1999 "To Dallas And Back" Solo Tour |
Check Out The Reviews And Set Lists Page Tori performed in Houston, TX on September 30, 1999 at the Woodlands Pavilion (Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion) during Tori's short "To Dallas And Back" solo tour. Set ListSpecial thanks to Kris Kelly for leaving the set list on my answering machine at home! God Encore 1: Encore 2: |
ReviewsFrom Kris KellyOctober 1, 1999 - Kris called me at home to give me the set list. During most of 1000 Oceans, which Tori played with the band, Caton had technical problems with his guitar. After the song ended and the band left the stage, Tori did the improv "Things Fuck Up Sometimes." From Richard HandalOctober 1, 1999 - Tori was on stage from 9:02 until 10:52PM. The first set ended at 10:22. Tori did an introduction for Cornflake Girl. It was very similar if not the same as the intro she would do for Doughnut Song in 1996. "You can tell me it's over....come in Houston." Twinkle had achingly beautiful piano. From The Houston ChronicleOctober 7, 1999 - A concert review appeared in the October 1, 1999 edition of the Houston Chronicle. Thanks to Kevin Crays who sent it to me. Amos wins hearts and minds
By JOEY GUERRA To understand the allure of Tori
Amos, one simply has to give in to the
gorgeous rhythm of her music. It's
not necessary to decipher each of
her often cryptic lyrics or consider
yourself part of Ears With Feet, the
devoted set of fans who converge on
the Web and worship all things
Amos.
For the uninitiated, however, Amos'
vocal waverings and chilling
piano arrangements can be a bit
much. Still, there's no denying the
intense lyrical and emotional
connection she makes with her fans.
The loyal followers were out in full
force during Amos'
Thursday-night concert at the
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in
The Woodlands, which attracted an
estimated crowd of 6,000. It was
Amos' second show at the venue in
less than a year.
Teens and people in their 20s, many
of whom were female, swayed to
the music and sang along with every
song, including those off to venus
and back, Amos' most recent
double-disc collection of live songs and
new studio tracks.
Wearing a floor-length, black-velvet
gown and sporting a shorter,
curlier haircut, Amos sauntered
onstage after an a capella intro to God,
one of her biggest radio hits off
1994's Under the Pink album. The
song's fluid rock rhythms were
intoxicating, setting a lush tone for the
first portion of the roughly
two-hour performance. The stage was
sparse for the most part, decorated
with a few modest lava lamps and
unobtrusive silver backdrops.
Amos brought more instrumentation
into her music with her 1998
album from the choirgirl hotel and
its subsequent tour, and she
continues to do so here. The
three-piece band that joined her onstage
gave the wispy arrangements a rich,
fuller sound, particularly during
the murky electronic beats of
Crucify and the swirling strains of
Caught a Lite Sneeze, during which
Amos sang about "Boys on my left
side, boys on my right side."
Religion, tortured love and
heartbreak were the themes of choice
during much of the set, but Amos did
find time to joke with the
appreciative crowd in between her
stark confessions and
stream-of-consciousness ramblings.
She chatted about a long-haired boy
who once invited her to Borneo,
launched into a witty and jazzy
improv during a sound glitch and told
the crowd about her latest Texas
discovery.
"I had the best meal of my life
today, oh my God," Amos said with
genuine amazement. "You know that
Ninfa's place?"
For the most part, however, Amos
remained focused on the music,
often moving from song to song with
little pause and switching
effortlessly between a piano and a
keyboard.
The stage is the ideal venue for
Amos' music. The moments of
nonsensical gibberish that sometimes
mark her recorded work come
alive, even if you're still not
always sure what she is talking about.
Newfound nuances and fleshed-out
arrangements are nothing new
during Amos' live sets, and she
showcased a few new tricks here. The
jaunty beats of Father Lucifer
became ominous and chaotic, while the
fan favorite Cornflake Girl was
confident and focused. Professional
Widow, with its seductive anger and
forceful instrumentation, was
another highlight.
It's always impossible to predict
what Amos will include and what she
will leave out of her sets. An
obvious choice, such as Silent All These
Years, her affecting breakthrough
single, was nowhere to be found. She
did, however, throw in a
tribal-flavored version of Precious Things
and a few new tracks from to venus
and back, which showcased her
experimentation with sounds and
arrangements.
