From: MsKIA716 Date: Wed, 28 Feb 96 19:32:29 -0500 Subject: Sheffield Concert Review Attached I've had a lot of requests for a copy of the Sheffield concert review, so to save me some time I'm just sending it as an attachment that you can download if you're interested. If you have any comments about it I'd love to hear them and I'm sure that Stu would too. -Cara Tori Amos in Sheffield, England, Feb. 24, 1996 We finally got inside and bought a programme. They cost 7 pounds which is a lot but I'm used to their high price now. There isn't much writing inside but there are some gorgeous photos. Neil Gaiman had written a piece too. It contains the lyrics to some songs along with some new illustrations for 'Mr Zebra', 'Doughnut Song' and I think 'Horses'. The picture with 'Mr Zebra' is especially great. It's like a child's drawing but you can tell a professional artist has painted it. The t-shirts were cool. I didn't buy one but there were lots to choose from - one wasblack and said 'Recovering Christian' in big white letters on it, one had a little picture and the chorus to 'Blood Roses' written around it and others had some stills from the CaLS single cover. They were all great. We had a great view. We were 5 rows from the front and right in the middle of the stage. The support act was playing as we sat down. His name was Willie Porter I think, it was just him and an acoustic guitar. He was very very good, an amazing guitar player. The sounds he was getting out of the guitar were astounding.He played intricate fiddly bits but still managed to pluck out a kind of bassline while he was playing too. He had a great strong voice and was American which surprised me, I thought he looked English. He was quite tall and dressed in black jeans and a black shirt and wore a black 'pork pie' hat. His best song was a very funny cover of the Jackson 5's "I want you back". He sang it with the high falsetto voice that Michael had back then, the audience loved it. He got an extra huge cheer after that one. People even shouted "Don't go!" when he finished his set. The audience were mainly studenty types with a few older couples in their late twenties/early thirties and there was a balance of 50/50 males to females roughly. The girl two seats down from me looked so much like Tori it was scary! She was only about 19 but she'd win any Tori lookalike competition! Tori came on at 9pm. I don't know whether to talk you through the show song by song or summarise it first. I hope this doesn't spoil it for you when you see her but it will be interesting to see how much she changes her set when she flies over the pond to play for you. You could always just not read it until you've seen her I suppose! I think I'll summarise it first. She played 19 songs - 5 from Little Earthquakes, just 2 from Under the Pink which surprised me, 8 from Boys for Pele, 3 b-sides and one cover version It all started to the strains of 'Son of a Preacher Man' by Dusty Springfield. The backdrop was a black sheet covered in an array of small bright white lights set up to look like stars in the night sky. Tori calmly walked on and waved to us. When the applause died down she sat in the centre of the stage in between her Bosendorfer and Harpsichord. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans with one ripped back pocket and a silver shiny glittery cotton short sleeved top. Over her top, which was kinda like a t-shirt I suppose she wore a smooth low cut silver top with thin red straps over the shoulders. She looked a bit larger than I thought she was, maybe it was her 'edge of the piano stool' sitting position but she definitely seems to have put a bit of weight on round her hips and thighs. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail with bits coming down the sides, it looked nice. She was wearing fairly high stiletto heels that didn't really go with her jeans, but that's our Tori for you. Without saying anything to us she launched straight into 'Beauty Queen/Horses'. Then she played 'Crucify' followed by 'Take to the Sky' which she's only played once before in concert as far as I know. There was no one else on stage with her, no band or anything so it looked like another 'Tori and her piano' tour, except with a Harpsichord this time too. To complement the backdrop of stars some other lights appeared that could move across the stage and move up and down by remote control. Two spotlights shone and projected a lovely swirling twisting pattern in different colours above the piano and harpsichord as she played these songs. She still hadn't spoken to us yet but thankfully after 'Take to the Sky' she turned round to face us and said "Hi", and said that this was the second date of her 200 date World Tour, so she was still in the 'honeymoon' phase, and she asked us to remember her by the 87th show when she'd be in Ohio, and she should have got everything right by then. She said "Y'know how at first when you get married, in the 'honeymoon' period it's exciting and you're still enthusiastic, but after a while when he tries it on