Floating City

Artist's Den taping

December 9, 2009
Park Avenue Armory
New York, NY

Ruby Through the Looking Glass
China
Lust
Concertina (messed up)
Virginia
Black Dove (January)
Wednesday
Ophelia
Girl
Bells For Her
Toast

Encore:
Concertina (redo)
Maybe California

This was a "secret show."  The audience was only a couple of hundred people in a very small space, and many of us did not have entry into this show since it was for contest winners.  Nonetheless, we got in anyways. We waited outside until every one had been allowed in, and they let us stand at the back of the venue to watch.  Every one who wanted to get in and didn't have tickets was allowed to enter. The standing room space was not big and was kind of uncomfortable, so I spent parts of the show lying down in the pile of our winter coats in the big empty space at the back. I was tired, and standing for China? I don't think so.  I feel fortunate that we were able to go to the show at all. I don't think that I enjoyed this show as much as I could have, due to being stuck in the back, but it was awesome to get to watch the show with my friends (I watched with Carole, Sharon, Nicole and Marco IT).

This was a rather strange show.  Opening with Ruby? Bizarre.  But I also think that, like many shows this tour, you cannot really judge it unless you were there (based solely upon the setlist).  This setlist reads as some good, some meh, and a real lack of fan favourites.  But it was her vocal performance that put it over the edge.  She sounded good, and the high notes were crystal clear.  I am impressed with how well she has sounded for the duration of tour this year.  She hasn't sounded so good since 2001.  Even back in 2003, by now, her voice was rough and had clearly disintegrated a little bit thanks to her rigorous touring schedule and dozens of two-hour long shows.  But whatever she did this time, it's working.  I think her voice, the strange venue (an old armory) and the bizarre setlist made this an atypical show experience. I've definitely never seen Tori like this before.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Ruby Through the Looking Glass: I used to just adore this song, but I've fallen out of love with it over the years.  I think that Apollo's Frock is the best piano ballad on Scarlet's Hidden Treasures by far.  But I still can't get over the fact she opened with such an obscure song.  Weird.

Virginia: One of the best songs on Scarlet's Walk.  Beautiful and stunning as always (but still sounds better with the band.)

Wednesday: Yes! I have wanted her to revive this song (with the band) since 2003 to no avail.  But this solo version did nicely.  Sharon and I (ironically) did the eagle dance in our back corner.

DEATH CHAMBER:

Maybe California: While there are a number of songs here I would consider death chamber, none of them match the bullshittyness of this one.  I was disappointed because from the piano intro, I thought it was going to Amber Waves and got excited.  But then, it wasn't.  Sigh.  This song is just bad.  It's almost unbearable.

WNYC Soundcheck performance

Tori Amos is a part of the rhythm nation.

 

December 9, 2009
 WNYC’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space
New York, NY

Star of Wonder
A Silent Night with You
Pink and Glitter

This was of course a short appearance, however, I think this may have been my favourite event that I attended this week.Tori looked really great, even though her outfit really looked like an Abnormally Attracted to Sin does Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation.   While I am not a fan of any of these songs (particularly the last two), the interview segment was really amazing.  Tori was in good spirits, and was really funny.  We all thought it was particularly hilarious when she joked, "I have a bullshit answer for everything!" This of course is true, as we all have become familiar with her favourite talking points.  This record they are: S-O-N, S-U-N, ancient Persians, minister's daughter, etc. etc.  This interview was definitely interesting and fun, and we all really liked it.

**Pardon the photo.  The memory card in my camera died this week, and I forgot to bring a spare (which I normally do). Instead, I have been relying on my iPhone for photography.

Greetings from the center of the universe

Peter Z., Ahmad and Marco IT

Nicole, Sand and myself.

Marco, passed out drunk, under a dog pile.