The single Bliss was a good choice,
blending tentative piano verses
with thundering rock choruses. The
jangly guitars and electronic
twinges of glory of the 80's were
also effective, but the droning
instrumentation of Suede felt a bit
sluggish after the energy of the
other songs.
When Amos was left alone onstage
with just her piano, the magic and
mystery of her music came to
fruition, most notably during the ballads
Hey Jupiter, a hushed, fragile
interlude; and the gorgeously plaintive
Winter, which had much of the
audience in tears. It was the evening's
most beautiful moment.
Amos also seems to have an eye
toward radio play with the love song
1,000 Oceans, the second single from
her latest album.
Even if the red-headed goddess never
hits the top of the charts, she
probably won't be too concerned.
Amos has already cast a powerful
spell over those whose minds and
hearts are open to her
uncompromising brand of artistry.
All Reviews Below Were Originally Posted On The Dent ForumSpecial thanks to Laurie Daniels for her invaluable assitance in getting the reviews transferred to the Dent! From Keither:
God
Suede
Precious Things
Winter (solo)
From John Kwiatkowski: The meet and greet was great. I meet so many really cool people, and I got awesome pictures, I got an autograph She played at least 1,000 Oceans and Caught A Lite Sneeze for the soundcheck She played, I'm not sure of order. God, Caught A Lite Sneeze, Riot Poof, Cornflake Girl, Bliss, Suede, Cloud on my Tongue, Hey Jupiter, Twinkle, Black-Dove, The Waitress, Proffessional Widow I'm not sure what else, I'm still in a daze... Encores were Precious Things, Glory of the 80's , Winter, 1,000 Oceans, and Angie. She played Angie. I thought the entore thing was awesome. It blew last years concert out of the water. So this is real generic but my mind is racing. She told a story before Cloud about how she was south of the Equator in 92 and this guy with wavy hair (and she made a masturbation hand gesture) wanted her to drop everything and come to Borneo for a few days. She also did an improv of Doughnut Song. THe background lyrics, "you can tell me it's over.... come in houston...." Before Angie we also got the "Things Fuck Up" improv too
From Krist:
Hey everyone!!! Here's a review I wrote on my labtop after the PRIVATE SESSION PERFORMANCE earlier this AFTERNOON! I will post a review of the actual tonight's concert at the woodlands pavillion in a few! This day has been so unbelievable. Here goes: TORI DID A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE (just her and her piano) today (9/30/99) for 104 KRBE Radio's "Private Session" thing they have going to bring people closer to the artists or whatever. AND IT WAS THE MOST INTIMATE performance that she has ever done. Ahh. Read my review below! Wow. Anyways. She played the following songs solo:
-Purple People Wow...*NOTE* This performance, even though it was a radio thingy, was NOT RECORDED (well..that is recorded for the radio. I booted it..hehe. don't tell). I'll tell you more about it below, but let me just tell you...I WAS LITERALLY 5 FEET FROM HER!!!! LITERALLY!!!! RIGHT DIRECTLY, IN FRONT OF HER! It was held at Sanoma Restraunt in Houston...ahhhh! She was on from about 12:45 to 1:20 or so this afternoon. NOW THE STORY/REVIEW! Where do I start? Okay. Today is my 16th birthday! I live in Austin, TX, and flew up to Houston to see the Houston show! So I got here last night. And someone told me from this forum that Tori was going to be doing a private performance at an undisclosed location...and that there were only tickets available from the radio...so I was sad, cause I of course couldn't get tickets Well, I woke up this morning. And my mom is in the radio businnes in Austin, and she knew someone at the radio station that was putting on the private performance. AND THE WOMAN SAID SHE'D LET US IN!!!!!!!!!! I about cried, I can't even tell you how excited I was! So we frantically went over the radio station and picked up these cool little laminates. And we rushed over to the venue (Sanoma Restaurant) and parked. We went inside where there were several other toriphiles waiting that had won tickets. So we waited a long time. Then we saw through the glass Tori pull up and i snatched a few pics! She was in her limo putting on lipgloss. Hehe. She finally got out and they did a soundcheck. ***They could not fit Tori's bossey into the venus, so she made a tuner guy come in and tune a small piano for her to play on*** So we waited a long time and because of the confusion, there was a delay. And instead of starting at 12:00 like it was planned, it started at 12:45. So then since this woman knew my mom, I was allowed to go first into where they were sitting (in round tables just like you'd find in a restraunt, except in front of an un-inclined small stage! So I ran to the seat that was literally FIVE FEET FROM HER PIANO!!! Like FACING HER! EXACTLY IN FRONT OF IT!!! And