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REVIEWS

hey everyone! i really enjoyed this show the most out of the 3 i attended so far. fi loved the tower theatre and she enjoyed the audience feedback tonight. she didn't seem nervous at all, she came out and attacked on the bound and ripped through every song powerfully (the usual 16 song setlist). the band was also especially powerful and on target tonight.  especially matt chamberlain, he really impressed me, and of course keith was cute as always (fiona mentioned that too). she was very jovial, bouncy and dancy tonight. she was wearing the long skirt/pants thing, a white tank top with a light pink one over it for all of those who wanted to know... during sullen girl fiona messed up the piano for a measure but it didn't stifle her at all and she recovered quickly. she had a stuffed lion and little devil toy on her piano and she introduced them to the audience as being nameless! she was in a cool mood tonight. i didn't notice any tension or nerves.

before the show i got her to look at this photo album over 3 years i've put together of her and she liked it a lot and was impressed! thank you fi! i'm really glad you didn't mind letting me take all those photos! my friends and i also chatted with keith briefly and he rules. he's always scoping the venues out from a fan's perspective so if you're at a show look for him around, he's really cool to us fans. the tower theatre staff and local security were pretty nice, helpful and surprisingly not demeaning at all. thank you for treating us like people and i hope other venues will follow their example! david and nan were their kind selves as usual, tomorrow is the big treasure book day! and thank you to kevin from april and tracy if you come across this for making our row J seats into JJ.

well, this is the end of my 3 show stint for now, i'll try to catch some more shows as the tour progresses. good luck to fi and the band at the rest of the shows and the fans going!

april

From David:

Wow!  What a show.  Fiona came out with a "long legged stuffed lion" on her back piggy-back style.  She set that down on the piano along with some pink carnations and a little red devil. 

The lighting was awesome at this show.  "To Your Love" had an eclectic array of flashing lights every time they hit the chorus.  On "Limp" Matt Chamberlain simply outdid himself as he rocked the house with his awesome drum solo.  Fiona really liked the theater, the feel of it and the close proximity of the crowd.

After "Sullen Girl" Fiona really loves how the crowd responds to "Paper Bag" and the crowd responds by singing almost every line of the song.  On "Sleep to Dream" the band queued up to Fi when she started the song a hair off beat.  She was totally into the song and brought out the pink carnations do dance around with.  On "Carrion" which seems to be even a more emotional song for her, she does a dance with the mic stand feeling every raw emotion of the song. 

At one point during the show someone was holding up a sign that said something to the effect that Keith Lowe makes the Bass sexy.  Fi saw this and excitedly pointed this out to a humble Keith and a tickled Lucky.  Fiona also mentioned that she loved the "little red devil" that someone gave her outside the Lettermen show. 

When Fi broke into "Fast As You Can", which by now is the signal for her fans to rush the stage and dance in front of it, the security at this venue just didn't understand and they cleared the aisles of her fans.  So everyone danced in by their seats.

At the end of "Kissing My Love" there was a girl who made her way to the front row and started crying.  Fi saw this and gave her some attention during the last verses of the song.  She hugged the girl and gave her a flower.  We saw the girl leave clutching the flower and still tearing.  It was an awesome night and we can't wait to see her again.

Below are some of the pictures we took.  Bring your cameras, just don't turn on your flash.  They really don't seem to mind (and you didn't hear that from me.)

--David

March 3rd~ what a dream.

Fiona was just stellar at the Tower.  I'm a local fan, not one that gets to travel to a lot of the shows so I was extremely psyched.  My seats were fifth row from the front~ insane~ and right on the aisle.  Jurassic 5 was more entertaining than I had hoped, and the head spin just blew me away.  But when Fiona came out it was crazy.  She's just a goddess...

Highlights: obviously "Carrion" was a fave of mine.  She seemed possessed during it to a point.  I just thought the whole concert was beautiful from beginning to end.  I envied the girl who received the flower from Fiona at the end of the show.  She was sitting near me and was just overwhelmed the whole night though.  I also noticed she had "Sullen Girl" tattooed on her shoulder.  Just amazing~ it was cool to be around so many fans as well.  I must give the Tower props for just an excellent atmosphere and staff too.  Like I've said enough already, the night was just amazing!

