Live - Tori Amos - Sydney Opera House - 14/9/07
It’s a real treat having Tori Amos back on our shores. Her seductive manner, her theatrical, political edge, her multiple personalities, her innovation, the constant surprises – what’s not to love?
As promised Tori’s brought the entire doll posse with her, and every show kicks off with a different girl. Melbourne audiences were treated to sexy, red lipped Santa and the meek, mild Clyde. The first Sydney show opened with Pip – the militant, foxy tour de force, clad in black rubber tights and flowing yellow satin dress. She opened with Cruel and Bliss, then performed the abrasive Fat Slut crouched on her knees. As Pip she was more animated than ever – overflowing with attitude and sexual energy, at one point she bent over to present her ass to the audience and often played her piano while standing, striking poses, gyrating, grabbing herself, practically eating the microphone.
Unfortunately Pip didn’t sing Teenage Hustling, but she did do a mean rendition of The Waitress, and before running off to change costumes she unapologetically gave the audience the finger.
She returned to the stage as Tori, looking somewhat like Ariel from The Little Mermaid in an emerald green, sparkling bodysuit and red wig – quite frankly a hideous outfit that only Tori could get away with. Half way through the show the band left the stage and Tori took things down a notch, performing solo, flooring the audience with her trademark intensity. She pulled out some surprises – including an improvised number called “I will finally be free of him”.
During her only brief chat with the audience Tori talked about the recent APEC summit in Sydney. “Don’t you love having another American on this stage? I love coming to Austria.” She also mentioned that she’d held a tarantula spider the day before, “and it’s changed me. I’m going to grow even more arms and play even more keyboards.”
Quite frankly, she does amazingly well with just the two that she has. The piano really is an extension of her body – she often had one hand behind her back, playing the Bösendorfer and other keyboards at once – a trick we’ve seen before, but one that never fails to impress.
There weren’t any teary moments in this show, not like her Beekeeper Tour in 2005 that often saw her reduced to sobbing as she stared into the heavens. She pulled out a lot of her back catalogue which was great – Crucify, Bells For Her, Siren, Silent All These Years, God, Precious Things all went off.
This show felt so very full – plenty of light and shade, plenty of old and new – while the show didn’t rely heavily on production elements, the lighting framed the moments brilliantly – and of course, throwing in the theatricality of the posse only added to the effect. Unsurprisingly she earned a standing ovation from everyone in the concert hall – twice.
Some committed fans who have seen every Australian show so far have said that the performances only continue to get better. Last night’s performance in Canberra saw her sing the powerful Me And A Gun – her song that talks about her experience of being raped – apparently she struggled to even get the words out.
Those of you who are yet to see this tour – brace yourself. You will not be disappointed.
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Christian Taylor
said ages ago