she came on and I about died. I could not believe she was performing right in front of me. I could see every detail of her. It was beautiful. I almost cried! She looked at me a couple times while performing. Now I'll tell you a littel bit about the performance: She came on and played a little piano introduction and then stopped and said hey everyone how is everyone doing. or along those lines. Then she went into -PURPLE PEOPLE : Wow. This was a great number to open with! It was such a beautiful version and I don't believe I had ever heard it without the band. I was just transfixed. I could breathe. She did really neat facial expressions during this one with a lot of emotion. excellent! Then Tori said "okay, any questions?" "The front, in the back?" and someone said "I have a 4-year old grandson and he just adores you. He know the words to Little Earthquakes and China" and tori laughed and said "you're gonna wait till he's 5 to play him Lucifer, right?" and everyone laughed. Haha. Then Tori said "anyone else?" and the guy next to me (may his life be filled with happiness) said "it's the young gentleman's birthday right next to me" and he pointed to me and Tori said right to me "well, happy birthday" and i thought that would be it. but then she said "so how old are you?" and I said "i'm 16" and she said "ooo! that's nice, isn't it?" and i nodded my head rappidly with enthusiasm.hehe. and she laughed and said "brings back memories...." and then some guy in the back with bleached spikey hair said "it's been a long time". and people laughed cause it was just awkward. So then tori said "you mean since we were 16?" and he said "no! don't you remember me?" and she put her hand on her forehead to try and see him better and she goes "oh hey! how have you been" and he's said he was good or whatever. Then he said something like, "yeah, i'm living here in Houston now" and that something like "yeah, but I have been following you, you know that..." and she gave him like a scared look, (just kidding around) and everyone laughed. I can't remember this part very well. Then she said something like she "liked the hair. i want to just rub my hand across it" or something along those lines. Then she said "okay. this is from the new album, i don't do it very much without the band, so." and then she got some water and spit a little out and everyone laughed. then she played: -CONCERTINA: This is definitely one of my favorite songs off the new album and hearing it was just INCREDIBLE. This girl at my table and I had talked right before she played about loving Concertina, so it was awesome that she played it. And man, she played it incredibly. It was so soothing and smooth and just beautiful. I had heard it on the "just passing through" special solo, but it was so much better live. I swear she was sitting right in front of me. Ah. I can't even tell you what it was like. I think I just experienced any toriphile's dream. Wow. Then she asked if anyone had any other questions. And one girl said "does this bring back memories of the myrtle beach mariott?" or something. And she's like "yeah...were you there?" and she says "Well, I was there once." and Tori said something like, "well I hope you weren't the one who stole my boyfriend" and the girl said "Well, actually you stole mine!" and Tori's like "what!?" and she explained that she knew someone there that was a waitor at that time. And that he was obsessed with tori. and then tori said, that she actually had dated one of the waitors. But that she ended up finding out he was a cat-burglar. But she said she couldn't say his name because he was now the president of the bank. And that he got arrested and she paid his bail on her credit card, but since she was under 21, the had to contact her dad. And so she said he sat her down in the seat in the church right by the bible and he told her that he denied the charges. And then tori got serious and said something like, "it just wasn't his place." then she paused. and was like "well, he denied the charges, so....he had to call his mom" then tori said that what her dad didn't realize was that denying the charges just made Tori like him more and glamorize him or whatever. And that if there were any people with daughters in the audience, to remember this, because once you say you don't like them, they because the most amazing person in the world. and everyone laughed. then she said "okay. this is the first song I wrote for Little Earthquakes, and of course, it didn't make the album" and everyone laughed and she went into -TAKE TO THE SKY - This was truly brilliant. I love this song. She did her little bangs on the piano, and it was just truly good. Then she went into -SILENT ALL THESE YEARS - And everyone clapped. This was a beautiful version of the song. I really loved it. Then she went into (i don't think she said anything between here) -1000 OCEANS - I hadn't heard it solo either, except for the Just