My girl, Fiona Apple, KILLED it last night at her show here in Minneapolis at the Orpheum. KILLED IT. It had been a lifelong dream (albeit, maybe a lame one?) for me to see her in concert but never got the opportunity until last night. I’ve loved her since high school and know every word, every inflection of every song. To say I am a fan, is a bit of an understatement. Fans like me are why certain celebrities need security detail. Let’s just leave it at that.

Oh man, she was amazing. Vibrant, emotive, passionate, quirky; and those pipes. Jeez! It was definitely worth my 12-year wait.

The set list was diverse (spanning pretty evenly across all four of her albums), had a lovely build and was all-around unexpected and refreshing:

1. Fast As You Can
2. When the Pawn
3. Shadow boxer
4. Paper Bag
5. Anything We Want
6. Get Gone
7. Sleep to Dream
8. Extraordinary Machine
9. Werewolf
10. Tymps (The Sick in the Head song)
11. Daredevil
12. I’ll Know
13. Every Single Night
14. Not About Love
15. Carrion
16. Criminal
17. It’s Only Make Believe (Loretta Lynn cover)

Oh and the audience; it was so diverse! There were a lot of girls who looked like they could have starred in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…but the best part about the crowd was that they were all REAL Fiona fans. They cheered and wahooed right with Jackie and me as soon as they recognized the next song (in like the first four notes). They screamed their hearts out and really felt the emotion of each performance.

My favorite part was at the end when Fiona declared that she thinks it’s awkward leaving the stage and then coming back on for an encore, so she just announced that they would do the encore next. She was absolutely adorable; writhing around on the floor and on the piano. Oh. And can we talk about homegirl’s biceps for a hot second? Don’t mess.

Thanks to Jackie for being my date. I had an amazing time!

(The photos are by Patrick Dunn of Twin Cities Metro Mag; and you can see more here!)