Tori Amos

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! Mine was fun, but I’m still upset I missed out on viewing a Tori Halloween concert. Apparently, the Pittsburgh show on Oct. 30 was a smashing success. “Santa” opened the show dressed as a sexy angel, and later in the show she changed to red devil horns. Appropriately, “Father Lucifer” made an appearance on the setlist, as did:

Body and Soul
Hoochie Woman
Dragon
Secret Spell
She’s Your Cocaine
You Can Bring Your Dog
Big Wheel
Father Lucifer
Sugar
Cornflake Girl
Putting The Damage On
Caught a Light Sneeze
Mr. Zebra
Silent All These Years
Sister Janet
Digital Ghost
Happy Phantom
Code Red
Precious Things
Bouncing off Clouds
Hey Jupiter

All the crew members were dressed in Halloween costumes and the stage was decorated accordingly with pumpkins and graves. Matt Chamberlain was dressed as Spiderman, Dan Phelps as Flava Flav, and Jon Evans was Dracula. You can read first-hand accounts of the show here. The show can be pre-ordered through Legs and Boots.

Which brings me to a gripe. I have checked out the bootlegs portion of www.ToriAmos.com. My complaint is that the shows are there with a setlist for you to download. But you can’t purchase individual songs (say, like you could on itunes) or even preview what any of the songs sound like before you purchase. That makes me hesitant to shell out $9.99 or $14.99 for the whole set, and I’m wondering if other fans are put off by this as well. I’d love to hear from any fans who have gone ahead, bit the bullet, and ordered one of the bootlegs. How was the sound quality? Were you pleased with your purchase?

Whenever tour time hits, I always reminisce about the tours of years past and look forward to the shows to come. My life has changed so much since I went to my first Tori show that it almost seems like a different girl attended that show in Knoxville, TN.

That was the night that I got to see Tori perform during the Plugged 98 Tour, and while many fans didn’t really dig the concept of Tori performing with a band, I was blown away. The opening number, “Precious Things,” left me stunned, speechless, almost in tears, and . . . thrilled.

My roommate and I decided to hang around and wait outside the tour bus in hopes that we would get a glimpse of Tori. I clutched the “From the Choirgirl Hotel” CD tightly in my hand as I listened to fans around me discuss highlights from the show and talk about Tori as if they knew her personally. I guess that’s a habit most of us fans have. More and more fans began to fill the alley where the bus was parked and I began to feel claustrophobic as the crowd crushed me from behind. Tori came out and I could barely make out her red hair over the rows of people in front of me. She signed a few autographs, then gave a sweet wave and climbed onto her bus.

I have to admit I was disappointed, but I was still on a high from the show. We headed across the parking lot for the car and head to stop at a pedestrian crossing. At the same time, Tori’s bus pulled slowly up to the red light, right in front of us, and stopped. One of the curtains on the bus was pulled aside, and a little hand puppet that resembled a court jester appeared. It danced around happily until the bus pulled off a few moments later.

Somehow I knew it had been Tori. I was kicking myself for using all the film up in my camera (this was pre-digital camera age!) on the show. None of those shots turned out, and this one probably wouldn’t have either now that I think about it. A short time later I was browsing the now defunct website The Dent when I came across an article about “Mr. Puppethead (a.k.a. Tori). He had made numerous appearances like the one I had witnessed throughout the Plugged 98 Tour.

I felt so special that Tori had reached out to me. And even more special when I got her autograph a few months later at the Spartanburg, S.C. show.

Unfortunately, the roommate who experienced “Mr. Puppethead” with me is no longer a friend. We had a horrible falling out, as so many female friends tend to do, and I actually saw her a few years ago at a Tori concert in Charlotte. She looked furious, and ready to confront me, but I think she noticed then that I was pregnant. Thankfully she backed off, and I tried to forget about the lost friendship and enjoy the music. But it was hard. At least I know we both still share a love for Tori’s music, even if we can’t experience it together.

Christopher John Treacy wrote a review of the first Orpheum show in Boston for the Boston Herald. “Pip” opened the show and blessed the crowd with “Teenage Hustling,” the much welcomed “Etienne,” and “Precious Things.”

On Oct. 23, Matt Ashare posted a review of the second show at the Orpheum in Boston on the Phoenix’s website. “Clyde” opened the show and songs performed included “Girl Disappearing,” “Space Dog,” and “Spring Haze.”

Joe Sweeney’s Oct. 25 review appeared in The Buffalo News, after “Clyde’s” performance at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. Highlights included performances of “Take to the Sky,” “Your Cloud,” and “Here. In My Head.” But apparently the most memorable moment of the night was when Tori’s timing got thrown off during “Big Wheel,” causing her to yell out a string of cursewords in frustration.

Wow. Joey DiGuglielmo wrote an extremely comprehensive (and positive) review of “Isabel’s” Oct. 26 show at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. for the Washington Blade’s blog. He even included the twenty-three song setlist for the geeks in all of us. Thank you, Joey!

Ticket Sale/Venue Update

If you were planning on attending the Nov. 26 show in Austin, TX, sadly, you’re out of luck. Undented is reporting that Tori will now be playing at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio due to renovations going on at the venue in Austin that won’t be completed in time. No VIP tickets will be available for the San Antonio Show. The change in venue isn’t showing up yet on Ticketmaster or www.toriamos.com but hopefully it will soon.

All you fans who are planning to attend the Pittsburgh show on Oct. 30 are in for a real treat. Undented reported that the Benedum Center show is going to be Halloween-themed! Apparently Tori’s entire crew will be dressing up, and she’s requesting that the fans follow suit. Oh, to be a fly on the wall at that show . . . For all fans who will be in attendance, please let me know how it goes and I can share your tales in a future blog post.

Back by popular demand! Fresh from the success of the 2005 boxed bootlegs set, Tori has upped the ante and will be offering digital downloads of certain shows from this tour at Legs and Boots. Recordings will be made available within a few hours of a show’s completion for $9.99 as 256 kbps mp3s. For those who like their music compressed without the quality loss, FLAC files will be available as well for $14.99. Gotta love that instant gratification, especially if you’re salivating over a particular set like I often do during the tours.

I’m working on a round-up of all the newspaper reviews of the tour that have hit the presses in the past few weeks. Stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, I’m interested to hear about some of your experiences with the VIP ticket sales. Was it worth the extra money? Did the meet and greet go smoothly? How was the sound check? What kinds of goodies were in the gift bag? Let me know!

I’d like to introduce myself as the new blogger for Tori Amos. I’ve been a fan of Tori’s since 1996, when a friend played me the “Under the Pink” album. I was working as a waitress at the time and once I heard that track, well, as you can guess, I was hooked!

Since then, I’ve purchased every album and been to numerous concerts, mostly in North Carolina, where I reside. I was lucky enough to stand (almost face to face) with Tori in 1998 and get her autograph. She’ll be passing through Charlotte on Nov. 13 and I can’t wait to see which ADP gal will grace us with her presence.

I’ve also been a staff writer for the official Tori Amos fan magazine, Little Blue World, since early 2006, and I’m happy to be working with such a great group of talented, creative fans over there.

For today, I’d like to mention a few contests that are going on.

Good luck!