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Fiona Apple – Old National Centre 7/11/2012

July 12, 2012 By 5 Comments

Fiona Apple is a genius. Though she’s released just four albums, including her 1996 debut, each one is brilliant. Apple’s new one, The Idler Wheel…, is perhaps her best yet. Every listen reveals something different, which is rare in today’s mainstream musical landscape. To say I was highly anticipating the show at Old National Centre Wednesday night would be an understatement. And yet I can’t help but feel a bit let down.

Apple and her band were a polished (extraordinary) machine. Each song was a fluid piece of art that further highlighted what an impressive composer she is. But the efficient, 90-minute set felt methodical. One song blended smoothly into the next with Apple saying very little between.

The set list was nearly identical to other stops during this leg of the tour. After opening with Fast As You Can and On the Bound from When the Pawn — four of the first six were, somewhat surprisingly, from that album — she burned into early hit Shadowboxer. (Hard to believe that song is 16 years old.) A first-half high point was a rousing performance of Tidal’s Sleep to Dream with Apple stalking the stage and guitarist Blake Mills adding some welcome sizzle. Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song) from Extraordinary Machine was another one boosted by Mills. Yet those moments of elevated electricity were infrequent.

Of the new songs, Daredevil was particularly vibrant in the live setting, as was Anything We Want with it’s slippery groove and subtle but sticky hook.

I do wonder if Apple was at full strength. Her voice was strong but occasionally sounded a tad hoarse. If she was struggling, that could explain the lack of effort in connecting with the audience.

Apple rounded out the set with powerful versions of Carrion and her biggest hit, Criminal, before ending with an impressive torch song cover of Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe.

Apple and her band were spot on. I only wish there had been a little more of that live magic.

Were you there? What did you think of the show?

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About Jeremy Zucker

By day, I'm the principal and founder of Zucker Business Communications (ZBC). Indy Rock Live enables me to write about what I love: Live Music. Indianapolis should be a top-tier concert market and Indy Rock Live is my way of helping to make it one.

  • Anonymous

    I’ve been a fan since her first album, and was really excited to see her at SxSW 2012. That performance was very disappointing, which is a big reason why I didn’t go to the Indy show last night. The performance there was just like you described – not much connection with the audience and seemingly not at full strength. Her voice sounded hoarse and awful, especially on the older stuff – like she just didn’t have the range those require any more. And the band was dreadful. The only bright point of the SxSW show was her yelling at the stagehands and band when they screwed up.

  • http://indyrocklive.com Jeremy

    Thanks for reading, Dan. Maybe I expected too much. There’s no doubting the quality of her songs — perhaps you’re right that performing live doesn’t cater to her strengths.

  • Paul

    Detached? Lack of effort in connecting with the audience? If you had seen her before (on earlier tours), you would know that Fiona is currently more engaged with the crowd than ever before. But no, she is not one to “talk up” the crowd, or yell out “Hey Indianapolis, how are ya?” for no good reason.

    The first time I saw Fiona in concert was on the “Tidal” tour in 1997 at the Taft Theatre in Cincinnati. At that time, she seemed to be so terrified of performing live, she clung onto her piano and never left it. Compare this to 2012 (15 years later), when Fiona performed more than half of the songs upfront on the mike, facing the crowd directly.

    The most recent time I saw Fiona was in 2006 on the “Extraordinary Machine” tour. Since then, she’s grown older, and it looks to me, a bit wiser. I thought the show at the Murat was “extraordinary” indeed. Her band performed at top level, and the song selection nicely divided between the 4 studio albums, with more songs from “When the Pawn” than any other album, which only makes sense as it is clearly her best album.

    She’ll be coming to the Aronoff in Cincinnati in October, and I already have my tickets for that. Can’t wait to see her again.

    Cheers, Paul in Cincinnati

  • Branvaughnlaw05

    wow she must have used all her energy for the AWESOME show in she did here in Chicago on Tuesday July 10th. It was amazing from start to finish. She doesn’t and did not talk to the crowd a lot. I like it that way. I’m here to see you sing and play not to hear a travelogue or endless political diatribes like Springsteen the last 10 years. GREAT ARTIST GREAT SHOW (here in Chicago anyway) I’ve now seen her 3 times and would not hesitate a 4th…

  • http://indyrocklive.com Jeremy

    Paul – Thanks for reading. You’re correct, I haven’t seen her before — or at least not in the last 10 years — so I can’t compare to previous experiences. I certainly didn’t expect a lot of talk, but anytime a performer says as little as she did, it does convey a detachment. In the live setting, I do expect at least some effort at connecting with the audience.

    To be clear, I don’t think it was a bad show. But I go into a concert looking for ways that the artist is going to elevate their material from what is captured on recording and what they do to deliver an experience for the audience. In that sense, I felt the show was lacking.