Tori Amos at the Chateau Ste Michelle Winery, Woodinville Washington
I went and saw Tori play last night, which was the second time I saw her this year. She played at the Benaroya Hall in April, which is the home of the Seattle Symphony. I must say, I much prefer the Benaroya. The crowds at the winery are really annoying. They promote heavy drinking there, by only selling bottles of wine to drink. No glasses of wine, or even, heaven forbid, beer. Just whole bottles. And you can't take half bottles with you on the road. Open container law and all that. Therefore, every concert I go to there is the same. People get blasted on wine, and yap there heads off throughout the concert. This happened again last night. Even with a Tori audience, who are famous for worshipping the ground she walks on, and are generally very polite and listen to her music, were blabby and annoying last night.
Well, we aren't big wine drinkers, so before the concert we took a short hike to the Red Hook Brewery that is across the street, and next to the Columbia Winery. Lot's of booze in Woodinville apparently. Anyway, we ordered our customary IPAs, and some great pub grub. The IPAs at Red Hook are notorious for their lack of hopiness, but I think they are improving, and I actually quite enjoyed mine. We hiked back to the venue, and got there just in time for the first of 2 opening acts. She had a very young looking all girl band called The Like, who I thought were super cool. I liked the Like. She also had a sorta hip bebop band called the dediddy bop, or something like that (I wasn't paying that close attention). They were fun too.
Tori came on in a pink flowing dress, the usual Tori fare. She looked marvelous, if not a bit road worn. This is, as I said, the second time this year, and she has had many, many shows in between. I mentioned to Tom that she looked kinda serious and intense looking, as she belted out the second song, "crucify myself, why do I, crucify myself". She had a look on her face like she really meant it. Tom, who has just read Tori's new book, and so now feels he is the expert in all things Tori replied, "she just has her game face on. She always does this. She'll loosen up after a couple songs". Tori had her game on alright. And yes, she did loosen up. She put on a hell of a show, and really changed the set a bunch since played in April. I think she changes it every night though, so you could see her play all year and not get bored. She also really changes the phrasing and style of her songs, and they sound fresh and different every time she performs them. She played a lot of songs from her new album, as well as her past catalog. I'd say half of them she didn't play last time she came. She has such a huge catalog of songs now, that she could easily play a few shows and never repeat herself.
I really love the Beekeeper CD. I'm a bit pissed off that it got such a slagging in the press. This is a brilliant piece of art, and I have been loving it all summer long. I can't believe how stupid reviewers can be. And the songs off of it are even better when performed live. The highlight at the Benaroya show was her song The Beekeeper. With her organ and beautiful voice in that hall playing that incredible song, you could hear a pin drop. It was completely mesmerizing. I was hoping for the same magic last night, but alas, some stupid woman 2 rows back blabbed her mouth through the whole thing and ruined it. Oh well, I will be seeing Robert Plant there in a couple weeks. I hope it doesn't rain, and I hope people will shut up!
Carrie
posted by Carrie Pratt @ 11:38 PM
3 Comments:
Listen, no offense meant here, but "Beekeeper" got slagged off in the press because it's simply not very good. It's a half-baked record with dry production. The garden tie-in's with the songs are tenuous at best and have no relevance to the actual content. My fiancee is a huge Tori Amos fan that got to take part in a press junket promoting this new record. Tori was unable to answer basic questions about the albums content and themes. Off the record she also mentioned that she felt very little personal connection to the songs... and that most of the songs were completed at the last possible minute in the studio. She's a great artist and there's no doubt in my mind that she'll eventually get back up to par, but there's no point in defending an album made out of contractual obligation that the artist themselves doesn't even like all that much, you know?
I have to disagree with Mark entirely. This album is a masterpiece - From the packaging, that had so much mystical symbolism built into it that it was similar to Led Zeppelin's 4th album, to the extremely deep and personal songs. An artist that does not have a "personal connection" to the songs, and who is just fulfilling a "contractual obligation" does not try and state their entire religious philosphy in an album and write deeply emotional love songs to their mother (on her hospital bed) and their daughter. Then, put out an autobiography with a large section about the album and take this album on tour all over the world.
If you have read Tori's book, you would know that one of the most difficult things in her entire life was the contractual hassles she went through with her first record label, and that after she managed to extricate herself from that, she would never, ever put herself in that position again.
I agree that a lot of critics did not think this album was strong, but I really don't know what they were expecting. This is an artistically mature, sophisticated, and deeply personal album. I bought this album when it first came out in Feb. of 2005, and the wildflower seeds that came as part of one of the most beautiful, artistically designed and conceived album packages I've ever seen have all turned to colourful flowers, and are still growing. If given a chance, the music on this album will grow in exactly the same way.
Well said Tom. It was very apparent in the show that we watched that Tori was very much into her new music, and was extremely connected to both her songs and the audience when she performed them. In my opinion, The Beekeeper was the best album of 2005, even nudging out Kate Bush!
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