New Tori Amos record

[joyfulgirl]

Two incredible songs (Father Lucifer and Take to the Sky) from one of the live bootlegs streaming now:

http://myspace.com/toriamos

 

[FlyYourKite]

Tonight's show in Baltimore was absolutely amazing according to those who were there The setlist was fantastic.

Thanks, joyfulgirl, for the link! Those songs are great. I can't wait for the bootlegs to be released.

And Saturday is so close... I'm going to post a lengthy review I'm sure after the concert!

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I was in Barnes and Noble the other day and I was looking at this Kevyn Aucoin book in the bargain section. They had the most beautiful picture of Tori, I forget what album it's from.

I was tempted to get it just for that but I need the makeup tips too

 

[joyfulgirl]

Oh shit, she covered Karma Police the other night:


http://www.hereinmyhead.com/sounds/index.html

I got the seat upgrade email for Red Rocks and sent in my lame little paragraph.

BVS, your show is tonight, yes?

 

[joyfulgirl]

I was in Barnes and Noble the other day and I was looking at this Kevyn Aucoin book in the bargain section. They had the most beautiful picture of Tori, I forget what album it's from.

I was tempted to get it just for that but I need the makeup tips too

I used to have that book. It must not have made the final cut in my last move, though, because I haven't seen it in awhile. The song "Taxi Ride" is apparently about Kevyn and how the people who wanted to be around him when it was cool to be his friend abandoned him when he was dying of AIDS.

 

[FlyYourKite]

So I finally have computer access after that absolutely amazing concert. It was my first Tori show ever and boy was I blown away. That woman is seriously unbelievable.

The setlist was as follows:

Original Sinsuality
Icicle
Blood Roses
Here. In My Head
General Joy
Mother
Crazy

If You Could Read My Mind (Gordon Lightfoot cover)
Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell cover)

Cars And Guitars
Northern Lad
Spark
Taxi Ride
The Beekeeper

1st Encore

Jamaica Inn
Cloud On My Tongue

2nd Encore

Putting The Damage On
Baker Baker


The Ditty Bops were quite a delight and I'm glad we got there early enough to see them. She came on a bit early around 8:45ish in a beautiful pink/peachy dress. Aafter the piano bar she started putting on lip gloss and when the audience laughed she said "I was supposed to put this on before but i couldn't find the damn thing", and then she popped a lozenge in her mouth and said "Lubrication, girls. it's even important up here." Oh Tori.

The whole concert was very intense and she seemed sad that night. All that energy was focused into her playing and it sounded amazing.

Now for the final encore...Baker Baker is one of my favourite Tori songs of all time and I almost died when she started it. It was so heartbreaking And to top it all off...fireworks started going off across the street at the fair. It was beautiful. Everyone, including Tori, was surprised and it made the song that much more emotional. *sigh*

I am getting tickets to at least 5 of her shows the next time she tours. Hopefully it will be soon. Yay Tori! We love you

 

[FlyYourKite]

Here's a little picture from the Toronto show in an article:

 

[joyfulgirl]

Glad you liked the show! And you got Blood Roses. I'd love to hear that or anything from Pele. I'm hoping for that or Beauty Queen/Horses which lately has returned to me as a favorite.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Oh, and I got my bootlegs. I ordered them last Tuesday night and they were in my mailbox on Friday. Both are just exquisite.

 

[FlyYourKite]

I was just about to ask you about the bootlegs joyfulgirl! I'm glad you like them. Where did you order them from? I am completely out of the loop regarding these bootlegs and I want to get my hands on them

Oh and I ordered a copy of the VHS Live from NY tape from Amazon...should be here in a few days. Have you seen it before, joyfulgirl?

 

[joyfulgirl]

You can order them here:
www.toribootlegs.com

And yes, I have the Live from NY video. It's a very different Tori as you'll see.

 

[BVS]

I'm gonna see her tonight...

 

[joyfulgirl]

I expect a full report tomorrow.

 

[BVS]

I expect a full report tomorrow.

If I have time before my flight, you'll get one first thing in the morning.

 

[FlyYourKite]

I can't wait to hear your report. Have a wonderful time!

A very different Tori, eh? I'm intruiged...

I was really upset the Meet & Greet was cancelled due to the weather on the day of the concert. With my luck I probably wouldn't have met her anyway but it would have been nice just to see her close-up and interacting with the fans. I've heard it can be intense, with people pouring their hearts out to her.

 

[joyfulgirl]

A very different Tori, eh? I'm intruiged...

I was really upset the Meet & Greet was cancelled due to the weather on the day of the concert. With my luck I probably wouldn't have met her anyway but it would have been nice just to see her close-up and interacting with the fans. I've heard it can be intense, with people pouring their hearts out to her.

