no one important
2012-03-16 06:27:25 UTC
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/fiona-apple-returns-still-enraged-and-self-lacerating/
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March 15, 2012, 9:55 am
Fiona Apple Returns, Still Enraged and Self-Lacerating
By JON PARELES
AUSTIN, Tex.: The baleful, anxious, doleful, enraged Fiona Apple was back
in full force on the first night of SXSW, playing in the backyard
amphitheater of Stubb's. It was her first concert crowd outside Los Angeles
in years. Very slender, wearing a black and red dress, she blurted out
"You're imaginary!" to the audience between songs.
Her performance was the beginning of a mini-tour ? including shows in New
York City on March 23 and 26 ? to preview her first album since 2005, which
is due in late June. And it was a demonstration that Ms. Apple, 34, is not
backing off from the need, self-laceration and lashing out in her songs,
old and new. "I made my peace, I'm dead, I'm done/I watched you live to
have my fun," she sang in one of the set's three new songs; it had started
out with a showtune lilt, but by the end she was singing "I love you" to
sound like an indictment. Another new song, which seesawed between lullaby
and vehement chantey, declared, "Every single night's a fight/But every
single fight's all right/With my brain."
As Ms. Apple opened the set, with "Fast as You Can," I worried about her
voice; it had a ragged rasp in it. But that rasp was deliberate; it cleared
away and came back only when she was bearing down on songs like "Sleep to
Dream" and "Criminal" to keep their pain and bitterness fresh. She worked
up to quavers, breaks, near-sobs and near-screams; her eyes grew wide and
wild, and her face took on the expression of a virago. (On the other hand
she maintained her composure when microphone feedback erupted loudly during
"Extraordinary Machine.") In these performances, the songs weren't oldies;
they were still raw and immediate, traumatic and angry. Being a drama queen
paid off in the songs; I hope it was acting.
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March 15, 2012, 9:55 am
Fiona Apple Returns, Still Enraged and Self-Lacerating
By JON PARELES
AUSTIN, Tex.: The baleful, anxious, doleful, enraged Fiona Apple was back
in full force on the first night of SXSW, playing in the backyard
amphitheater of Stubb's. It was her first concert crowd outside Los Angeles
in years. Very slender, wearing a black and red dress, she blurted out
"You're imaginary!" to the audience between songs.
Her performance was the beginning of a mini-tour ? including shows in New
York City on March 23 and 26 ? to preview her first album since 2005, which
is due in late June. And it was a demonstration that Ms. Apple, 34, is not
backing off from the need, self-laceration and lashing out in her songs,
old and new. "I made my peace, I'm dead, I'm done/I watched you live to
have my fun," she sang in one of the set's three new songs; it had started
out with a showtune lilt, but by the end she was singing "I love you" to
sound like an indictment. Another new song, which seesawed between lullaby
and vehement chantey, declared, "Every single night's a fight/But every
single fight's all right/With my brain."
As Ms. Apple opened the set, with "Fast as You Can," I worried about her
voice; it had a ragged rasp in it. But that rasp was deliberate; it cleared
away and came back only when she was bearing down on songs like "Sleep to
Dream" and "Criminal" to keep their pain and bitterness fresh. She worked
up to quavers, breaks, near-sobs and near-screams; her eyes grew wide and
wild, and her face took on the expression of a virago. (On the other hand
she maintained her composure when microphone feedback erupted loudly during
"Extraordinary Machine.") In these performances, the songs weren't oldies;
they were still raw and immediate, traumatic and angry. Being a drama queen
paid off in the songs; I hope it was acting.
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