European Plugged '98 Tour
Torhout/Werchter Festival, Belgium
July 5, 1998
Updated May 9, 2000
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European Plugged '98 Tour
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Check Out The Reviews And Set Lists Page Tori performed the Torhout/Werchter Festival in Werchter, Belgium on July 5, 1998 during the European leg of her Plugged '98 tour.  Set ListMany thanks to Richard van Uden for quickly sending me this set list from an internet connection at the festival! Precious Things No Encores ReviewsFrom Patrick GrilliAdded May 9, 2000 - While a pack of photographers were waiting for her like she was some kind of prey, Tori Amos suddenly appeared on the stage. She was more red-haired than ever and was wearing plain jeans like a real country girl and a black T-shirt which made her pale face stand out. She sat on the stool of a Bosendorfer (her favourite piano) and let herself carried away by her frenzy in " Precious Things " (Little Earthquakes) that ended in vocal convulsions which are, I think, the trade-mark of her singing. I realised how unique her talent is although I think that the particularly rich tessitura of her voice evokes the majestic Joni Mitchell while the way she emotionally drowns in her songs made me think of Janis Joplin. Then she sang one of her most beautiful tunes : " Cornflake girl " (Under the Pink). The next song was " Cruel " (From the Choirgirl hotel) : her voice was sinking again and again like her own private Raft of the Medusa in a decor made of a dark, thundery sky which perfectly fitted her performance. And I felt -- as the majority of the audience, I'm sure -- a strange urge to go on board of that sinking raft... Her voice became an epileptic chaos that took the public down in a maelstrom of entrancing despair. Then she sang " Little Amsterdam " (Boys for Pele), " iieee " (From the Choirgirl hotel) ‚ at that point her art reached a pinnacle as if she was inspired by a divine grace. After " Raspberry Swirl " (From the Choirgirl hotel), a song with the anguished rhythm of a wildly pounding heart, she sang " God " (Under the Pink). She then acted as if she was cradling a baby in her arms, a " ghost baby ", - she had a miscarriage, to which she referred in the superb " Sparks ". Her last song was " The Waitress ", another great song of the CD Under the Pink. From Nele GielenJuly 6, 1998 - On the second day of the double-festival, in Werchter, they again started with Precious Things. Cornflake Girl had the same beautiful piano-intro and I loved the way Caton did some great dancesteps to this song. After Cruel Tori introduced the band and stated 'I need a fucking oxygen tank', before going into a more mellow Little Amsterdam. Iieee was truly amazing. This time a really exciting Raspberry Swirl had the 'honey bring it close to my lips' lines from the Professional remix single in it. Before God, she sang 'need a woman to look after you boy/big boy' and the song itself still included the lines 'You dropped the bomb on me Jesus/sweet Jesus'. The moving piano improvisation that introduced Spark went something like this (I wrote it down as quickly as I cood) 'she's a (.......) somewhere know she lives in somebody's land and as he loved me that day in tears and tears and i hear something still'. They ended with The Waitress. From Theo van DijkJuly 6, 1998 - After seeing Tori at the Pinkpop festival a month ago,I was really determand to see her again,and since the Den Haag show in Holland was sold out,it had to be the Werchter festival. Again,she was absolutely outstanding.Even though a festival show is completely different in terms of sphere from her own concerts,she really enchanted the crowd. Of course she played the big hits Cornflake Girl (with a new piano intro)and Spark (also with a very moving intro about her baby) but there were also a few suprises,like Little Amsterdam,which is of course very different from the Dew Dropp Inn tour,couse this time the band played along,so it looked just like the version on the Boys For Pele album.Another Big favorite of mine she played was God.And boy did she play it fabulous...... I think everyone who's got the chance of seeing Tori performing live should do it...she's the best artist in the world and I love her with all my heart.I'm really gratefull she exepted my flowers and took the time to read the note I gave her..... From Richard van UdenJuly 6, 1998 - I'm right now at the concert gig in Belgium. They have an internet connection right here at the Werchter festival. I took notes during Tori's concert so my information is pretty accurate. She played very well for a festival gig. I