you just feel like saying 'Hey honey, is there a football match on TV or something?' And that's how I'll feel by the end of the tour." Her little chat finally broke the ice between her and us. It was as if she was in a little glass bowl before, where we were on the outside looking in at her performance. She seemed almost in a trance sometimes then suddenly remembered to look at us as she played. When she did look at us it was as if she was looking straight into our souls, it wasn't the cursory glance that most rock stars give at the audience in general, she stared at a fixed place then a few seconds later stared somewhere else, rather than just sweeping her head across us all. I wasn't used to the intensity of performance that she gave. Usually in concerts the singer runs over to one side of the stage and waves at the crowd there, who all jump up and wave and scream hysterically at them, then he/she runs over to the other side of the stage and does the same to that side, then says "Hello at the back!" and they go wild, but with Tori it's a much more reverent affair. She doesn't play the 'Big Star' role at all. We sit down and politely applaud after each song. I didn't feel she ever really struck a rapport with the audience though, the chat I described above was the only time she spoke more than a sentence to us. Y'know how when an artist makes a joke and comments to you through a show, it makes you warm to them and them to you, well it wasn't like that with Tori. I thought we'd be getting more intimate with each other. To be honest the support act Willie Porter got the audience going more than Tori did. Usually people ignore the support act and then go wild for the main attraction, but things were much more even this time, people really listened to Willie and I do feel that he 'connected' better with us than Tori did. It really did feel like we were on the outside watching a private performance withher. As she gives such great interviews I was expecting some of her wit and personality to come across but I'm afraid it didn't. The performances were stunning though, her voice was on top form and the keyboard playing was out of this world. After 'Take to the Sky' the set changed. The starry backdrop disappeared and a triangular screen was lowered down which looked like it was pointing at Tori. For each song that followed a different pattern or piece of film was shown on the screen to go with the music. The next song she played is the only one I didn't recognise. She played it on the harpsichord and I know it was none of the harpsichord songs from the album. I can't remember any of the words unfortunately but it was a lovely song, it sounded a little like, but better than, Talula and Blood Roses. It was a little mellower than those songs. I think it must be a future b side. I can imagine her using the harpsichord for a b side. She played two old b sides so there's no reason why she couldn't play one future one. And by the time she comes to you, or even finishes her UK tour the audience may know it by then, as a b side from Talula if that is the next single like you say. I didn't know what the next single would be or when it would be released. Talula isn't the most commercial song on the album is it, but I guess it might grow on me more when I hear it on the radio. But if gets the same radio play as CaLS then I'll never hear it. The harpsichord sounded really great. Tori's hands hardly seemed to move over the keys but the most lovely sound came out of it. It sounded so crisp and clear, a really pleasant sound, not harsh at all. As she finished that mystery song who should walk on with an electric guitar but Steve Caton! That was a nice surprise. She introduced him and said that he was in Y Kant Tori Read with her, and that she sang backup for the band he formed after the demise of YKTR. I can't remember what she said the band was called but I never knew that she sang for that band. It's bugging me what Steve's band was called. It had three words and was a bit of a cheesy 80's pretentious type name. She said that Steve has played on all of her solo albums so they go back a long way. Steve helped Tori with the next song, which was 'Little Amsterdam'. I love this on the album but thought it lost a little impact without the drums. Steve's guitar was good and subtle, and they even had that radio tuning sound playing in the background on a backing tape. Next came 'Spacedog'. That was great. I love the live version. It was the same version as on the last tour but this time with Steve helping out it sounded more complete. Steve then changed his guitar to an acoustic one and strummed the intro to 'Cornflake Girl' to rapturous applause. I couldn't believe how exactly the same the guitar sounded to the guitar on the studio version of the song. There was no backing track for this one but it still sounded fantastic, just Tori, her piano and Steve's acoustic guitar. The guitar was mixed up nice and loud and the instruments sounded great together. It was a nice change to hear this one without the