Tori Amos
Live from New York

THE REVIEW

Recorded at Madison Square Garden in New York on January 23, 1997, in a performance not included in the earlier Dew Drop Tour concluded in November of the previous year, this footage has always maintained a semi-official status, being included in the Atlantic catalog but not in Amos's official discography and videography. However, due to its peculiarities, it has always been considered a little gem by the various EWF scattered around the globe...
Indeed, this concert, held to raise funds and support for the anti-sexual abuse association "RAINN" (Amos herself, a victim years earlier, is among the founders), offers a sharp insight into what the live dimension was in the early part of the American singer-songwriter's career.

The best definition that can be given to the event is "Tori raw and unfiltered". In fact, if you exclude a few songs where she is accompanied by guitarist Steve Caton (the first time in her solo career, recorded, that Amos was accompanied by another performer on stage) and the overdubbing present in a couple of other tracks (especially in "Talula"), the only instruments that dominate are the piano and a harpsichord that she alternately plays, and naturally, her beautiful, versatile voice.

The repertoire presented is a mix of the first three albums: "Little Earthquakes" from '92, "Under the Pink" from '94, and "Boys for Pele" from '96, plus a B-side, the beautiful "Upside Down". Truth be told, it is likely to be more appreciated by those already familiar with Amos because, due to the sparse arrangement chosen, most of the songs appear as in the initial draft, that is, instrument/voice, making it all very intimate and consequently even more exclusive for those who already know how to interpret both the musical and atmospheric evolutions of this artist.

This is a more evident characteristic in the tracks taken from the first two albums (except for the touching "Me and a Gun" which is faithful to the original, meaning without instrumentation and with only the vocals) because the songs from the third album, dominated by an underlying minimalism and the baroque presence of harpsichords, naturally move within this sort of ecstatic void deliberately created by Tori.

From '98 onwards, Ellen Myra would occasionally tour with a real band and, except for the EP "Hey Jupiter" from '97 and some B-sides, the discography up to the official bootlegs released two years ago (recorded during the 2005 "The Beekeeper" tour) only includes "plugged" performances, as she likes to define them. Therefore, this is a precious document for those who, for various reasons, could not see or hear her in those years and offers the occasion for a listen without too many frills of gems like "Leather", "Silent all these Years", and "Waitress".

The cherry on top is the presence as a guest in "Muhammad my Friend" of Maynard James Keenan from Tool (Tori introduces him as the person who comes to sing lullabies to her when she's feeling down), and here I won't say anything to avoid ruining the various personal sensations.

From EWF, the writer would be inclined to enthusiastically recommend this VHS (yes, this is the medium it is still found on), but instead just offers the invitation to try immersing in a slightly retro world made of small gestures, whispers that also explode in sudden surges of anger that tear through a calm that is never monotonous, and to decipher...

Track List:

Beauty Queen/Horses
Leather
Blood Roses
Little Amsterdam
Cornflake Girl
Waitress
Little Earthquakes
Upside Down
Winter
Precious Things
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Talula
Me and a Gun
Marianne
Silent all these Years
Muhammad my Friend
Pretty Good Year