Tori Tori Tori
I went to see Tori Amos in concert again on Friday. It was awesome, as usual. She played “Take the Sky”, which is one of my all-time favorite b-sides. This concert seemed a little different. She played more songs from her latest album than usual. I was a little disappointed, but there were still some of the classics, including “Tear in Your Hand”, one of my favorites from Little Earthquakes. “Black Dove”, “Crucify”, and “Cornflake Girl” also made appearances, as well as songs from To Venus and Back and Boys For Pele, which I haven’t heard too much of in concert.
It was a long concert, and despite it not having quite as much energy as some of the others I’ve seen, it was a wonderful experience.
Check out the rest of the entry for the review I wrote for The Triangle.
Tori Amos was back at her Bosendorfer at the Tweeter Center in Camden Nov. 15. She put out her usual powerhouse performance, playing the longest setlist of any concert I’ve seen.
Amos devoted a much larger portion of the concert to songs from her recent album, Scarlet’s Walk, compared to past shows, but there was still a good range of her work. The show began with the short, thoughtful “Wampum Prayer” playing over an empty stage. Tori and the band then entered at the end to follow it with the more enthusiastic “a sorta fairytale”, the first single from Scarlet’s Walk.
Amos kept the energy going with intense renditions of “In the Springtime of His Voodoo” and “Bliss”. I am not a big fan of the former song, but it was so well done that I was entranced. She maintains an incredible ability to constantly reinvent her songs with each performance. This was reinforced with old favorites “Cornflake Girl” and “Crucify”. She gave those songs so much energy, improving them into almost completely different songs.
“Wednesday” from the new album was a slower song, setting the pace for the three solos that Amos includes in every concert. As a tribute to her earlier work, the band leaves the stage, and it’s just Tori and her piano again. “It’s just us now for a little bit,” she said to the crowd. The first solo was “Doughnut Song”. It was beautifully done. Her voice really shines when only accompanied by the piano. “Gold Dust” followed a very emotional song. The last solo was a cover of a Joni Mitchell song, “River”. It was a rather sad, lonely Christmas song.
As the band rejoined, fans were shouting out requests, and Tori responded with the children’s song, “The Wheels on the Bus”. She played four verses with the band, which was very entertaining with the cute noises she made for each verse and served to lighten the mood a little after the solos. The tone of the show after that was a little more mellow. “Your Cloud”, “Taxi Ride”, and “I Can’t See New York” showed the quiet but passionate side of the new album. “Concertina” and “Spring Haze” from To Venus and Back were gorgeous, and “Sugar” was a solid performance of a classic b-side. “Take to the Sky” was an incredible extended version with a great rhythm.
Amos left the stage for a short while as the audience applauded, and then returned for the first encore. She began with “Black Swan”, a b-side that she said her mother, who was in the crowd that evening, requested. She said that they hadn’t rehearsed it as a band yet, but they were going to give it a try. Despite a few falters when she said she got “confused” in the middle and started again slower, it was a beautiful song. The energetic “Black Dove” followed. “Sweet Sangria” finished the first encore.
Tori exited again, but returned shortly with the powerful “Putting the Damage”. She closed the concert with “Tear in Your Hand”. This was beautifully done and ended the night on a good note.
Howie Day opened the show. Although he was just one man with an acoustic guitar, I was impressed at the variety of effects he was able to create with a few pedal inputs. It sounded like there were several people on stage with the amount of sampling that he did. I was unfamiliar with Day, but he is worth checking out.