percussion. Steve kept looking at Tori when he played with her, you can tell he wasn't just following a set piece of music, he was following on from Tori's lead, as she played the song whatever speed and whatever way she wanted, so he had to watch her in case she slowed down and they got out of sync. You have to know someone well to do that I think. Just before the end of the song I noticed something hanging from Steve's guitar. I thought it was some kind of special microphone lead but it was a guitar string dangling down. Then I noticed he'd totally snapped a couple of the strings! Tori noticed this too and so in the refrain of "Rabbit, where'd you put the keys girl?" she sang "Rabbit, I broke my gee-tar string!" which got a laugh! Luckily the song was almost over by this time and Steve picked up his electric guitar but decided not to play it, he just left Tori to finish on her own. Then came 'Doughnut Song'. Steve used his electric guitar and perfectly reproduced the wah-wah sound throughout the song. A lovely version. Tori flipped into Little Earthquakes mode for the next 10 minutes and played 'Leather' followed by 'Precious Things'. I thought with Steve there she'd let him play electric guitar on Leather like on the album version but she just played it alone like she always does. They both still sounded fantastic though. The sound at a concert is nothing like the sound from a bootleg recording is it. Nothing could sound as good as actually being there. This concert was the about the best one sound quality-wise that I've been to. It was all crystal clear and Tori's voice was mixed perfectly, not too quiet or too loud. She was knocking the songs out thick and fast, and never waited for the applause to die down before she launched into the next song. Often when Tori started the next song one of the remote control lights was still moving into position making a humming sound but she didn't wait for it to stop before starting playing. She seemed much happier playing the newer songs, I think she's so used to playing the Little Earthquakes songs she couldn't get as 'into' them as she could with the fresh new songs. It was back into Boys for Pele for the next two songs. First she played 'Not the Red Baron' which is my least fave song on the album. It just doesn't have a good melody. They projected onto the triangular screen an ancient black and white film of pilots getting into biplanes on air fields which gave us something to look at. You could hear the Dutch pilots talking in the background from a backing tape all the way through the song. She then played 'Putting the Damage On' which was really gorgeous. I missed the Black Dyke Mills band but it still sounded lovely. Steve accompanied Tori with his acoustic guitar for the next song. Good job he had a spare one after the Cornflake Girl incident! Again it took me a while to recognise it because I knew it wasn't an album track and it was one of those songs where the title doesn't appear in the lyrics. At least I don't think it does. I recognised the line "Skip to the loo" and the chorus that goes something like "You're just too used to mourning" then I remembered - it was 'Honey', an extra track from the Pretty Good Year single. I love this song. It's not a very rare song for her to play live but she doesn't play it that often does she. It sounded great with the guitar, just like the studio version. Then Tori turned to her harpsichord and played the intro to a song. It took a few seconds for me to recognise it because I was used to hearing the drum loop with it, but it was 'Caught a lite Sneeze'. It was a really good version. Kind of like 'half a song'. It's hard to describe unless you hear the live version for yourself. She seemed to sing more of the chorus and less of the verses but I think it just sounded more hollow without the drums, like it never got fully started. It still sounded good though. The bridge was good when she switched back to the piano for a few seconds. I think Steve joined her on this one, I can't remember. Next it was the turn of the obligatory 'Me and a Gun'. I hadn't seen her sing this before, right in front of me and it really was stunning. A few people had colds and were coughing now and again during the show but no one made a sound during this song. You could hear a pin drop. And then came 'Marianne'. I quite like this song, again it isn't one of my very favourites from the album. The one thing I do like on the studio version of this song is the orchestra that comes in half way through. Of course there was no orchestra this time so I think the song lost a bit of impact because of that. It would have been nice to hear the orchestra on backing tape. When Marianne finished Tori waved then walked off stage without saying anything. The time had gone really quickly and I thought she was just going off to change her top or something but I then realised it was time for the encore already! She'd been playing for an hour and 25 minutes. She wasn't off stage long and she soon came back and sat back at the piano. Someone shouted 