Jodie Williams-Teal sent me the following review of Tori's December 3, 2002 concert in St. Louis, MO from the December 4, 2002 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. You can read it at stltoday.com or below.

Tori Amos

By Kevin C. Johnson
Post-Dispatch Pop Music Critic
12/04/2002 09:55 AM

Tori Amos' latest CD "Scarlet's Walk'' may be seeing a quick run down the music charts, but that's not about to effect the singer's legion of fans, who came out to see her for the second time in just over a year at the Fox Theatre, where she held court Tuesday night.

While offering nothing in the way of surprises, Amos' two-hour concert delivered upon what the fiery-haired songstress is known for. That would be her equally fiery piano playing, exhibited on a baby grand piano and a set of electronic keyboards she'd play alternately and simultaneously. It remains quite a sight to see the waif-life Amos straddling her piano bench while working both sets of instruments, while her ethereal voice ditched perfect diction in favor of her breathy, clipped delivery.

Amos opened the concert off-stage, where she sang the brief "Wampum Prayer'' from "Scarlet's Walk.'' The curtain dropped away to reveal Amos, backed by bassist Jon Evans and drummer Matt Chamberlain, for "A Sorta Fairytale,'' another new song. That new CD details the nationwide trek of Scarlet, a character who roams the country in search of answers about the country and herself. Amos is consumed with "Scarlet's Walk,'' but she surprisingly didn't talk about the high concept CD or explain Scarlet in concert. Instead, she simply performed most of the songs from the CD including "Mrs. Jesus,'' "Your Cloud,'' and "Sweet Sangria,'' letting them speak for themselves.

Some of the evening's songs came about in a solo segment dubbed Roadside Cafe in which Evans and Chamberlain let Amos go it alone. "It's just you and me now,'' she whispered. This segment featured the most thrilling part of the show, when Amos dropped "Crucify'' into the middle of another song, and expertly went back and forth between the two songs as she switched instruments.

As expected with an Amos concert, she singer left the stage without performing an alarming number of older fan favorites including "God,'' "Professional Widow,'' "Caught a Lite Sneeze,'' and her staple "Me and a Gun.'' She even ignored last year's CD, "Strange Little Girls.'' Thankfully, gems from her treasure chest like "Cornflake Girl,'' "Leather,'' and "Pass the Mission'' made the show.

Maybe on a future tour Amos will say goodbye to hits and favorites before banishing them from her song list completely.

Singer-songwriter Howie Day opened with an enthralling set culled from his "Australia'' CD. Day was just fine doing the acoustic guitar thing, but he went out of his way to show he could do more. Day accented his set with overdubs, effects, and echoes, and recorded sounds and vocals on-stage live and replayed the sounds immediately while still performing, adding fullness to his set.