Debbie

Another night, another amazing show. Fiona and her band continue to show me how much better they are than the Tidal Tour (and I really enjoyed the show then). Fiona's voice is considerably stronger and richer than it was and the band seems so much more comfortable with each other so much so that when there was a little hiccup in the show when there was a little problem with the very first part of Sleep to Dream, the band recovered from it so well that a lot of the audience didn't seem to notice. The venue (which she commented that she liked the interior of, such as lights on the ceiling to make it look like a starlit sky) made her voice seem like it came from everywhere, quite a departure from the previous show I had seen where I had a giant speaker 3 feet away from my seat. My seats were quite a bit further back this time so I was quite happy that the sound was so good.

Fiona, again, nailed most songs even better than they are done on the CD. Both albums (even though they are great and are what got us interested in Fiona in the first place) don't seem to do her justice. I really hope that there will be a live album out someday soon as once you've heard her songs live (such as Carrion) the album versions seem a little pale in comparison. She's just going to have to completely redo and re-release "Tidal", that's all there is to it:-). And once again her encores just brought the whole place to it's feet. Now after the show, my sister and I were lucky enough to be invited backstage by the amazing Dave and Nan.  (By the way, seeing just a bit of how much is involved with running this not-at-all-for-profit website just blows me away, we're very lucky to have these two running our favorite artist's fansite). Now I have never been backstage for anyone so I was surprised to see how intimate it was. Fiona took the time to speak to each and every one of the 15 or so fans backstage. She gave autographs and took pictures with whomever wanted them. She was very friendly and genuine even after singing her heart out for the last hour and a half. I stammered out a couple of compliments and got to be a little involved in a discussion about the viability of something special that Dave and Nan are pushing for and you know I vote yes. Dave took my picture with Fiona and I am proudly showing it to jealous friends at work (a factory, where I was kind of surprised to find there are quite a few Fiona music fans). 

Thanks again to Fiona and her band and Dave and Nan. John

picture courtesy of John, & Nicole
John, "Sexy Keith" & Nicole

following pictures property of NIAP:

Hams & Cheese

Fi and John

Fi with Bill's lion - pic courtesy of Bill

From Bill:

so, it all started friday, march 3rd, the day of the show in philly.  my friend neomie and i left immediately when school was over (we're still in high school) and went on our way to the tower theater to try to meet fiona on her way in.  on the way there, we stopped on the way at the gallery (a huge mall in philly) to get gifts.  i got a cute lanky stuffed lion for fiona and an imitation beanie fish for matt.  so we get to the theater and wait for about 45 minutes with maybe 7 other people til fiona's bus comes. 5 minutes later she comes out all bundles up and looking adorable.  she was in a rush, but she stopped for 5 minutes to talk to the fans.  i managed to get a pic with her (i'm blinking, grrr) and i gave her my lion and a letter i had written to her asking if she's write a sentence or two showing her support for my high school's gay-straight alliance.  basically, the way i described it to fi is that it's a group of students (gay, straight, bi, or whatever) who try to combat homophobia in our school (as you can probably imagine, it's a big problem).  we dont ask that the whole school march in the pride parade, we just try to get people to think twice before they hate 10% of the population because of who they love. 

 Bill & Fiona

Bill with Matt Chamberlain

so, fast-forward to the show.  the concert itself is kinda a blur because i had a fever at the time, but when she walked out on stage for the first time, she was carrying my lion!!  he sat on the piano the whole night and she introduced him with the band.  so after the show i hung around and got to meet matt and give him his fish.  she came out but went right to the bus cuz she was getting sick. anyway, fast forward to last tuesday.  i got a mysterious fed-ex package with a random return address on it.  i opened it up, and it was an autographed 8 x 10 and a page long, hand-written letter from fiona!!!  how incredibly nice of her.  she wrote it that sunday and had it fed-exed the next day!!!  what a sweetie!!  i scanned the letter, and it is attached. anyway, that's my fiona story, i hope you liked it!!

~Bill
(click here for more pics from Bill)

Fiona waving goodbye - pic courtesy of Bill

Update March 20, 2000:  the whole school is already talking about my letter, and we've gotten about 20 more members because of it, so i'm happy :-)