Well I don't want to say too much because I don't want to color your experience of it so we'll talk about it after you see it. It is an incredible show from a different time in her life and I'll be interested to see what you think of it!

I went to one Meet & Greet years ago and she is so tiny (like 5'2") that you can't even see her unless you're right up front. And you're right, some of her fans treat her like she's their therapist. But she has a nice way with her fans and I was glad I went. Too much of a mob scene for me to deal with again. More of a mob scene than I've ever seen even with people waiting for U2 before sound check, for example.

 

[FlyYourKite]

Well I don't want to say too much because I don't want to color your experience of it so we'll talk about it after you see it. It is an incredible show from a different time in her life and I'll be interested to see what you think of it!

I went to one Meet & Greet years ago and she is so tiny (like 5'2") that you can't even see her unless you're right up front. And you're right, some of her fans treat her like she's their therapist. But she has a nice way with her fans and I was glad I went. Too much of a mob scene for me to deal with again. More of a mob scene than I've ever seen even with people waiting for U2 before sound check, for example.

I am really looking forward to getting it.

More people than before a U2 sound check? Wow. I think I'll have to go to one anyway just to see what it's like.

Have you (or anyone else) seen both a solo Tori show and one with the band? Any thoughts on which is better? I thoroughly enjoyed this concert and think that her playing solo would be better...but I don't have anything to compare it to except for the WTSF DVD.

I just finished Piece by Piece for the second time. I definitely have more of an appreciation for what she talks about this time...the first time I read it I didn't really understand all her philosophies and discussions. But I really enjoyed the chapter on touring and getting an insight into how she organizes things. The chapter on motherhood is heartbreaking...I can't believe how much she went through to get Tash. Bleeding that much?

 

[joyfulgirl]

More people than before a U2 sound check? Wow. I think I'll have to go to one anyway just to see what it's like.

Well that was just the one M&G I went to. It probably isn't always like that. And the crowds I've seen outside before U2 soundchecks have been smaller than I would've thought.

Have you (or anyone else) seen both a solo Tori show and one with the band? Any thoughts on which is better? I thoroughly enjoyed this concert and think that her playing solo would be better...but I don't have anything to compare it to except for the WTSF DVD.

I've seen both and I'm not sure if I like one more than another or not. She's so versatile alone that I don't miss the band, and often during a band show it's the solo parts that are my favorite. So it's possible that I lean towards the solo shows yet the Scarlet's Walk tour with the band was just fantastic, while the solo show I saw in Denver earlier this year was just okay (she was sick, though). I guess I miss her old guitar player (you'll see him in the NY video). Also, the mix on her tours with the band always seem a bit funky to me and you can't always hear her as well as you can when she's solo. I wonder sometimes if her husband, who mixes the sound, is deaf, lol.

Since she was sick at the Denver show earlier this year and cut the show short by two songs, I'm hoping she'll make it up to us at Red Rocks.

 

[BVS]

Brilliant show. She was the first "pop" artist to play the new Milenium Park it's been symphonies up until now. The sound was spectacular, but you couldn't see shit from the lawn not even if you stood. I moved up earlier in the show to grab a glance and she was stunning as always but I was a little disappointed with her stage setup. She had this very cartoonish "garden of eden tree and snake thing" and then this one little screen to the left that had lava lamp type images most of the time and then read Tori's ???something at one point...but enough with that, back to the music.

Now there were many songs I didn't recognize for I haven't bought the new one and there are a few I'm a little less acquainted with.

She started off with Original Sin, loved it. She played Crucify which she really played around with the arrangement, but I soon found out she did that a lot. I almost didn't recognise God for awhile. But right after God came my highlight, she played Blower's Daughter, introduced it by saying this was written by "a little buddy of mine" appently the first time she played it, then she did Rose, eh it was OK, but then she did Past the Mission.

Blower's Daughter and Past the Mission made the whole show for me. The rest of the show was amazing as well but a little less known for me although one stood out and I had to look it up by the lyrics I remember and that Barons of Suburbia...loved it.

Amazing, amazing show thanks again Joyfulgirl for giving the heads up on tickets, I kept thinking, I wonder what you would have thought of the show since you are our local expert here.

 

[joyfulgirl]

but I was a little disappointed with her stage setup. She had this very cartoonish "garden of eden tree and snake thing" and then this one little screen to the left that had lava lamp type images most of the time.

