Saturday, August 12, 2006

Fiona Apple's Tarantism

Saw Fiona Apple at Milwaukee's beautiful Riverside Theatre last night. Opening act David Garza wowed the audience with his frenetic acoustic guitar playing and soulful voice. His closing number was a duet with one of Fiona's band members; they performed an inspiring version of Bob Dylan's "My Back Pages" that gave me chills.

Fiona rocks with angst that is definitely not for upbeat, optimistic types who don't like to be brought down every now and then. My favorite number was "Sleep to Dream" (from her first album), which she sang with a kind of reckless defiance that was quite intense. Equally compelling was another tune from her first record, "Shadowboxer," which includes one of my all time favorite lines: "What a cunning way to condescend."

I'm not really sure how to describe Fiona's stage movement, except to say that it seems to be a good example of tarantism, an uncontrollable urge to dance. I found it quite unique and intriguing, actually.

1 comment:

Jayce said...

See if you can get an original copy of "Extraordinary Machine" somewhere. It is exceptional, and one of my favorite albums ever. The studio made her change a bunch of stuff before its official release to make it more marketable, but her original recordings are superb.