PHOTOS: RICHIE DOWNS | If you came in expecting the legendary, erratic, emotional Fiona Apple show this Friday at the Lincoln Theatre, you would have left disappointed. Instead, Apple’s and guitarist Blake Mills‘s performance was creative, walking the line between experimental and controlled, and more than quirky enough to keep the audience engaged and even surprised.
Apple and her longtime guitarist, the talented Mills, are touring on the dual-billed “Anything We Want” shows. The duo’s set lists have shown little variance across shows, featuring Apple’s well-known material alongside Mills’s original country and blues-twinged pop. Friday was no different.
On stage, Apple’s oversized blue t-shirt and messy ponytail was the aesthetic opposite of Mills’s clean-cut, conservative look. His crew neck sweater layered over a button down wouldn’t have looked out-of-place in downtown DC on a casual Friday. This visual contrast served to underscore their musical differences; his controlled vocals and strong guitar were the grounded counterweight to her impassioned grit and nervous, unpredictable energy.
Despite the consistency of their set list and theatricality with other recent shows, Friday’s performance felt produced but not over-rehearsed or stale.
At one point, Apple donned a helmet, which she then used with her finger nails as the percussion accompaniment to start off the next song—a move that even forced the mild-mannered Mills to join in the audience’s eager skepticism. But when her beats moved easily into “Anything We Want” off of 2012’s The Idler Wheel…, the crowd’s doubt quickly dissipated. She was completely unafraid to push her material, especially to highlight Mills’s extensive guitar skills.
This version of “Anything We Want” was jazzy, with a period of heavy bass adding an ominous tone; it was really quite beautiful. It was also so much more than a reproduction of the album version, adding a level of creativity and excitement that live shows so often lack.
In addition to their solo music, Apple and Mills have also written a couple of songs together. Midway through the set, they played “Seven,” a duet that they have recorded. It was an easy, pretty, country-inspired song, in line with much of Mills’s music but a departure for Apple—and just another example of how this tour differs from Apple’s past shows.
Given this opportunity to show off his talent as a singer and songwriter and not just a guitarist, Mills doesn’t waste this opportunity. I think we’ll be seeing much more of Mills in the future. And while still skittish between songs, Apple seemed comfortable on stage and eager to break out of her the expected. With any luck, we won’t have another hiatus before her next album.
Without waiting for moments where she might break down, it was much easier for the audience to actually focus on the music—which, with Fiona Apple at the helm, is where our attention should be. Apple was in full control of her vocals, attending to every detail of her sound. When her voice was soft, it drew the crowd in. When she projected, it blew the audience away, finding every crack and crevice in the theater—even as she seemingly folded into herself, somehow getting even smaller from the effort and emotion. And whether she was singing or supporting Mills’s solo work, her body moved with each beat, each syllable, like she couldn’t help but channel the music into the crowd.
Their set ended with “I Know” off of When the Pawn…. Despite the set clocking in at just an hour and forty minutes and a standing ovation with sustained cheers, Apple and Mills did not appear for an encore. They ended the show just as it started, intriguing and inviting, with the crowd on the edge of their seats.