Passing Through thing. And it was brilliant!!! Sorry, I'm not too good at descriptions. Okay, then they said that everyone could get a poloroid (there were about 50 or so people in attendance) taken with her and signed. They had told us earlier that we had to take whatever we brought in for her to sign back to our cars, because tori was really "picky about things like that" and i was like "bull shit" and so when it was my turn I was SOOOO EXCITED!!!!! I went up and hugged her and she said "Happy Birthday!!!" and I said "thank you so much" and I told her that i had seen her last year too on my birthday and that she always comes to texas on my birthday and she laughed in said, "well that's good, consistancy is good!" and then i got my picture taken and i must have been so stunned cause everyone started laughing cause i looked like i was about to faint. hehe. and i was. and then tori signed my big picture that i brought up for her to sing "Kris, Happy 16 Sweetness. Love Tori Amos" and then she signed our poloroid together "Kris with love and music magic to you. (heart) Tori" and she was gonna write Amos but she ran out of room. so it's just Tori. But that's just as well. Then I requested "Cloud On My Tongue" and she said, well, i'll see what i can do, i'll write it on my hand. and she did! she wrote 'cloud' so let's hope she does it! Then I said "Oh also, I know you have the day off before the Austin show, and i know you like tex-mex, and i was wondering if i could take you and some crew or whatever to mexican food!" and she said "AWWWW!!! You are soooo sweet! You know what, I really appreciate the offer, but since tomorrow is my offday, my husband has claimed me for the day. But thank you" and then we said our goodbyes!!!!!! It was the best day of my life! Then they drew for front row tickets and the people that we had gotten to know at our table won!!! That was so awesome! Well, I have 5th row tickets for Tonight's show at the woodlands pavillion in Houston, so I'm excited! I post the setlist or call mikewhy after the show and let him do it. Wow. I don't know how anything could top what just happened! wow. it was my dream.
God
WOW! That was an excellent. Show. Jude (the opening act) was on from 7:45-8:20. Before I do the review, I went up to Mark (who was extremely nice) and got the original setlist and there were several changes...here's the complete *original setlist* (not the actual one!!!!):
God So there were many changes. Okay! NOW FOR MY REVIEW! HEHEHE! Okey dokey! Well, I got there and I was so excited, of course! I needed to sell my tickets. But I ended giving them to Duessa and Dor! (shout out!!! nice meeting you both!) Dor said she'd give me pictures so...hehe...i couldn't resist! I love Dor's pics! Anywho, I went and sat down in my seat and Jude came on. He was REALLY good! I really liked him!!!! A lot of funny things happened. Skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to hear about Jude's set. Okay. So he played. During his performance, some girls shouted out in sycranization (hehe? is that a word? sorry if it isn't! it was sychranized...they all shouted at once) "I LOVE YOU JUDE!!!!" and Jude said he loved them too. but he corrected their "pronouns" saying they should have said "we love your jude". hehe. it was funny, trust me. Then the bugs started to swarm and he got attacked!!!!!! in the middle of a song! And it was hilarious. and he was like "i've never had to stop a song before!!" hehe! but he redid the song after asking the light guy to put up a "distraction" for the "fucking bug" hehe. Then a girl in the pit got a call from someone in the lawn! And jude heard and he asked for the phone and talked to the guy then ended up taking it apart and putting it in his pocket! it was all in jest, though. it was really funny. trust me. So now lets get on to Tori. Tori came on a little later than scheduled. She was scheduled for 8:50 but came on at 9:10. no biggie. So here's a review song by song: God - The first thing that we heard was her singing "god sometimes you just don't come through..etc.." offstage! Then the rest just rocked!!!! Loved it! Great opener! Caught A Lite Sneeze - Hehe! For some reason I thought this was going to be Blood Roses. But it was Caught A Lite Sneeze, nonetheless. Excellent! I love this! I still love the album version more guess its cause of the harpsicord but this version today was excellent too!!! Crucify - I just love the new 1999 version!! it's cool and funky and it just absolutely great! and the "kill the bird babyyyyy yy yyy yyy yy" you know. with the little scales! LOVE IT!!! I loved it! Riot Poof - Wow! This was killer! This is absolutely fucking awesome live!! It has so much pizazz. And live she sings in place of "it will all find its way its way in time" she sings little ooos that are soo cute and cool (listen for them on the album version...she sings them on there too!) its just great! and then the "the