Tori Amos: a warm beating heart

"Do you want to come along with me to America? I think you'll just fit in here", Tori Amos says during the second encore while she points to the pocket of her jeans. Then she makes a hugging gesture. A little earlier the American songstress and pianist said goodbye like a little girl, she was the shy minister's daughter again for a while, instead of the brutal musician that looked into the room at the beginning of the concert with an expression on her face that said "I'll eat you all up". Let's not waste any time: she does, and without anyone's resistance. But what can one do against so much passion, somuch raw emotion than just melt like ice form within? Tori Amos is a rare talent. She proved that yesterday evening in a full Paradiso during the first of four Dutch solo concerts. The little red haired one didn't take a band along and she didn't need to. She could do it alone with her piano and her voice, which flutters about on the [musical] notes like her hands on the keys of the grand piano. Unless she gets a little too much enthusiastic during the one hour and 40 minutes concert, then the voice loses its grip at times.

Once on stage for Tori Amos making music is equivalent to improvising. The only two exceptions to that rule are God (with heavy guitars) and the swinging Cornflake girl, where sound tapes are being used. Due to that restriction the two songs are not the high points of the show. Those are predominantly in the work where Tori seems to be dragged along by her own mood, the reactions from the audience and the intensity of the lyrics. Those songs are the same in structure, but at the same time so different. Crucify is driven by her voice while keeping the piano accompaniment small, Silent all these years is fragile and she uses her instrument violently on The waitress. At the beginning of the concert one can hear a pin drop, and full of expectations everyones heart beats. Tori Amos makes even the highest expectations true. On one hand you know that she composes evrything on the piano, on the other hand it is more beautiful in its raw form than you ever dreamt. And Tori really totally bares herself in her work. You can hear that in the interpretation of the a capella Me and a Gun where pain and humour are more obvious than on the record, but also with the sexually loaded Icicle or China which gets a really sweet radiation.

Sensual

Tori is full of passion and sometimes with a lot of air, which thickens the sensuality of her most intimate work a bit. She's like a warm beating heart. Toward the end she plays a new song ("You are the first") Too used to money [That's Honey. I bet Hans doesn't have the PGY CD-singles yet...! - MR], and closes with her version of the Stones-song Angie. Next month, go to Maastricht, Nijmegen and Den Haag. Because one time Tori is not enough.