Fiona Apple

Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY.....

An infamous show. Fiona had a nervous breakdown on stage. It was one of the most unusual concerts I've ever attended.

Prior to the concert, I had dinner with a couple of people from Fiona's record label. (Jurassic 5 was opening the concert, but due to my dinner engagement I didn't see them.) One interesting item in the dinner conversation was one of the label folk chucklingly sharing a story about Fiona throwing a tantrum prior to a previous show in Chicago. That tale was on my mind after I arrived at Roseland Ballroom for the sold-out show. A couple of songs into her set, backed by five other musicians, Fiona started complaining about the sound mix--although whether her issue was with her monitor mix or whether it was something was unclear as everything sounded alright to me. 

At one point, she stopped a song in progress and told the crew to make everything right. She was clearly getting very upset, and the fans in the audience shouted encouragement to her. However, the crowd seemed to agitate her further.

Two and a half years prior, Apple won an award for Best New Artist at the MTV VMAs just a few blocks away from Roseland Ballroom. She made a point in her acceptance speech that came out wrong, or was taken wrong, and the music press had a field day of critical comments. I wonder if this was running through Fiona's mind when she was worried about the sound at this concert I attended.

Either way, Fiona left the stage to let the tech crew sort everything out. Soon she returned and began her next song. She stopped it once more. She seemed to imagine the audience as full of not supportive fans, as was the case, but full of angry music critics eager to slam her. Her tearful commentary began to sound angry. Newsday described her as "simultaneously tearful, enraged and apologetic." At one point I would swear she shouted, "If any of you fucking fuckers try to fuck me, I'll kill you." (The New York Daily News reported her saying, "All you critics out there better not fucking tear me apart, or I'll fucking kill you." Newsday quoted it as "If you fuck me, I'll kill you.")

About 45 minutes after the set began, and after performing just a few songs, Fiona announced, "The Roseland is so great. I have to take a break for five minutes to work out the sound." After almost a further half-hour of audience murmuring, at around midnight, someone announced to the audience to hold on to your ticket stubs, and the show would be rescheduled. Everyone filed out in disbelief. 

Before I left, one guy from Fiona's record label leaned over to me and said, "Uh, Mike, we won't be having a meet and greet tonight." No shit. I called him the next day and left a voicemail saying that my radio station wanted to make promotional Fiona Apply T-shirts that said "If any of you fucking fuckers try to fuck me, I'll kill you." I don't think he appreciated my li'l joke.  

A New York Daily News writer called it "one of rock's most spectacular onstage meltdowns."

Oddly, it was my second consecutive night at Roseland, as I had attended a show by The Cure the day previous, one that was uneventful. 

Maybe the fact that Fiona's show was on Leap Day contributed to the weirdness?

 


 

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