Re: Tori Amos in SF last night

[ledgerj@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu (Jim Ledger)]

In article <9209032137.AA24211@garnet.berkeley.edu> mailrus!gatech!garnet.berkeley.EDU!deadman@uunet.uu.net (Ben Haller) writes:

>  What did others think?  Are my complaints about the show off, or do other
>people agree?

Well, I saw Tori in San Diego last week, so I can't comment about the SF
show in particular, but there are a number of similarities. I have to say
I'm surprised that my impressions are so diametrically opposed to your own!
Veddy intelesting...

>  A group called "A Man Called E" opened.  They were *very* good for an
>opener, probably the best opening group I've ever seen - usually I hate
>opening groups and consider them a waste of time, but these guys were quite
>entertaining, actually had good stage presence, and had original &
>interesting songs.  Guitarist, bass, and E, who did vocals, keyboard,
>guitar & harmonica.  Good stuff.

Personally, I thought they were a serviceable group, but not spectacular
in any way. They seemed quite relaxed on stage, so I would agree with your
assessment of their presence, but I felt their songs were rather mundane
and uninspired compositionally. Just out of curiosity, did they do their
"requests from the audience" bit? Did anyone request "Lola" or "Free Bird?"


>call it.  And jeans.  She seemed very businesslike and kind of tired (the
>show started at 10:00, and there had been an 8:00 show already) - she just
>walked out, waved briefly to the audience, and then started right in with
>no further comment.  The first piece she did was a capella, as were I think
>two others, maybe three, including of course "Me And a Gun".  She launched

Not having seen her perform before except on "In Concert," I have no real
way of comparing her shows. Maybe that explains why I felt her brief waving
was not so much perfunctory as down-to-earth. Interesting that she did so
many a capella numbers -- the only one she did in San Diego was "Me and a
Gun." She also took requests briefly in mid-show.

>  Her performances were well-done, but they suffered from the same kind of
>malaise.  At certain points she would seem to really get into the music and
>put a lot of herself into it, but much of the time she just didn't

She seemed quite into the songs here. Very energetic.

>seem...interested.  She would pause at odd points in the songs sometimes,
>almost as if she was trying to remember the words, or just didn't feel like
>going on.  I distinctly saw her roll her eyes several times during
>"Crucify" (the first song after the a capella one), as if to say "Why am I
>playing this song *again*, for the thousandth time!".  Others may

She paused quite a bit here, too. I chalked it up to artistic license --
trying to inject some freshness into the songs. I always thought the rolling
of the eyes was a mannerism of hers -- do you mean rolling back into her
head, or just, literally, rolling her eyes?

>certainly disagree, but it didn't seem nearly as intense as the last
>performance I saw.  I think she's burning out a little bit, perhaps on
>playing the same music over and over, perhaps on the whole touring
>"scene"... I think she's getting tired.  Oh well, hopefully she'll be

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case -- the schedule of tour dates
I saw was brutal. Regardless, though, the show was worth it to me -- it
was certainly the least expensive concert I've seen in a long while.

>able to take a little time making her next album and relax and get
>interested again.

>  BTW, the t-shirt they were selling was really cool, it has lyrics to all
>the songs on Little Earthquakes printed on the front just like the CD
>booklet (all the songs?  I didn't actually check.  Many of them.)

I was kind of disappointed by the shirt -- I was hoping for something more...
artistic? I think just the cover off the CD would have been great, but that's
just MHO.

By the way, did she do "Little Earthquakes" in SF? Seems appropriate ;^)
but she didn't do it here and it's probably my favorite off the album. Sigh.

Jim