sun is warming my man is moistening" just blew the house away! Wow! Father Lucifer - Very different, but cool version! I hate to say that I did not recognize it!! I wasn't sure at all what it was! Then I slowly figured it out. Its cause she did this weird intro. She did it near the end too. With the lyrics "ooo lucy's gone" or something like that over and over many times! It was GREAT!!!! Cornflake Girl - Tori is just a little trickster! You won't believe what she did! Well, I'll just tell you!! She sang the "come in houston" intro!!!!!!! And I was so excited to hear Doughnut Song cause I loved it in 1998 Plugged with the band! But then she started to play Cornflake Girl! But it was just as well! Loved it!!! Bliss - Loved it of course!! Excellent plugged! +++++++++ Cloud On My Tongue (solo) - AHHHH!!! I almost died!!!! I had requested this song at the private performance earlier that afternoon and she did it for me! She told a long story about a man (anthony keideis..although she didn't say) invited her around 1992 to Borneo but she said she had plans. and that she probably would have gone, well..she said a lot.But she played it for me! It was soooo beautiful!!!!!!THANK YOU TORI!!! Hey Jupiter (solo) - She did this in Austin too!!!! LOVED IT! SO BEAUTIFUL! Has always been one of my favorites!! My eyes teared up! Twinkle (solo) - This song has never been one of my favorites, but after hearing it live, i love it even more!!!!!!!!! This was so beautiful! I was so excited that she did 3 songs solo! +++++++++ Suede - Excellent! I love this song! Professional Widow - With the "classic" intro at the beginning! This song rocked!!!!!! EXCELLENT! Black-Dove (January) - This was a special treat! I didn't expect it! The "texas" part of course got a huge response from the audience!!!! Excellent! The Waitress - Superb! It was long with "hang ten" of course. very powerful! excellent! excellent! she ate or drank a little something with a spoon out of a bowl at the beginning and did a little dance. +++++++++ Precious Things - Of course excellent!!!!! Glory Of The 80's - Once again, excellent!! (okay..i'm kinda tired! sorry if I'm not that descriptive) Winter (solo) - beautiful!!!!!! +++++++++ 1000 Oceans (w/ the band) - Haha! This was the 2nd time I had heard it live today, and it was excellent with the band! However Caton's guitar royally fucked up!!! The man kept running back and forth and back and forth! Finally he got it fixed. While it was getting fixed, he drank a little champagne! hehe! During this time one girl lit a joint and immediately got caught! Hope all went well! hehe! "Things Fuck Up Sometimes" - Haha! This was a hilarious longer improv!! it was fuuuny! in responce to what happened to Caton! Very nice! Angie (solo) - excellent way to end! Beautiful! So then I left and got the setlist from Mark (Tori's husband). He had a set of DATs there so I think it was recorded. What else...hmmm...I recorded it. but i guess Keith did too, so obviously it will be better. I also took 54 pictures! If i remember anything else about it, or if anyone has any questions, let me know, or i'll just post here. The lights were great! And tori looked beautiful in an all dark dress thing! She said she had mexican food for dinner! BYE! This has been the best day of my life!
-Krist
From Fooberman:
Hello everyone! Wow, i was very impressed with the civility of it all, considering the horror stories i've been reading about them. i met some great people (Shawn, Kevin, Julie, etc..) and they helped me get up front to meet Tori (miy first time *grin*) but the big part for me was that i got to finally give her the drawing i did of her back last year, and since then i've drawn a few more and i had her sign another drawing! gosh she is soooo nice, her voice is so sweet and her eyes sparkle. she said i was very talented and i also gave her a copy of my CD (my own CD, with my own songs i wrote and recorded on my piano) !!!! gosh i am thrilled about that, i know she's gonna listen to it, if she hasn't already. and i could tell she appreciated the drawing. She's so personal and seems to really enjoy to talk to her fans. there wasn't any shoving , but it was hot, but so so worth it. Hey Shawn and Kevin, if you're reading this and dont' have my Web page (i guess anyone else who wants to see it, there's a bootleg page and there's a Tori picture gallery and all my artwork is there) is: http://members.xoom.com/fooberman My E-mail address is on the page. I'm gonna repost the one i got signed tomorrow. Thanks again to Shawn who was pretty instrumental in making it possible to meet Tori today. =) Hope you had/have fun in Austin. Chris ~ (Fooberman)
From Marcus Lambert:
Hey y'all,
GOD: Just like the 5 1/2 weeks opener. Tori singing acapella backstage. CAUGHT A LITE SNEEZE: OMG! One of my favorites and great live. CRUCIFY: I thought this was Juarez at first since it was the 'new' version. Very cool! I loved it!
