied only by piano; the entire song was a crescendo. Fiona sat rocking on the floor, pounding the ground while singing, the amount of emotion and realness was so clear. The band joined in powerfully, creating a huge sound and growing louder and louder throughout the entire song, leaving the audience in awe.
Her perfect voice needed no accompaniment, but it made the particular performance all the more remarkable. As she began to sing, “But my big secret..
.” she brought herself to almost a shriek, and it’s amazing how Fiona Apple is even cute when she’s shrieking and pounding the ground. She started moaning and laughing towards the end of the song, her erratic behavior put some audience members in a trance while others giggled.
Fans who attended Fiona’s last performance in New York, at Nokia Theatre in December, would probably agree that this recent show was far less intimate than the previous, but an amazing one nonetheless. The crowd was diverse. Fiona appeals to a huge group.
Some were displeased by the fact that the TV monitors were powered off (likely because of the predicted storms), so it was hard to see much of what was going on onstage if you weren’t very close. There were groups of fans standing up, singing and dancing along, but for the most part the crowd just listened and enjoyed.
“My Robert, are you here?
” Fiona asked into the crowd with a smile on her face, mid-set, looking for her stepfather of 20 years. She told the audience that he was one of the most important people in her life for introducing her to the Beatles and other music. “He's the model of a real man,” she told the crowd, and said that there was no one as valuable to her as Robert.
She asked the audience to scream for him. So wonderfully Fiona…
“Obviously, I did not go on to find men like Robert in my life,” Fiona later added, making the audience laugh. “It’s been interesting.
” Every time Fiona Apple speaks during her concerts, the audience falls more and more in love with her spirit and character.
“Shut up, Fiona, Shut up!,” she screamed to herself at one point, then muttering quietly, “.
..just need to justify everything,” before breaking into “Better Version of Me,” during which she sings, “Here it comes/ A better version of me.
”
Fiona Apple is absolutely amazing, and it would be in the best interest of any person who considers themselves a fan of music to acknowledge the magic and wonders that this artist has contributed to the world. She cursed MTV as they awarded her. She has the longest album title ever to date.
She had a mass revolution of fans come together with their “Free Fiona” website and T-shirts to aid in the release of her most recent album. She is something spectacular, and this performance only strengthened her statement: Fiona Apple truly is an extraordinary machine.
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