Oh dear, that sounds awful. I've read lots of complaints about the stage set. During the 1st leg I saw her in a small theatre and my seat in the balcony was so far to the right that I couldn't see the screen the way it was angled but I remember thinking it was a bit too stripped down but she could get away with it in such a small venue. If that's the same set she's using for the ampitheatres, that's just pitiful! What was she thinking?!

I almost didn't recognise God for awhile.

I read that God was prefaced by a bit from Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill," which may be why you didn't recognize it.

But right after God came my highlight, she played Blower's Daughter

I was lurking in the setlist party thread over in the Tori forum for a few minutes when they announced she was playing this and I couldn't believe it. I thought "that's for BVS!" because I knew you liked him. I would love to have heard that. Hopefully an mp3 will show up soon.

I kept thinking, I wonder what you would have thought of the show

I probably would have winced a little during "The Rose" and "Black-Dove (January)"--I can be a tough Tori critic--but I would have loved to hear Spring Haze, Blower's Daughter, Past the Mission (live version is always so much better than the record), Putting the Damage On and Bells for Her. I really liked your setlist (here it is):

Original Sinsuality
Crucify
Sugar
Sleeps With Butterflies
Spring Haze
Silent All These Years
God/Running Up That Hill

The Blower's Daughter (Damien Rice cover)
The Rose (Bette Midler cover)

Past The Mission
Barons Of Suburbia
Putting The Damage On
Carbon
The Beekeeper

1st Encore
Bells For Her
Black-Dove (January)

2nd Encore
Amber Waves
Tear in Your Hand

Glad you enjoyed the show!!

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I would have loved to hear Blower's Daughter, I completely worship that song. The Rose is a great song too.

I saw her in a small outdoor venue (5000) and I was in around the 13th row on the right side of the stage, I still couldn't always see her that well because the seats are all flat if you know what I mean.

 

[BVS]

I was lurking in the setlist party thread over in the Tori forum for a few minutes when they announced she was playing this and I couldn't believe it. I thought "that's for BVS!" because I knew you liked him. I would love to have heard that. Hopefully an mp3 will show up soon.

You thought of me? I'm flattered. If an mp3 does show up, let me know.

 

[FlyYourKite]

Glad to hear you enjoyed the show BVS! And I agree with you on the stage setup...I wasn't a big fan of the snake and weird screen either. Sugar, Crucify, Past the Mission, Tear in Your Hand, Bells for Her and THE BLOWER'S DAUGHTER! Oh my goodness that must have been incredible live.

And Black Dove? Wow I'm glad she finally brought that out. Too bad it wasn't at Toronto

 

[joyfulgirl]

Oh my God, look what I just found in my in box:

Congratulations! You have been upgraded!

...

The Tori Front Row

 

[FlyYourKite]

Oh my goodness....congratulations!! Oh wow I hope you have the time of your life! And don't get taken under during the stage rush

Edit: Tori's going to be on Jay Leno September 12th!

 

[joyfulgirl]

I still can't believe I got upgraded. From row 15 to 1, baby! First, front row for U2 and now Tori....must be past life karma because I haven't been very good this life.

Sad thing is, I bought these tickets for my best friend's birthday but he won't be going with me after all but another good friend of ours will be very happy. We took him to see her for the first time on the Scarlet's Walk tour and he, not knowing her music at all, had some kind of religious experience. Now he'll be in the front row.

Very nice and well-written review of the Chicago show from the Sun-Times:

Amos creates musical magic as Pritzker's first rock act

BY BRIAN ORLOFF

Summer in downtown Chicago means listening to the Grant Park Orchestra emanating from Millennium Park's Jay Pritzker Pavilion. On Wednesday night, though, Frank Gehry's steel marvel housed a new sound: piano maven Tori Amos. Amos, the venue's inaugural rock 'n' roll artist, was no less commanding than a full orchestra, even though she accompanied herself only on grand piano and three vintage organs for her captivating 130-minute performance. Trained as a classical pianist from an early age, Amos was an inspired choice for Pritzker's pop debut, easing the venue into the rock 'n' roll world with an attentive, polite crowd and her sophisticated technique. And with its crisp acoustics and awesome city views, promoters can be sure the venue made an auspicious debut.

Amos, in superb form -- her piercing soprano has never sounded sharper and her playing never richer, thanks to her onstage marriage of organ and piano -- eschewed chitchat to perform a brooding set drawing on stormy songs invoking mythology and questioning intersections between religion and sexual politics from her penetrating perspective. She began with "Original Sinsuality," examining Eve's role in the Garden of Eden story, ornamenting it with a rolling introduction. Later she moved to her Fender Rhodes organ for a gauzy take on the subversive "God," which she spiced with lines from "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush, undoubtedly Amos' ethereal musical sister. Amos stretched out the melody, allowing the tremulous notes -- the organ's affecting reverb -- to buffer her query. She crooned, "God sometimes you just don't come through/Do you need a woman to look after you?," and her interpolations from Bush's song, also decelerated and chanted with hypnotic fervor, only augmented that power.

