Or as polished as Fiona Apple can be. The beauty in her imperfection, her wabi sabi, is what endears her to her fans, and man, she’s got some fans - talk about a weird crowd … but, I digress …

After years of lying dormant, this lithe waif of a creature has emerged from her hibernation and has been setting stages afire, from SXSW to NYC’s Music Hall of Williamsburg, and last night’s performance at the Bowery Ballroom, with her intensity, sincerity and enigmatic nature. 

Accompanied by a full band not shy of Sebastian Steinberg on a stand up bass and the remarkably talented, yet virtually unknown, fret master, Blake Mills, Fiona was engagingly giggly, goofy, and gracious to the audience that had fought to get their hands on one of the golden tickets to this small, sold out show. She was also fierce, and unapologetically so, as her face and body contorted, in tempo, to her inner, personal cathartic outpouring of emotion and sound. Only when singing Criminal, her nearly 15 years old hit, did she seem to be simply performing. In her defense, she didn’t try to hide that either, and was visibly smirking through the lyrics, at her younger self.

 

The set list …

And a few selections from the set: