From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V3 #172 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Friday, May 8 1998 Volume 03 : Number 172 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Girls for sale [Roger Raat ] My SF review [Beth Winegarner ] Re: thoughts and sadness (my time to bitch) [Adia 509 ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 12:04:06 +0100 (CET) From: Roger Raat Subject: Girls for sale Dear EWF, The last few days i feel like i'm going against the stream. On this digest i feel overwhelmed with lots of reviews about the concerts and the cd. The most are very positive. Well, after hearing FTCH i really can't be very positive... In this light it's interesting to see the discussion about faeries that have disappeared in the 'thank you words', it doesn't surprise me. I think FTCH is a very weak, unbalanced and rather mainstream cd. Strange, because it's also one of the most personal cd's of Tori... one with a sad background. Problem is that right now Tori is expressing her emotions in musically different ways then she once used to do. You may call it musical evolution or progression, i prefer to call it an musical experiment, of which i hope that it doesn't last long. Let me be more specific. What bothers me on FTCH (and ofcourse this is very personal)? I think i could devide my criticism in three general subjects: lyrics, emotions and music. Let me begin with the last one, music. Drums, drumcomputers, why does it sound so awefull on this cd? I can't say that i don't like drums... Little Earthquackes had lots of them, but somehow they followed the gently waving of the piano accords. Here they don't. They are too load and very very monotonous, so much that they distract from the actual song. RG and SYC are sad examples. In general i feel that the music on the cd is monotonous, smoothly and alsmost paved for the great audience (ofcourse needed to be able to fill up that big stadiums where she is going to play). I miss stories in the songs, stories with changes in rhythm, different endings form beginnings; where did she learn to make songs with so much refrains that keep on reapeating themselves? It makes me even sadder when Tori said in an interview with 'Oor' that you shouldn't take notice of the lyrics but let the music speak to you. Ok, well i can listen to that music, but i get bored with it too quick... You know, her music on FTCH is like background music... i hate to say that, but it is. Where i was meshemerised with BFP when i heard it for the first time, now with FTCH i lost my concentration very easily and found it difficult not to skip songs. An important reason also for losing concentration are the lyrics. They are truly very personal and sometimes even touching, but the style is not the style which made me fell for Tori her music. Indeed the faeries are gone. Tori doesn't hide behind mystical clouds of breathtaking metaphors and symbols. There is no breeze behind the words that takes you away to your own thoughts to combine with the music and let you (re)live a life so far away as it is close, so explicity a part of you and so often surpressed. A place where the faeries fly... And now Tori says that we shouldn't take notice of the lyrics... well, i can understand that she wants to explore her musical potency, i respect that, but it doesn't speak to me as her other work did. Emotions finally... (i'm talking to much, i know, sorry, but i've to get this off my chest). Where is Tori? Can you hear her really... she fades away so often behind a loud wall of musical instruments. Ofcourse there are songs where she truly can be heard (BD,NL, PM), but even then i miss... something... it sounds flat to me (except PM, finally emotion). It doesn't grab me... does she believes in it herself? She expresses herself more directly now, but she loses a lot of the magic along with that. Magic that she created by being kind of out of reach, indirect, by beinig hopefull in stormy skies. Maybe she was protecting herself... not any more, so we only have music, not words. Sometimes I get the nasty feeling that this time Tori is a victim/volunteer (?) of a big marketing campaign. The music is smoothened, she plays big stadiums, strange selling tactics, etc. The piano is the real victim... where does the piano really break out? Wher does it truly lead... i get the feeling that it is hedged in by a fixed pattern of drum rhythms... they lead the way, not the piano. And with the piano a lot of emotion is truly gone... only one note of the paino can make you smile or sad... now i'm only sad, because every note goed down in the violance of mealy-mouthedness (f.e. Iiiieee, is tempting but then that guitar comes in with that