Amos channeled the biblical theme on a cartoonlike backdrop depicting a coiled snake and the Tree of Knowledge -- which was, frankly, distracting and unnecessary. In her mint green and white, flowing chiffon dress, she resembled an enchanted Edenic figure. Seemingly soft and ultra-feminine, Amos rocked just as hard, and with just as much sexual prowess, as rock idol and inspiration Robert Plant.

Watch her sidle up to her grand piano, straddling the bench with commanding zeal. On songs like "Sleeps With Butterflies," Amos crouched over the piano, plucking airy, fluttering notes from its high register. Here she was, flirting with and massaging the instrument. But on "Sugar" she pounded the piano, engaging with it and drawing deep, resonant bass notes that felt menacing indeed. It was an intoxicating, complicated relationship in which each song's mood was mirrored by Amos' fine playing.

If things felt a bit too morose, a segment called Tori's Piano Bar offered a bit of levity as Amos performed fan-requested covers. Before "The Blower's Daughter," by Damien Rice, she joked, "I've never done this before, so if it's terrible, well, you'll still like me," and then delivered a simmering rendition. Her next choice, unfortunately, was Bette Midler's "The Rose," which, no matter how pitch-perfect, felt as sappy as the original.

Amos easily redeemed herself with her own material and, later in the set, she converted "Carbon" into an illicit, cautionary tale, designing a riveting tension between glittering high notes and the anchoring bass line. And "The Beekeeper," the title track from her latest album, bellowed its funereal hum from deep within the organ Amos played.

Immediately following the song, dozens of fans rushed the stage, gathering at Amos' feet. It's probably not something the Pritzker has experienced before, but given Wednesday's success, venue officials should brace themselves for such rock 'n' roll theatrics in the future.

 

[FlyYourKite]

That's a great review! Thanks for posting it

I received my copy of Live from NY today! I'll have the opportunity to watch it later today so I'll post a long-winded review I'm sure.

 

[FlyYourKite]

Alright so I just finished watching the video...

Hmm...I'm not even sure where to begin. I've only seen Tori performances on tv/dvd/live from the past two or three years so this was quite surprising. She was very provocative and charasmatic during the entire performance. I really enjoyed her interacting and antecdotes with the audience

I think the performances of Winter, Me & a Gun, Marianne, Caught a Lite Sneeze, Little Amsterdam and Silent All These Years are some of the best out there. I got very emotional during Winter.

I really enjoyed how sometimes she sings in the softest whisper (like in Winter, for example). I'm pretty sure that if you weren't a Tori fan before you watched this, the video would make you think she's insane. But knowing where she comes from and her style, the video made me appreciate her even more.

The Cornflake Girl dance was... I'm not sure what that was about but it was amusing to say the least. Any insights on this, joyfulgirl? I really liked the guitar during this one though; it was a nice touch. And she kind of scared me during the end of Precious Things.

Anyway, I've blabbed enough. Definitely worth the money spent Tori is certainly something else!

 

[joyfulgirl]

I'm pretty sure that if you weren't a Tori fan before you watched this, the video would make you think she's insane.

That's pretty much why I didn't want to say too much. Even though some of the performances are incredible, overall I find this video to be painful. The story goes that it was right after she had a miscarriage and she was a bit whacked out. I once tried to find one song in it to show to someone as a way of introducing them to Tori's music but there wasn't even one that I was entirely comfortable with--maybe Winter, but even that's a bit much for most people.

Precious Things was indeed a scary performance. It's a good example also of why I actually couldn't stand her for a long time. But then the records won me over and eventually her performances, too, which, thankfully, are no longer like that.

I don't know about the Cornflake Dance...it was something she used to do but if it has any significance I don't know what it is. I kinda like how she goes from the dance to the piano seat and hits that first note.

Anyway, that's our Tori...the good, the bad, the painful and the stunning.

 

[FlyYourKite]

Anyway, that's our Tori...the good, the bad, the painful and the stunning.

That's an excellent way of putting it.

I'm glad her performances aren't like that anymore, although if that one was indeed right after her miscarriage then she must have been feeling all sorts of painful and weird emotions. Anyhow, I'm glad I watched it but if I didn't love her already it would have surely turned me off.

And I know what you mean...I was hoping this could be a way to introduce some of my friends to her but after watching it that's not going to happen. I think they'd like WTSF a bit more.