Inspiration: Gigs
This is page 1 of a 2 page entry
Created: Wed 1 Jun 2005 17:45
Having been a fan of Tori Amos for ten years, I was thrilled to hear that she was finally visiting Australia again for a national tour. The last time she was here, in 1992, I was not yet familiar with her music, and ever since I became a fan, I have waited (rather patiently) for her to return. The graph of my Tori listening habits would look a bit like a roller coaster's path, climbing up at any new release, and coasting downhill in between, but I've been listening to her music with a much higher level of consistency over the last ten years than most other artists.
Wonderful timing then, that her tour coincided with the release of her latest album, The Beekeeper, an album of which I was not particularly fond. It was almost like a make-or-break situation, where her shows could either bring me back to thinking she's fantastic all over again, or they could turn me off her completely. I had a sinking feeling it would be the latter, but hoped that she would impress me.
And she did. Tori's first Melbourne show (on the 12th), gave me that awesome feeling that live music can - that excited, day-before-Christmas, jumbly feeling in the tummy that stays with you for days afterward. Between that first show and the next (on the 18th), I listened to her albums non-stop - I had gotten a taste of why there are people out there so in love with her that they call themselves Toriphiles, and are actually quite freaky in their obsession. I am of the personal opinion that Tori herself is a bit of a fruit bat (I've seen many of her interviews on the bonus DVDs with her albums and so on, and if you listen to her interview on Triple J, which even had seasoned veteran Richard Kingsmill scratching his noggin, you'll begin to see what I mean), but I can't deny that she's quite an accomplished performer; extremely interesting to watch, and passionate to a fault. One of the things that had bothered me a little when listening to live performances of hers was the way that she plays around with the workings of a song, tweaking the pronunciation of words, slowing and speeding things up at will, and mixing things up altogether. But, in the flesh, this turned out to be one of her real strengths - as she was playing by herself for the whole show, she could mix and match things any way she pleased, and as the mood took her, making for a more organic performance, and definitely adding an element that wouldn't be possible for a band (as they, of course, need to keep in time with one another). And she's a real master at this, utilising it more than any other performer I can think of.
Now, let's talk about what she wore, because a Tori Amos concert is one place where this is of interest (to me, anyway). She dresses to the nines and always looks very feminine on stage - both nights she was wearing a flowing cocktail type dress, the first being a white handkerchief style with wedge shoes that tied up with red ribbons, and the second being a layered peachy pink number with green wedges. Both looked really beautiful, and, as I am sure they are designed to, enhanced her performance by becoming another part of her show, just as lighting and so on does (it must be difficult as a single person on stage to hold an audience's attention, so the dresses did their job acting as attention-grabbers for some period of the time).
I decided at some time during the day on the 12th that I would love to hear Beauty Queen / Horses at the show, but I thought the chances of this would be quite slim. However, she played it third - right after the first two (mandatory) songs from the newer albums. The setlist for that night was quite good, containing a few classics, though it could have been even better. Still, we got to hear Cloud On My Tongue and Silent All These Years. There was a nice section near the start of the show where she played three songs related to mothers in a row - Mother Revolution, Mother, and Ribbons Undone. Ribbons was a big favourite of mine on the night (a lot more of its feeling came across in the live version than I get from the recording), but the stand-out aside from Silent would have to have been Happy Phantom. Plopped into the show about halfway through, and directly after a number of slower songs, it provided a huge boost to the entire set, and got everyone pumped back up again. It was a perfectly positioned upbeat tune. Another honourable mention must go to Rattlesnakes, a song from her covers album Strange Little Girls, which I had not previously given much time to, but which was spectacular live, and which got stuck in my head for days afterward, and made me want to watch On the Waterfront.
Audience stereotype spotted: the setlist nerds. There are many types of setlist nerds, and I have had occasion to be each kind at different points in my life. But the two specific sub-stereotypes that I spotted were as follows. Firstly, there was the writing-the-setlist-on-his-hand-using-a-miniature-sized-pen setlist nerd. Lots of people make note of the setlist, but it is rare to find a nerd so nerdy that he's even come prepared with a blank hand and a teeny tiny pen. Nicely done Mac, ya setlist nerd extraordinaire. The other type I spotted was the type who asks a big burly roadie for a copy of the setlist at the end of the show, and gets one. I'm pleased to say that that particular nerd was me, and I now have one shiny new Tori Amos setlist in my possession. Booyah!
The second night's show had a fairly different batch of songs to the first. The list overall was probably a bit more obscure, and the songs from the new album were not among my personal favourites (though Sweet The Sting was pretty cool, and a worthy substitute for The Power Of Orange Knickers). I was glad to hear Yes, Anastasia and Baker Baker, but there wasn't a song like Phantom that boosted the show back up partway through - the show was more on an even keel throughout.
For the first night's show, we were sitting in the second row, and had a perfect view of Tori's face, but were at such an angle that we couldn't really see her playing. So it was great that on the second night, we were seated up on the balcony, and though I couldn't see her facial expressions nearly as well, I got to see a lot more of the way that she performs, using her whole body at times and just getting into what she's doing. Plus, of course, we could actually see her hands, a big bonus when you're watching a pianist. It was great to get these two different perspectives of such an intriguing performer - I am still fascinated by how she plays both keyboards at once for some portions of songs.
One of the interesting and unique things about Tori's shows is that she has a section of each show which she calls Tori's Piano Bar, where she goes back to her roots and plays covers as requested by the audience (previously via her website - she doesn't just play anything on the spot). This harks back to when she was a lounge pianist playing for tips. Her choices for the two shows were all great, each night having a song tied in with recent local events - Don't Dream It's Over in tribute to Paul Hester, and Can't Get You Outta My Head on the announcement of Kylie's breast cancer. The Covers Project shows some of the many other songs she must have done over the years, though it seems to be fairly lacking.
It's also interesting to note that, of the twenty songs on Tori's recently released "Best Of" album, Tales of a Librarian, only one song was played at each show (Silent All These Years and Baker Baker - both as the final song of the night). That means there was no Precious Things, no Cornflake Girl, no Winter, no Crucify. Being familiar with almost all of Tori's stuff, this didn't bother me too much, but I wonder what the casual fan would have thought about it. Judging by the absolutely huge screams from all sides of me at almost all breaks in the night (seriously, those Toriphiles know how to show their appreciation), I would have to say that most people were pretty damned happy - and I must admit that, were I to have been photographed whilst watching the show, I may have born quite the resemblance to Nelson Muntz watching Andy Williams.
You can check out the next page of this entry for all the setlist details (if you care), but other than that, I'm just sitting around waiting for her to tour again - hopefully not for quite as long this time. If you want to know more, check out what Mac thought of the first show (where he says that "someone" told him that the show was light on for singles, the someone was actually a Toriphile who just approached us as we walked past Flinders Street station on our way home, and specially brought it up, as though it was something we just had to know. Thanks, random guy - you've improved our lives tenfold).
P.S. she made fun of Dave Hughes' accent, which, whilst rather hypocritical of her (she's got one of the more bizarre accents I've heard), was also extremely hilarious.
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