unpleasant melody... so sweet... too sweet). Ok, i'll stop... sorry for all the space i used in this digest. It's difficult to express my feelings in a strange language and with such complex musical experiences as with Tori. The bottom line is, that I'm very disappointed with FTCH. Ofcourse i will play it, i even like a few songs but it didn't touch my heart as the others did. Tori went on further along the musical path that she has pointed out for herself. I'm glad for that, it's a good thing that she does, try to evolve, get the best out of your musical talents, but this time the path she walks on isn't mine i'm afraid. I hope and think that a lot of people can appreciate the path that she has now taken. I just hope that this was an experiment and that she will return to more paino driven, lyrical mysterious and emotional breathened songs. Thanks for your time, Roger ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 19:10:26 -0700 From: Beth Winegarner Subject: My SF review My review of the SF club show is up on ATN. You actually need to go to http://www.sonicnet.com And then click on the "news" icon. Here's the review, though. They messed up some of the continuity, and I know it's Jon Evans, not Jon Adams (thanks, Richard!)... but anyway. LIVE Finally, Tori Amos Music You Can Dance To Sorrowful singer pumps up her live show with a backing band and some rocking tunes. Contributing Editor Beth Winegarner reports: SAN FRANCISCO -- For veteran Tori Amos' fans, it was the end of an era. Before Amos came onstage Tuesday, the emcee at the Fillmore auditorium announced that the piano songstress would be returning on a formal tour this fall, playing Sept. 14 at Sacramento's Arco Arena and the New Arena in Oakland on Sept. 15. Good news, right? Wrong. For fans this came as bad news: What it meant was that this date at the Fillmore might be the last time that they would be able to enjoy her music in a small, intimate setting. Despite the tight, rehearsed sound of Amos' new band, there were points throughout the set that seemed to lack energy, as if she were already exhausted from the brief tour preparing for the series of larger arena shows. Still, the rich and often beat-heavy nature of Amos' songs kept the hundreds in the audience happy and on their feet. At first, a club tour didn't make sense for a balladeer like Amos. But the club sensibility that pervades her latest LP, from the choirgirl hotel, inspires a different reaction: Finally, Tori Amos music you can dance to. And her fans deserved it. Those attending Tuesday's show at the Fillmore Auditorium lined up around the block hours -- in some cases, days - -- before the doors opened. They waited in the rain. Some huddled under umbrellas, others wore garbage-bag ponchos. One group even made a kind of lean-to with a blue plastic tarp. Having dubbed this her "Plugged" tour -- as it is the first time that she has played with a full backing ensemble - -- Amos included seven new tracks from her electrifying choirgirl in the 90-minute set. The elastic "Cruel" was introduced by way of Jon Adams' sawblade bass and a tribal drumbeat. "I can be cruel/ I don't know why," Amos crooned, before taking a boxer's pose during the song's midsection. The show was the second-to-last in a 12-date club tour, meant to highlight the material on Amos' just-released fourth album and give her new band a chance to warm up -- both to the music and Amos' hard-core audience. Amos kept her listeners in suspense until she hit the stage to the sound of her new bandmates - -- longtime guitarist Steve Caton, bassist Adams and drummer Matt Chamberlin -- lodging a hypnotic rhythm for "Black-Dove (January)." The strawberry-haired singer sat sandwiched between her baby grand Bosendorfer and a Kurzweil keyboard, drawing blustery notes from the latter before straddling them both, playing the piano with her right hand and the keyboard with her left. It's a pose that she's likened to "an octopus who's eaten too many nachos." Several of Amos' older songs fit nicely into a full band. "Precious Things," a staple from Amos' solo debut, Little Earthquakes, hasn't sounded so full since it was recorded. Likewise were "Cornflake Girl" and "God" from 1994's Under the Pink -- the latter of which found Amos howling "you dropped the bomb on me, Jesus," taken after the Gap Band's "You Dropped a Bomb on Me." Other Amos standbys took on new arrangements under the pianist's ever-expanding ability to reinvent her songs. The self-acknowledging "Waitress" came off more viciously than ever. "I believe in peace, bitch," Amos growled over layers of percussion, piano and Caton's Cure-inspired guitar work. Her "Horses," which opened 1996's Boys for Pele as an invitation