extraordinary machine, indeed.

last night boyfriend john and i had the privilege of seeing miss fiona apple at the new-ish nokia theatre times square.

she was fantastic, although you could definitely hear the strain all the touring had put on her voice, which sounded kind of scratchy and smokier than usual. still, it was a lovely show. she was cute and talked about how stressful it was to play in her hometown ("i'm so nervous i think i'm going catatonic in the brain") and dedicated 'extraordinary machine' to her "momma". apparently someone threw a red thong on-stage during that number, strangely enough. john says he bought "her schtick", and i did too for the most part although at times she did come off like a drama undergrad. and somehow i failed to predict that there would be legions of young girls singing along to every song, but even that was kind of ok. *kind of*. but i wondered what the people around us thought about boyfriend john singing along to every song. anyway, fiona looked pretty as always, but this is the closet we could get.

on a sidenote, the nokia theatre is an interesting place. it's huge and obviously a totally corporate venue, but that didn't really bother me. the security and ticket people were all surprisingly nice, and beers were only 6 bucks (hallelujah). but the place to be, clearly, was in either of the VIP balconies, which looked spacious and comfy and stretched up both sides of the theatre right up to the stage. alas, john and i were on the floor with the hoi polloi and it was a total nightmare every time we had to fight our way back out to the bar and bathroom areas. i'm pretty sure i manhandled at least five adolescents as i tried to wrestle my way free in an effort to get another red stripe. they should really look into keeping the stairways unclogged.

but anyway. that's probably my middle age talking. my landlord tells me i need to stop acting like an old lady and get back in touch with my younger, hipper side. i'm looking into it.

Comments

[J]

How'd your younger, hipper side feel about the $40 ticket price? Justified? Did she have cages full of exploding monkeys, or something? Or is she just looking to bilk the VH-1 set?

[sara]

hahahhahaa.

luckily, a kind publicist granted me free tix. i NEVER would have paid that much, although john might have.

that said, it was a really great show and i do think it would have been worth the price had the place not been so packed and annoying to navigate. it really killed my good mood.

[wes]

i have yet to see her in concert, that price ticket will definitely keep me from seeing her at this point, but I bet i can totally put up with her drama thing. i loved it when she had her famous incidents. intensity

[Matthew]

I was in the seated section in the back, so I couldn't hear anyone singing, and I'm glad for that - I really enjoyed paying attention to her voice, she's a phenomenal vocalist.

[sara]

i'm so jealous. by the time i realized it would be best to sit in the back, all the seats were taken (as far as i could see).

pout.

[Matthew]

I highly recommend the stadium seating at that venue - the sound is better back there, there's a great view of the stage, and it's just really mellow and well suited to a show like this.

[Damon Effingham]

The VIP space isn't all it's cracked up to be. My lovely roommate somehow scored free tix and VIP passes to the show last night, and kindly invited me to go along with her. We got there about 15 minutes before Fiona went on. I could barely ever seen Fiona, though. Unless you are one of the lucky few to get one of those nice tables (meaning that you're most likely Epic Press as that is what every table's reserved sign said), you don't really get a very good view of things. I could see Fiona well when she was at the piano, and her keyboard player on the left side was visible. Otherwise, I could barely see Fiona when she stood, especially when certain douchebags were holding their phones up to the speakers. The entire right side of the stage was completely obstructed from my view.

[Alex]

Ha! Sounds like you and your boyfriend are somewhat like my girlfriend and I. We're 30-somethings... she likes Fiona (though she calls her Fiona Babble) but, I am totally enthralled by her. I too wondered what everyone around me thought of the fact that I knew all the lyrics (and was singing along) to all her songs. I couldn't figure out if the the looks I was getting from people around us were a "right on!!!" look or a "freak!!!" look. Regardless, it was fun and she was great. (FYI: We saw her in San Francisco).