007 sent me a review of Tori's November 15, 2002 concert in Camden, NJ from the November 21, 2002 edition of the Philadelphia City Paper.

Cloud City

Tori Amos knows how to make a city feel special. Last year at the Tower Theater she treated the crowd to a one-time-only cover of Neil Young's "Philadelphia" (Boston got "Please Come Back To Boston"; Salt Lake City "Losing My Religion.") She was subtler last week in Camden, but just as sentimental. Touring behind Scarlet's Walk (Epic), her high-concept road-trip album, Amos whipped out "Your Cloud" for the first time. It's a quiet heart breaker on par with "Northern Lad" (which didn't get played), "Doughnut Song" and "Putting The Damage On" (both of which did).

"Your Cloud" takes liberties with geographic details ("Where the river crosses the lake" what lake?) and hits universal themes (rain -loving boys disappoint poet chicks everywhere). But the map in the liner notes of Scarlets Walk (I said it was high concept) clearly shows "Your Cloud" as a drive from Houston to the Delaware River, a breakup with Philly on one side and Camden on the other.

Amos knows about being in the middle of things; this is a woman who stradles the bench, sometimes playing piano with one hand and the organ with the other. "Pancake" may be sexier and "Wednesday" may have more impressive tempo changes, but "Your Cloud" was just for us.

-By M.J. Fine (m_fine@citypaper.net)

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