FOR MORE THE OHANA FEST 2017 COVERAGE CLICK HERE!
Dana Point, CA- Nothing could have brightened up my second day at The Ohana Fest more than Fiona Apple. Say wuh? You mean the “Love Ridden” “Sullen Girl” who’s a part-time “Criminal” telling dudes like me to “Get Gone” before she “Get[s] Him Back”? Yup. One in the same. Kinda ironic, right?
Giving her first performance in almost a year, Ms. Apple took the stage to the roars of her adoring fans. She started her set with the live debut of the song “Container” (which is the theme song to Showtime’s The Affair), and after which, with a huge smile on her face, mentioned how happy she was to be at such a beautiful festival for her 40th birthday. Then, as if on cue, the audience burst out in a group sing of “Happy Birthday”, which seemed to elicit so much joy from Fiona that she spontaneously leapt around stage before surprising everyone with a cartwheel.
Seeing Fiona in such a state of pure joy, I had a feeling that that energy would transfer into the rest of her performance which it absolutely did.
Her Ohana Fest performance was a fabulous of mix of some of her most loved songs, a sprinkling of some new material (which she suggested will eventually see the light of day on her next album) and some moving covers. As someone who has listened to all of her albums more times than I can count, I absolutely loved the selections she decided to perform and the way I and her fans reacted to her performance. We wailed with her during the hook of “Every Single Night”, shook our bodies to the idiosyncratically wonderful rhythms of “Anything We Want”, grit our teeth and raged to “Fast As You Can” and fell into the raw self-awareness of the story telling in “Paper Bag”.
Fiona rounded out her set with a series of covers which included the Brains’ “Money Changes Everything,” Conway Twitty’s “It’s Only Make Believe,” and Frank Sinatra’s “I’ll Be Around.” The Brains and Conway Twitty covers I’ve heard before, but that was the first time hearing her cover this Frank Sinatra song (there’s a recording of Fiona covering “Why Try To Change Me Now” that I’ve heard, but not this one).
I’ve seen Fiona Apple three times in concert. And while the shows at the Greek and the Walt Disney Concert Hall were fabulous, there was a certain energy at this performance- an energy borne from a truly joyous place- that made it particularly enjoyable, and a performance that I won’t soon forget.
Oh yeah … and happy belated birthday, Fiona 😉
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FOR MORE THE OHANA FEST 2017 COVERAGE CLICK HERE!
LIVE CLIPS
Fiona Apple at The Ohana Fest 9/9/17. Thoughts and photos coming soon to @BlurredCulture! pic.twitter.com/Dff8ouUUqL
— Derrick K. Lee (@methodman13) September 26, 2017
Fiona Apple at The Ohana Fest 9/9/17. Thoughts and photos coming soon to @BlurredCulture! pic.twitter.com/zCNlWcAMwI
— Derrick K. Lee (@methodman13) September 26, 2017