December 7, 2009
Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom
New York, NY

Lady in Blue
Star of Wonder
Gold Dust
A Silent Night With You
Silent All These Years
Pink and Glitter
Winter

I should start off by memorializing Maynard, my trusty laptop for many years. It was on this computer that I blogged every single one of my tour entries dating back to the beginning of ADP.  However, Maynard had seen better years, and it is time to now retire him (due to a myriad of hardware and software problems).  Now, I use my new laptop, which I have yet to name.  This is the inaugural entry, and boy am I already frustrated!  This new keyboard is a bitch to get used to.  I suppose it will come in time.

Last night I attended the live taping of the eTown Live Radio show taping.  It was... alright.  My reaction to the music is that the performance was lukewarm at best... I had low expectations in the first place.   Mostly, I was happy to see everyone all in the same place again, only if it was for a hot minute.  Christmas music is really not my scene, and I think A Silent Night With You is about twelve kinds of lame all at once.  I couldn't help but cringe when she sang that first line.  But talking to others, I have determined that I am in the minority.  Everyone seems gung-ho on this whole Christmas thing, but it just doesn't sit right with me.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Lady in Blue: Amazing as always, but always so much better with the band.

Gold Dust: Such a gorgeous song, and always my favourite.  The best part of the set by far.

DEATH CHAMBER:

Everything else.

My lack of response to this performance can perhaps be attributed to the fact that it is a radio show.  Of course I knew this coming in, but it really is always a neutered version of what Tori is really capable of.  No one expects her to pull out Ode to the Banana King.  But these events are fun for what they are, and I am glad that I attended.

Midwinter Graces: Responses

I normally like to wait a while to write my reviews of Tori's new records (including Abnormally Attracted to Sin, which I have yet to write about).  However, I cannot restrain my feelings on this, and it seems necessary before I embark this Sunday to New York for the promotional blitz that is happening all next week. I must unload my thoughts.

Midwinter Graces... Sigh.  Christmas (Capitalismas? Consumerismas? Take your pick.) music tends towards the trite, mawkish, insipid, cliche, schmaltzy, cheesy, totes lames, or one of ten other million adjectives.  And as many who work in retail or restaurants as any such customer service person can attest, listening to this stuff all day can easily put one into the mood for a spree of axe murders.  So perhaps my qualm is not so much with MWG itself, but with the entire concept.  I aknowledge that this is entirely a result of my own baggage.  Some people like myself are just racist against Christmas music.  And now two polar opposites of my world, my most loved musician of all of the artists that I listen to, and a genre of music that I can tolerate only slightly more than the pariah of all musical genres, country music, have collided. (If Tori makes a country album, I am throwing in the towel.)

 I first should mention the atrocious album cover, which has now even made a list of the worst album covers of the year.  I concur fully.  While Tori does look like an over-photoshopped robotic version of herself from a Final Fantasy spin-off, what is even more horrendous is the horrible flying gayngel on the back. Why is he wearing skinny pants? And the fact that this is her nephew, likely half her age, adds an entire new dimension of creepy.

The record itself, to be honest, I haven't listened to once the entire way through once. I just can't do it. I had to listen in shifts, taking breaks to crawl under a piece of furniture in the fetal position.  Had Tori relied on one of her greatest talents, and that is her propensity for collapsing the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane, the spiritual and the sexual, then this album had potential to be interesting.  I think this album would have benefit by offering some continuity with her earlier work, such as including a re-recorded slightly Christmasized version of Purple People (Christmas in Space) which is an actual awesome Tori song. And if we are talking covers, how awesome would have been a studio version of her cover of Joni Mitchell's River with a full string section?  But no avail. This is for all intents and purposes a relatively run-of-the-mill Christmas record.  With outright Christian Christmas songs on it. I would certainly argue that this record fails to avoid the pitfalls of holiday records.  And to this end, I refer specifically to singing some fairly same-old same-old songs, and the inclusion of such unforgivable, pedestrian stylizations such as sleigh bell noises.  And do not even get me started on Mac Aladdin's guitar playing, which is at its worst of the worst on this record.  And also, "The radio plays my holiday faves." Embarrassing.  I think she relies too much on pretty piano playing and her pretty voice.  A little bit of Pip-style growling would have benefit the entire record and defied the stereotype.