Here's a crazy idea. Maybe, just maybe, Ashlee Simpson's infamous lip-syncing incident from "Saturday Night Live" was all a big setup.

Before Simpson was busted for not actually singing live on the NBC late-night institution, she was just a midlevel teen star. Post-"SNL," even those who'd never seen her MTV reality show or heard her radio-friendly mall punk suddenly knew Ashlee Simpson's name.

That infamy has spilled over onto her current tour, which stopped at the Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis Thursday night. Thanks to the scandal, Simpson has earned much more ink than she would have otherwise, with fans and skeptics alike wondering if she could cut it up on stage.

So could she? Well, sort of.

She appeared to be singing for most of her mercifully concise hour-long set. Not that it really mattered, as the 4,000-strong crowd — which consisted almost entirely of teenage girls — spent the show screaming at the top of their lungs every time Simpson flipped her dyed hair in their general direction.

In a borderline bravura move, Simpson addressed her recent "SNL" debacle early in the concert.

She rambled off some self-help-y mumbo jumbo about how "believing in yourself" and "love" can save you from all those people who want you to fail. (Funny — those who truly believe in themselves don't lip sync, now do they? But I digress.)

Simpson's rabid fans ate up every last moment of the show, which drew mostly from her debut album "Autobiography," a disc filled with faux outsider anthems delivered with a chirpy giggle. ("I'm so alone, love is hard, tee hee" — that sort of thing.)

For the patient parents in the crowd, she also performed a medley of '80s hits from Blondie ("Call Me"), Madonna ("Burning Up") and the Pretenders (the subtle classic "Brass in Pocket," tragically transformed into stadium rock).

Thanks to her straight-from-central-casting backup band and carefully timed video montages, the evening often felt like watching TV. Ashlee Simpson and company would be right at home starring as the "Edgy Young Rock Band" in an episode of "Law and Order" or "CSI."

And, really, with all of Thursday night's attention toward the orchestrated chaos, artfully torn shirts and killer lip-gloss — with the actual music serving merely as a semi-pleasant backdrop — that's actually a compliment.