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Read a press review of Tori 's June 7, 2005 concert in Glasgow, U.K. from the June 9, 2005 edition of The Herald newspaper in Scotland.
More Details
You can read this concert review online at theherald.co.uk or below:
Tori Amos, Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow
JOHN WILLIAMSON
It seems a long time since May 1994 when Tori Amos, along with Bjork and PJ Harvey appeared on the cover of Q magazine, under a headline of "Hips, Tits, Lips, Power". If this seemed like the advent of a new breed of female songwriter, then it is worth remembering that it was at least seven years pre-Dido.
Amos has been the most productive of the trio (she is already on to album number eight), but arguably the most conservative. She still performs solo, mainly alone at the grand piano, sometimes straddling two of the machines, playing simultaneously. Technically, she is a great player, and at times the show has the air of a classical recital.
Equally impressive is the lack of reliance on her greatest hits. Indeed, Silent All These Years, is the only song from her recent retrospective, Tales of a Librarian to feature. The rest is drawn fairly evenly from previous albums, with Twinkle, Marianne and Hey Jupiter all being revived from the underrated Boys For Pele.
New album The Beekeper is more of the same, but with tangents. The title track is something of centrepiece and along with Toast and Original Sinsuality make up pieces of a concept album jigsaw that must be impenetrable to all but the author.
If, at times, the going gets resolutely tough, there are moments of levity. In "Tori's Piano Bar" she covers songs by artists from the city she is visiting, and Glasgow's reward is a stunning take on Del Amitri's Nothing Ever Happens and a more prosaic version of Turn by Travis. Unlikely and unpredictable, Amos manages to simultaneously challenge, frustrate and enthral.
It seems a long time since May 1994 when Tori Amos, along with Bjork and PJ Harvey appeared on the cover of Q magazine, under a headline of "Hips, Tits, Lips, Power". If this seemed like the advent of a new breed of female songwriter, then it is worth remembering that it was at least seven years pre-Dido.
Amos has been the most productive of the trio (she is already on to album number eight), but arguably the most conservative. She still performs solo, mainly alone at the grand piano, sometimes straddling two of the machines, playing simultaneously. Technically, she is a great player, and at times the show has the air of a classical recital.
Equally impressive is the lack of reliance on her greatest hits. Indeed, Silent All These Years, is the only song from her recent retrospective, Tales of a Librarian to feature. The rest is drawn fairly evenly from previous albums, with Twinkle, Marianne and Hey Jupiter all being revived from the underrated Boys For Pele.
New album The Beekeper is more of the same, but with tangents. The title track is something of centrepiece and along with Toast and Original Sinsuality make up pieces of a concept album jigsaw that must be impenetrable to all but the author.
If, at times, the going gets resolutely tough, there are moments of levity. In "Tori's Piano Bar" she covers songs by artists from the city she is visiting, and Glasgow's reward is a stunning take on Del Amitri's Nothing Ever Happens and a more prosaic version of Turn by Travis. Unlikely and unpredictable, Amos manages to simultaneously challenge, frustrate and enthral.
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