saw her at the Pinkpop festival at this one was about as good as then. I also went to the Bonn concert at June 13th, where she was absolutely fabulous. Ok, here's todays setlist at Werchter (she played from 14:35 till 15:35): 1. Precious things NO ENCORES So again she didn't start with Black Dove, in fact she didn't play it at all. She did some little things by herself on the piano just before Cfg (...you bet your life it is.... etc.) Also some small bits just before God and Spark. From Eric (with a 'c')July 6, 1998 - Hi Michael - hi fellow Toriphiles, just having returned from the final European Tori weekend, I want to briefly share some experiences with you. First of all and most important of course - the setlists: Werchter, July 5th, 1998 (approx. 14:35-15:30) Precious Things - no encores - Tori was the only artist that changed the setlist that much between both shows - but who would expect something else... Today (Werchter), she extended Raspberry Swirl with a short part from Professional Widow Remix ('honey bring it close to my lips' - probably similar to the Glastonbury show). Cornflake Girl ('you bet your life it is') and God ('boy you need a woman to look after you') had short piano introductions. Spark for the first time also had an intro, which seemed to be an improvisation about the baby. Similar to the improvisation before Iieee in the first Frankfurt show it was really beautiful and will most probably never be heard in this form again... Festival shows are very different from the usual full Tori sets. The emphasis is on the rock songs with the band - which fits well to the atmosphere of the festivals. Tori plays in the afternoon to many people that have not especially come to hear her music and needs to give the audiences something to move their body to. It worked very well. The reception was not as enthusiastic as for bands like Garbage and Therapy, but still very positive. Tori's sets definitely were a success. Especially in Werchter the audience wanted an encore which however was not played. Although it is not possible to be objective for me, I think that Tori's performance was absolutely outstanding on both days - at least compared to the other bands that were playing. From the musical point of view and not considering different taste in music, Tori's pianistic and vocal skills in combination with the very effective and lively band could not be matched by any of the other performers. Some comments about some of the other bands: Evil Superstars - basically just noise Money Mark - not very professional, many noise effects Garbage - played their music very well, very good festival set (In Werchter, Shirley Manson sent a special thank you to Tori Amos. 'Girls have to stick together.') Therapy - very good festival set, frequent use of words which would result in 'beeps' on the radio in the U.S. Nick Cave - seemed not to be in good shape, poor singing Bjork - very disappointing, on the stage with just a string section and a programmer, most of the music was just programmed and then played by pressing buttons So does Tori's music fit into festivals like this? Yes, the audience that mostly came to see other bands received Tori's set very positive. Should Toriphiles go to festivals to see Tori? Well... If you can catch a full show, try to do so by all means. If you like Tori because of the musicality and her piano based songs, you might be disappointed at a festival, because you have to stand a lot of noise before you can see her - and then you get only about one hour of Tori's rock songs. The relation between Tori and her audience is also very different from the shows where everybody comes just to see her. Nevertheless, if you can, try to see Tori at a festival and support her there. The funny thing tonight was that when we went back to our car it was not there anymore. It had been towed away because it had touched a bicycle path - as if the police did not have anything more important to do... They would have been busy all day if they wanted to remove all cars that were not really properly parked. We were lucky to find some friendly police people that took us to the place where our car was in their police car. Thanks! Anyway, it was another wonderful Tori weekend - and although Tori and the guys are now back on their way to the U.S. the tour experience might yet not be completely over for some of us... Goodbye Tori - Thanks and take care :). Greetings and kind regards also from Erik (with a 'k') from Belgium, Christophe from France and Gwen (the beautiful Raspberry Swirl Girl) from the Netherlands. Everybody enjoy 'your' shows, |
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