From Zippy995:
A truly memorable experience. Opening act Jude was refreshingly honest, good rapport with the audience. He stopped in the middle of one song because some monster Texas bugs were flying around him. He also borrowed someones cell phone from the pit after it started ringing between songs. Toris performance was one hour fifty minutes. Most people in the covered reserve section stood the whole concert. Solo time was excellent, Hey Jupiter a real standout. Waitress ended the first set, with Precious Things opening the first encore. This put the two standouts of the Plugged 98 Tour back-to-back, a real treat. Professional Widow was superb, Winter in the second encore never sounded any better, and was one of several songs where you could hear many in the audience singing along. Cornflake Girl was more traditional than during Plugged 98. Final song Angie was so good I have to remind myself that someone else actually recorded it first. The song which stood out for me this concert was Suede from TVaB. I had only heard it for the first time yesterday, and the live performance showed me what a beautiful song it is. If I could have had one more song, it would be Datura, which I think is the best off the studio part of TVaB.
From Mister Zebra:
Wardrobe: Tori wore a longsleeve black velvetty dress and pointy black boots. On Stage:John Evans was on the left. Tori was in the middle. Matt Chamberlain was in back of Tori. And Steve Caton was to the right.
-------------- Gotta run. I will write more when I get home.
------------------ David Mister_Zebra@hotmail.com
From Worship Your Toaster: This was the best show I've ever been to, hands down. The M&G was great, although I was a little disappointed with my spot. (Not to mention the sunburn I got) I did get Venus signed, though and exchanged a sentence here and there with Tori. I couldn't get over how genuinely caring she was at the M&G. She's just amazing. There were lots of really cool people there, John, Brooke, Nicole (with a K?), David, and uhhh...Jesus? There was minimal shoving when she came out, which was surprising to me, after the after-show I'd been to last year. I got some great pictures from Dor, (and the security guys harrassed me about what I was getting from you guys when I came in the gate...jeez!) and bought a new ticket (row K, dead center) right before the show and gave away my old one... This was such an awesome seat! I was pleasantly surprised with Jude. I'd seen him before, but I liked him much better last night. He was funny and hey, I even liked his music... Tori's set was perfect. (although Marianne was on the original setlist...ACK!...Maybe it'll show up in Austin?) She seemed to be in a really silly mood, dancing and giggling in between just about every song. She said she'd had a wonderful day because she'd eaten at Ninfa's. I was so glad we got a story before Cloud on my Tongue! It seemed like she talked a lot more than at the other shows I've been to. Um...Everyone's basically already given the details, so I'll skip that... Hollie
From Lemon: I am posting this to see if anyone had any bad experiences with the staff at the Houston show. For the first time in a long time my husband and I got seats for the show. We were harrassed by the event staff (and I must admit that this time i was on my best behavior, no camera and no smoking) we were threatened that if we didn't sit down that we would be thrown out. We were standing in front of our seats to see Tori over the people in front of us who were also standing. At the end of the concert, we were watching them tear down the set (about 5-10 minutes after she left) and we saw a young man who was in the front row, have his camera forcefully (very forcefully) ripped out of his hands. The the event staff came up to us and told us that if we didn't start moving toward the exits that we would be escorted by the police. All in all i have never been treated so bad at any concert. I will have to really think about ever going back to the Woodlands for any show again. I am in the process of writing a nasty-gram to the woodlands over all of this. If anyone else had any bad experiences, please let me know so I can include it in my report. _lemon20@yahoo.com But all in all, Tori rocked!!! |
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