Fiona Apple kicked off the second night of SXSW Music Festival at Stubb’s NPR showcase tonight, performing a set of fan favourites (from “Criminal” to “Sleep to Dream”), as well as a few new tracks from her forthcoming release, due in June some seven years after her last, Extraordinary Machine. It was her first show outside of Los Angeles in five years, a fact which seemed to perplex Apple, remarking that she was sure the crowd in front of her was “imaginary”.
The time apart from the touring circuit made it a difficult performance for the respected singer/songwriter, with Apple signaling to the side of stage that her voice wasn’t going to hold up, and resting against the piano earlier in the set, but she pushed on and delivered a set which impressed the crowd. Tonight was the first of ten planned upcoming shows for Apple – the next of which is tomorrow at the Pitchfork party at SXSW, before she heads to Chicago.
For us here at the AU review this was our third day at the event, and over the past 72 hours we have caught the likes of Alberta Cross (who performed tracks off their new record, plus favourite “ATX”), Luluc, DZ Deathrays (who were cut off by SXSW organizers for being too loud), FiL, Alabama Shakes, Wavves, Trash Talk, Dan Deacon (who got the crowd participating in a massive circle dance), Gemma Ray, Kasabian, Miike Snow and many, many… many more.
Of course, the festival wouldn’t be complete without some big names taking to the stage in ‘secretly’ announced events. Jay-Z is the biggest name to appear at the event so far, and the famous Auditorium Shores stage will open to the public tomorrow with performances from The Shins, Counting Crows, The Cult and many more. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be performing an intimate set following Bruce’s keynote speech to a set of lucky punters. Some of the acts still rumoured to make an appearance are our own Gotye, At The Drive-In, Jay-Z with Kanye West, The Black Keys, Arcade Fire and more. As usual, most won’t come true. With plenty of “TBA”s still occupying line ups, your guess is as good as ours…
Stay tuned for more exclusive SXSW coverage from the AU review. Photo by Johnny Au.
