Tori Amos to entertain Ithaca
By Jeff Miller
Accent Staff
Women singer-songwriters have been getting more and more popular in the past few years with the advent of the Lilith Fair tour and artists like Jewel and Paula Cole getting airplay on major-market radio stations and MTV.
But, back in the early 90s there was only one female songwriter who mattered.
And she's coming to Ithaca College.
The Bureau of Concerts officially announced today that Tori Amos, known for both her confessional piano-pop and her confrontational politics, is coming to Ithaca for one night only, performing her "Plugged '98 Tour" at the Ben Light Gymnasium on Nov. 8.
Amos has been nominated multiple times for both the Grammy and MTV music awards. In addition, she is the co-founder of Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, a rape-crisis organization. She has released four high-profile albums on Atlantic Records, which have sold over a million copies each.
According to B.O.C. President Aaron Mendelson, "We got together and wrote a list of everyone we'd like to see at Ithaca ... and she was high on the list." He went on to say that she was available at the right time and that the B.O.C. was excited for the show.
Students may be surprised that such a high-profile act is not only performing at Ithaca College, but is the first B.O.C. concert of the year. In the past couple of years, the organization has started its season with a lesser-known act performing in Emerson Suites and saved the larger acts for later.
"We're doing a different approach from last year ... we're trying to get somewhat bigger acts that have mass appeal," Mendelson said. "We're basically [skipping] the first concert [of the year]."
The "Plugged '98 Tour" is Amos' first series of concerts with a full band that features Steve Caton on guitar, ex-Pearl Jam pounder Matt Chamberlain on drums and bassist John Evans, according to the "A Dent In the Tori Amos Net Universe" web site (www.aye.net/~mikewhy/toriamos.html).
Previous dates in the tour have included stands at Madison Square Garden in New York City and two shows at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles.
Sophomore Scott Freedman is already excited about the show.
"She's redefining music by creating modern passion with the piano" he said. Students interested in purchasing tickets should look for flyers on campus in the next couple of weeks.
