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 Indispensable : Tori, Crumpets & Scones Sep 02, 2009
Tori Amos' "The Original Bootlegs" all had a certain symmetry to them, especially since they were based upon an album that had an actual botanical structure ("The Beekeeper"). While all the six albums are official releases, a large number of people do not seem to be very familiar with them, even within Amos' tightly knit fan community. Perhaps that is because the general consensus was that "The Beekeeper" was a slow, dull album, and also because the tour largely consisted of songs from that disc. However, as a comprehensive look at the entire tour, it is absolutely spectacular, rivaling even her later tour for "American Doll Posse" (which was a good album, though certainly not better than "The Beekeeper", in my book).
I've chosen to critique this particular performance as it is by far the stand-out CD from the entire 12-CD collection (now long out of print, unfortunately). Thankfully, this particular 2-CD set is available for purchase or download through various means, which serves as a blessing of sorts. This concert is special for a variety of reasons, some of which includes Tori's banter with the audience, her playful energy on the night, and her stellar mastery of the piano as an instrument - rarely has she sounded this good, and her vocals, unlike some other nights on this tour, were very much spot-on.
Despite a huge number of songs from "The Beekeeper", Tori also dug deep to do a few tracks from her extensive back catalog, but the biggest surprise remains her surprising choice of covers for this event. Of the 18 tracks here, 3 are covers of some of the biggest songs of the last century - and continues with Amos' tradition of choosing largely popular tracks to cover live in concert (she's done Kylie and Britney since then). Here, the prime covers are of Madonna's 1989 anthem "Like a Prayer", and George Michael's seminal 1988 hit "Father Figure". On the latter, Amos begins the track with a taunt directed at Morrissey (with some interesting back-story included), before she confesses that she does love The Smiths. Her version of "Father Figure" is interesting because she gets the instrumental riff down perfectly with her piano, and the song sounds as haunting as ever. Sure, she leaves out the 'Greet me with the eyes of a child' part out (arguably the best interlude in the song), but it still works. On "Like a Prayer" she is less successful, as the pop track is stripped of its vivacity and sounds more dirge-like. This has often worked on Amos' retellings in the past, but here it doesn't quite cut the mustard.
One of the more glorious tracks off "Under the Pink" was the underrated "Yes, Anastasia", which Amos performs here. Its a spellbinding song to begin with, perhaps the most compelling song of 1994, and Amos sings it differently each time. The same can be said of her B-Side "Take to the Sky", which is certainly more mainstream and musically structured. Whats especially great about this concert is the inclusion of the Gospel Singers Choir on four pivotal tracks - "Mother Revolution", "Witness", "Sweet the Sting" and "Hoochie Woman" (all from "The Beekeeper"). And while her performance of "Cooling" was affecting as ever, its those cover versions that make this recording extra-special.
As ever, Tori Amos constantly redefines music with her live performances. No one could imagine that listening to a woman sitting at a piano for two hours banging out one song after the other could be remotely interesting, but it is. An indispensable purchase.
Disc One:
1. Original Sensuality
2. Father Lucifer
3. Icicle
4. Mother Revolution
5. Take to the Sky
6. Yes, Anastasia
7. Bells for Her
8. Father Figure
9. Like a Prayer
Disc: 2
1. Winter
2. Cooling
3. Jamaica Inn
4. Witness
5. Beekeeper
6. Sweet the Sting
7. Rattlesnakes
8. Hoochie Woman
9. Hey Jupiter
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Get this while you can May 06, 2009
This is a 2CD set of a show in London which she only brought out her piano and the Gospel Singers;
It is nothing short of magnificent
The results are stunning-some of her writing/playing puts her up in the neo-classical sphere
She should start writing music which is lyric-less-or with sparse lyrics and instrumentation "classical" music
Her playing on the original PRECIOUS THINGS and WINTER -and now this CD showed her to be a master on her Bosendorfer
Many pieces here go on for some time before the lyrics start and sound as if a "Mozart" or Beethoven"
Improvisation/compositional/contemporary-that what they would have called it-and Tori EXCELS in it
It is too bad we hear less frequent piano in her songs-or they are buried behind too much loud rock playing
(remember-they didnt call it classical music back in the 1800's-but im not sure what)
Tori- now is you chance to sit next to the other "classical" piano greats
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