Fiona Apple finally returned to the Chicago stage at Lincoln Hall this week. The last time she visited was in 2005 at The Riviera, but this was very different than that 19-song set list.
The lithe New York singer—now with darker hair and a long purple dress with boots—took to the comfortable stage with her song “Fast as You Can.” Someone from the sold out crowd yelled, “Welcome back” after the song.
She sat at the piano to perform “On the Bound,” the opening song from her 1999 album, When The Pawn Hits. She then launched into a new song “Anything We Want” while banging on a homemade pipe instrument following it with two more new ones “Valentine” and “Every Single Night.”
These are all from a new album entitled The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do. (Catchy, isn’t it?) Gone are the simple titles such as 1999’s Tidal, although she presented tracks from that classic album, including “Sleep to Dream.”
The audience visibly enjoyed the childlike “Extraordinary Machine” and one woman continually roared next to me, “I love you!” Apple remained undistracted almost in another world sipping her tea and moving to the beat. Hopefully, that tea has some steroids in it, as she strained her voice belting and screaming with veins popping during the night. She saved her vocal chords by not speaking much.
With two shows at South by Southwest the week before, this was the show to see, with tickets selling out in mere minutes and crashing Lincoln Hall’s servers. Even celebrities such as members of Wilco were in attendance to check out what the songstress would do.
The big surprise was that after “Criminal” she did not return for an encore. She simply stated, “I love you very much. Goodbye.” The complete set was less than hour, leaving many puzzled as she left the building. It turned out that Fiona and her crew were fighting the flu and had to cut things short the night before as well. I guess an Apple a day didn’t keep the doctor away from this band. For more on Apple, visit www.fiona-apple.com. Text and photos by Jerry Nunn