Amanda Palmer has operated under better conditions than she did on Thursday. She was performing sick, blowing her nose between songs; she was returning home at the end of a tour where she got pilloried on the Internet for how she compensated her auxiliary musicians (or didn’t); and her first night back in the familiar confines of the Paradise wasn’t sold out like her Friday and Saturday shows.

Even so, Palmer at diminished capacity is still more than many artists  can muster burning at their hottest. Palmer howled right out of the gate with the slowly raging “Smile (Pictures Or It Didn’t Happen).” And she kept going for just under two hours, keeping up such typical Palmerian touches as having the entire band chaotically switch instruments at the end of every verse of “Missed Me” and singing a closing reprise of “Want It Back” through a megaphone from the balcony.