Tori Amos - American Doll Posse tour, 21st June 2007,

With a certain delay, but still I can't forget to write few words about the second concert I have visited recently. On June 21st, just one day after the Genesis show there was a Tori Amos concert in Prague. I usually start my concert reviews with few sentences about the particular musician and there is no reason to change this habit this time. Tori Amos is an American singer and pianist who has released her first album 15 years ago and since then she has proven her ability to maintain quality and her personal approach. Clasification of her music is rather difficult, terms like "alternative rock" are used sometimes, but I am afraid that such label marks lots of totally different kinds of music. Anyway, Tori's music is based on her very emotional performance, brilliant voice and remarkable piano. She is obviously composing all of her songs and writes the lyrics. Sometimes she is compared to a slightly older female rock personality - Kate Bush. This year Tori has released her 9th album American Doll Posse and this concert has been a part of the tour supporting the album. The album has a rather complicated concept, which I admit I have not studied enough to appreciate it properly. Generally Tori acts here roles of 5 different women, each of them presenting some particular element of femininity. This is a very common theme for Tori Amos, she can be perceived as feminist at a certain level.
And now about the concert. One interesting fact about the concert was that I have visited it with my mother. Few months ago I have shown her a Tori Amos DVD and I thought she might like it. She actually liked it so much that she has started to listen to Tori records over and over and we went to the concert together. I think it is quite rare when someone of my age goes to a concert of a contemporary music with one of his parents, but on the other hand Tori Amos is not a teenage star, there are people of all ages listening to her, so there is nothing strange about it.
The concert took place in Prague Congress Centre. The auditorium looks rather like a theater than a place for a rock concert, but as this is not a typical rock music, I think it was not a bad choice. Another good choice was Joshua Radin who has started the show with a set of his songs. Little bit Simon&Garfunkel-like, quite nice to listen to. Unfortunately after he has finished his performance it took another 30 minutes for the main concert to start, so the pleasant mood from his music has mostly vanished.
At 21:00 Tori and her band (guitar, bass, drums & percussion) have finally started to play. At each concert during this tour she starts in the role of one of the women designed at her new album. This includes whole outfit, i.e. dress and also wig. After about 5 songs she leaves for few minutes and comes back finally as real Tori.
To be honest I could not really enjoy the beginning of the concert. She started with some of her more dynamic songs, not particularly my most favourite ones (generally I mostly prefer those, where she sings and plays without the band or simply where the voice and piano are emphasized), the melodies were sometimes lost in the sound mess, also it wasn't a music for the theater- style auditorium with the audience seated. But the main trouble were the lights. Several coloured spotlights were wildly running around the room and very often they aimed straight to our eyes which made it impossible to watch the stage. A big part of this initial part of the concert I was covering my eyes with a hand, which is not exactly the way how I like to enjoy concerts. Luckily it got much better later.
Generally the songs could be divided in three cathegories. The most dynamic ones, where the whole band was present, the middle ones (the guitarist left the stage) and finally those where just Tori was present, playing her piano and keyboards (sometimes both instruments at the same time). This solo set in the second half of the show was definitely the best part for me. These songs have shown in the most explicit way how great singer and pianist Tori Amos is, but mainly that she is not just an excellent interpreter, but a great musician and personality.
Most of the visitors would probably agree about the strongest moment of the concert. During her solo set Tori played a song about the fight for freedom referring to the events in Czechoslovakia in 1989. This is not a song from any of her albums, it was prepared just for this one concert! (btw. as far as I have read at each concert Tori does some little special thing like this) The lyrics were perhaps naive a little bit, but generally it was awesome. How many artists would do something like this? Btw as everybody could expect this improvised piece was followed by a regular American Doll Posse track "Velvet Revolution".
I should drop few words about the atmosphere of the concert. The site was not sold out, mainly numerous less attractive seats were empty. The audience was rather silent, another reason why those more rock parts of the concert did not leave the proper impression. But overall it seemed to me that noone came to the Congress Centre for a pure rock show. I would describe the atmosphere of the concert as friendly. During encores most of the audience stood up and went down closer to the stage. Tori then approached the crowd and greeted the people. Actually she almost did not talk throughout the concert, but to me it did not seem necessary, her music was talking instead. As usually she has finished the concerts with the song "Hey Jupiter" (one of my most favourites) and we went home.
I think it is a pity that two such strong concerts took place in 2 consequential days, my feelings from both have mixed a little bit and now I can say that I have stronger impressions from the Genesis gig. However Tori's concert was also a great night and I am happy I could experience it. Next time she plays somewhere nearby I don't want to miss it for sure.