Bobby Evers writesBobby Evers’ Concert Review: Fiona Apple at Chicago Theatre, 7/10/2012

First, let us discuss the Fiona Apple Fan. The FAF was in high school when Tidal came out. Or younger. Criminal was a funny song they snickered through because it was sexual which is hilarious in high school. But the FAF listened to the whole album anyway because it was available and familiar. And they came of age with those songs, the heartbreak of “Never Is A Promise,” the rhythm of “The First Taste.”

So when When The Pawn… came out they bought it on principle. And it was maybe a little weirder than Tidal because Fiona was letting her weird side out to avoid the sophomore slump, which the FAF embraced. And when she eventually turned away from the spotlight and mocked fame, it was the FAF who demanded she return. Who admonished the record company for shelving her all but finished third album. Who demanded blood. It was the FAF who was responsible for her comeback in 2006, both in initiation and followthrough.

And now the FAF is in their late twenties or early thirties. They buy three beers to avoid standing in line during the concert and they will, unprovoked, scream “I LOVE YOU” during the quiet parts of songs played live. They will applaud during the breakdowns of songs where she isn’t singing, just dancing and flailing and gyrating strangely or crouching down the by the bassdrum as the band sort of jams before the song ends. They will give standing ovations at the beginning of the concert. They will sing along. If they cannot get a setlist they will ask to photograph the setlist with their iphones. And the fellow FAF will comply. Because they understand. 

When Fiona Apple took the stage tonight she did so with confidence, advancing toward the microphone as if to fight it. And she started with “Fast As You Can” which was her first single off her second album, very high energy and a little rock n roll. When it was through she descended to the piano and played “On The Bound” which is the first track of her second album. In fact, it was a solid twenty minutes before she played anything off her critically acclaimed new album, The Idler Wheel…

It’s a little strange; when an artist makes a comeback, it’s usually to promote the new album, so they will play a few of the hits, the familiars from the previous works, but mainly focus on the new stuff, and the audience will be annoyed. Fiona Apple, however, only tours every, like, five years or something, and has an extremely dedicated loyalty to the previous material.

Consider this: Apple is now 34. At the time she released Shadowboxer, she was 18. Which means she was even younger when she wrote it. Imagine doing what you were doing at 18 today. And yet, here she was, playing it tonight along with her newest material, unashamed of the intention or the context she wrote it in, thereby validating it even further. Amazing. What’s funny, though, is her new album is universally loved; currently ranking 89/100 on Metacritic, Pitchfork rated it 9 out of 10, Entertainment Weekly gave it an A, and it is even in heavy rotation on CHIRP Radio (I may be responsible for some of that). This is an artist who could have gotten away with only playing her new album front to back and no one would have cared because it is such a hot album right now.

But she didn’t. She played exactly 4 songs from her new album in a 90 minute set with no encore. And the FAFs LOVED it. They SCREAMED and WALED after (and during) every song. Especially rousing was Fiona’s rendition of the title track of her third album, Extraordinary Machine. Not for any particular reason for Fiona’s part, just the fact that when she sang the lyric, “Be kind to me or treat me me, I’ll make the most of it, I’m an extraordinary machine” the FAFs went CRAZY, like screaming and cheering and crying, crazy. Because they want to reinforce to Fiona Apple that her assertion is correct, she is an extraordinary machine, or just applauding the general sentiment of loving oneself and acknowledging the amazing fact that we are human beings with the awesome strength to overcome emotional hurdles and boundaries.

This song was quickly followed by “Werewolf,” off the new album, the melody of which has become something of an intoxicating siren song for me this summer. Like the Entertainment in Infinite Jest, I listen to it over and over and it renders me to idiocy. I think I’ve made that comparison before. Regardless, the song is on a scale of something like Abbey Road, or maybe something like “Anticipation” meets “Natural Woman.” To see it live truly was a spectacle to behold. Greater still was the backing band in this instance.

She had an upright bass player, about 150 guitarists, a female drummer, and this hippie guy with a bun on the top of his head who played the weird box that recreates the studio production effects otherwise impossible to recreate with traditional instruments. In particular during “Werewolf,” there are bits on the album where you can hear children on a playground screaming and this guy played those sounds live with great effect. So good.

Other notable songs included “I Know” which is the closer of her second album and made everyone shut up, all the FAFs in their seats snapping pics with their smartphones, they all just stopped and listened and it was remarkable. Also, “Not About Love” because she screams it when she’s live “This is not about love! Cuz I am not in love! In fact I can’t stop falling out!” She closed with “Criminal” and everyone gave a standing O and then without leaving the stage, her encore was “It’s Only Make Believe” a Conway Twitty cover she introduced more recently.

And then she was done and the lights came up and the set was torn down and we were all forced to go back to our lives and consider for a moment that dreams are only that and that nothing good stays. But that you can hold on to a thing for a moment and briefly believe otherwise and that we live in a world where other people can make you feel that, which is incredibly scary and powerful and simultaneously reassuring.