'Winter!' as she started playing. It took a few seconds for me to recognise it, but she was playing 'Losing my Religion'. It was a good version, much more ambient than REM's version, but the same as her studio version. Then she went into 'Winter' which was gorgeous and got a good reception. I don't know if that was because the guy shouted it out or if she was gonna play it anyway. I'm sure she would have sung it otherwise there'd have been a riot! After that she walked off again and we all cheered and whistled, hoping for a second encore. Then some roadies walked onto the stage and we thought that was that. They wheeled off the harpsichord but then they wheeled on a small upright piano. At least that's what it looked like from the side. I thought she couldn't be doing 'Bells for Her' as the final song. Tori walked on again for the last time and sat at the 'piano'. She started pumping the food pedal and pressing one key repeatedly. From the sound I could tell this was no piano. I realised it was an old organ - one of those where you have to pump the foot pedal to blow air through to make the keys make sounds I think. Then she started singing and I realised it was 'Hey Jupiter'. It sounded so cool and different through that organ! It took a minute for me to get used to, then I realised how appropriate it sounded and how much it suited the song. When she finished she said "Thank you" and walked off the stage. It was 10.45pm so she'd been on for an hour and three quarters. The only thing that spoilt it, and I think Tori could probably hear this too, was a constant bass thump during the last 20 minutes or so of the show. I didn't find out until the next day, but the City Hall has another large hall downstairs under the ground level beneath the main auditorium where we were. I thought the thumping sound was some kind of electricity generator, but my fears were confirmed when my sister told me they have a disco down there every Saturday night. You could feel the bass thump through your feet! Of course in a normal rock concert you wouldn't be able to hear that but with Tori's quiet performances you could. I wondered if Tori could feel and hear it too and if it put her off. I guess I'll never know. If the show had been on a Tuesday or some other mid-week night then there would have been no disco, it was just unlucky that she was there on a Saturday night. I was sad she didn't use the backing tape more. She used it just for background sound effects rather than full backing for a song. I was hoping to see her perform a loud crashing version of 'Professional Widow' with the full backing track on tape and the lights going haywire like they did on the last tour for 'God' but alas no. Steve did add something to the songs and with the harpsichord and organ there was more variety to the sounds this time, I just wish they made more use of backing tapes. I spoke to Julian this morning and he said he was a little disappointed with the concert also. He saw her on the Under the Pink tour and he said that Tori spoke to the audience much more that time. That's one thing he was really looking forward to, Tori's funny little chit-chats with us. Tori must have asked the ushers for no distractions during her performance, as Julian said he went to the loo during a song and they wouldn't let him back in until the song had finished. He'd never heard of that happening before. That's why they said I couldn't go in once Tori had started if I was outside in the corridors on the way back from seeing my sister, Tori obviously wanted no coming and going (at least no coming back) while she played. So the full set list (in order) was: - Beauty Queen/Horses - Crucify - Take to the Sky - (A harpsichord song I didn't recognise - possibly a future extra track on 'Talula'?) - Little Amsterdam - Spacedog - Cornflake Girl - Doughnut Song - Leather - Precious Things - Not the Red Baron - Putting the Damage On - Honey - Caught a lite Sneeze - Me and a Gun - Marianne -------------------- Encore 1 - Losing my Religion Winter -------------------- Encore 2 - Hey Jupiter -------------------- To summarise I'd say that I really enjoyed it but I wasn't blown away as much as I was expecting to be. Everyone kept saying how intense and powerful her concerts are, and that they are an experience to treasure, but the fact that Tori hardly talked spoiled it a little. Maybe if I didn't have such high expectations it would have been better. I think it needed a little more 'ooomph' if you know what I mean, at least one backing track with drums would have been nice. The most notable exception from the set was 'Silent all these years', with 'China' and 'God' as the next most surprising omissions. I wasn't expecting her to only play two songs from Under the Pink either. I thought 'The Waitress' or 'Baker Baker' would have gone down well, as would 'Past the Mission'. I would have loved to have heard 'Professional Widow', 'Father Lucifer', 'Muhammad My Friend' and 'Mr Zebra' as well but we all have our own personal favourites don't we. -- Stuart Ellershaw