A throng of students were gathered in the foyer of Eclectic last Friday evening, chattering about a mysterious tweet and Wesleying post, when Amanda Palmer ’98 walked in. Wandering through the halls holding a Miller High Life, she asked the crowd, “Living room or dining room?” After a few shy responses from the students, she decided on the dining room as the venue for her “ninja gig,” and led the assembled group over for the politest rock concert in the history of Eclectic (and probably all of Wesleyan).

Palmer, who gained a huge following and critical acclaim fronting goth-cabaret duo the Dresden Dolls, waited until the crowd was quietly seated cross-legged on the floor, joking about the audience’s familiarity with her music and asking whether people were planning to attend the Film Series’ screening of “Stop Making Sense” or a performance by “the crazy Italians” (Italian dance company Dewey Dell) later that night. Then, armed with only a ukulele, a severely out of tune piano, and her powerful singing voice, Palmer launched into a request-based set of covers and greatest hits.

Among her most memorable song selections were fan-favorites “Coin-Operated Boy,” “Runs in the Family,” and “Leeds United” (from her first solo album “Who Killed Amanda Palmer”), and she deliriously pounded them out  on the perfectly out-of-tune piano. Palmer also peppered in an eclectic mix of covers, from a cheerily ukulele rendition of NWA’s “Fuck Tha Police” to “Friday” by Rebecca Black (from the perspective of a truck-stop hooker). The latter featured depressingly hilarious lyrics, Palmer smiling as she yowled, “Friday, Friday, gotta go down on Friday/Gotta disassociate in order to withstand it.”