Day 272: Ours: Tori

Although we met playing in a band in church (albeit the rebellious young-upstart band), the first thing that we really connected over was the music of Tori Amos. It was 1992 and Exile #2 had a CD, but no CD player and I offered to make a copy onto tape for her. I also had some Tori in my music collection and we probably had our first non-band related conversation (well, exchange of words anyway) about Tori's music.

Tonight we left Johnathon and James (thank you, thank you) with the young exiles and went out for a proper evening out to see Tori at the Palace Theatre in Albany. We nearly didn't make it. Having stopped for some slow fast-food on the way, we realised that we didn't have the tickets with us. We had been so concerned with making sure the kids were in bed and the babysitters were equipped that we'd omitted even the most basic of 'got everything?' checks. Anyway, the box office people were able to find our booking and issue some new copies of the tickets and save me a depressing trip home to pick them up.

OK, quick concert review (sorry!) the support act was a guy called Yoav, who does amazing things with an acoustic guitar, a few sampled drum loops and a digital delay or two. Well worth a listen if that appeals to you. As for Tori, she had a small but powerful band with her (three people: drums, bass & guitar mostly) and she played her piano and keyboards and sometimes even sat down for a whole verse at a time. Her own supporting set (in character as one of the American Doll Posse) was as the political one, we had 'Yo George', 'Devils and Gods' and 'Almost Rosey' as well as 'Sweet Dreams'. Sadly no 'Dark Side of the Sun', but you can't have everything. This part of the concert was wonderful, but the place really came alive after a costume-change (accompanied by a live remix of the remix of 'Professional Widow'), Tori as herself was dressed in a sequin-covered catsuit, she blasted into her 'own' set with 'Big Wheel' and 'Sugar'. Other highlights were 'Bouncing Off Clouds', the wonderful 'Virginia', 'Black Dove', the brutal 'Precious Things', and a crowd-pleasing rendition of 'Cornflake Girl'. She also did a small set alone with her piano. It bore the sur-title "T & Bö" (Tori & Bösendorfer) and started with a little love song to her piano - although she did bring it back to earth: "You'll find me walking with my little one (not the wooden one)" by the end.

Now, it must be said that Tori has a thing or so to say about God and religion in her songs, and she's not exactly a fan. Some would say that good Christian folk should steer-clear. As time goes on I have less and less time for that point of view. She is what she is, a wonderfully talented songwriter and performer, and she is (in my opinion) the product of her experiences - perhaps rather than avoiding her because she has no time for religious people (not that I would choose that label for myself), we should be asking ourselves what we have done to deserve her antagonism and that of people like her.