to travel to the underworld, took on an underwater feel so eerie that it sounded as if Amos had recently returned from Hades herself. The all-male band left Amos alone onstage for a solo interlude that she called "secret time." A heartfelt version of "Mother" came first, bringing with it a renewed sadness in light of Amos' miscarriage 18 months ago. The bittersweet B-side "Upside Down" followed. "I've found the secret to life," Amos trilled, "I'm OK when everything is not OK." The line has become something of a motto for many fans. During the new single, "Spark" (RealAudio excerpt), Amos switched from Kurzweil to Bosey and back again, never missing a note. The song, said to be about the loss of her unborn child, was all the more harrowing for its slow pace and the swirl of red lights blinking -- like those of an ambulance in an emergency -- around the auditorium. The slow horror continued into "iieee," where Amos intercut harmonized vocal loops with a cappella bursts. "Why does there gotta be a sacrifice," she belted, at once bringing to mind her recent loss and lines from her first U.S. single, "Crucify" (RealAudio excerpt), where she sang, "Why do we crucify ourselves every day?" And for a moment, despite the larger stage setting, all the new instruments and the microphones and wires snaking around the stage floor, Amos was alone, left to herself and her fans. - -- "With her litany of complaints and demands, [Meredith] Brooks has been much more of a bitch than a mother or a child or a lover." (Jancee Dunn) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 18:22:36 EDT From: Adia 509 Subject: Re: thoughts and sadness (my time to bitch) In a message dated 5/6/98 8:35:23 PM Pacific Daylight Time, bethw@sonic.net writes: << I know a lot of people have posted about their experiences at the SF show last night, and at all the club shows so far. I didn't wait in line like most folks did -- I was lucky and got a press ticket through Atlantic, since I was reviewing the show (set to go up on sonicnet/addicted to noise's site sometime soon). But there's something I've been thinking about since last night's show that I haven't seen discussed at any length... and it's something that's really bothering me, as much as I try not to let it. One of the things I had really been looking forward to, aside from the show itself, was the meet & greet beforehand. I knew there would be a lot of people there, but I really had no idea. My small group was just trying to stay in a place where we thought we'd see her when she arrived, but we got yelled at by everyone -- the Fillmore staff, the girls in the front of the line who'd been there for two days, everyone -- even though we only wanted to say hi to her and then we'd go to the back of the line. Even though I managed to see her bus pull up, and we waited alongside the barrier, Tori was only outside for about 5 minutes, saying hi to a few people before going inside. And to tell the truth, the way people were behaving, I can't blame her. I had had a pretty important message for her, and I know Violet, who had been waiting right next to me, had something she needed to tell Tori as well. But we never even had a chance. Everyone was rushing the barriers, screaming her name. However, I had told myself beforehand that it would be ok if I didn't get to meet her this time, because I'd gotten to interview her before and everything, and will probably be able to do so again. So it wasn't a huge deal. It was just -- the way things were handled could have been so much better. But the really sad news was the announcement of the places she'll be playing when she comes back to san francisco this fall. She's playing the Arco Arena on Sept 14, and the *New Arena in Oakland* Sept 15 (formerly the Oakland Stadium). Folks, even when the Spice Girls come to town they're not playing anyplace that big. This is the place where Elton John performed and Celine Dion is scheduled to perform. It's a fucking *arena* in every sense of the word. I nearly cried when I heard the news. I know, a lot of you probably think I'm overreacting. But however much sense this makes in terms of how many tour stops she'll have to make, marketing, etc etc etc, I can't bring myself to believe that having Tori play arenas makes any kind of sense at all. It's not going to be intimate or enjoyable or spiritual -- how can she tap into the energy of that many fans, some of whom are sitting thousands of feet away from her? I know they still have the time to change their minds, but I don't know whether they're going to. What are these people thinking? Johnny Witherspoon, her tour manager, should know better than to do something like this that could basically destroy Tori's core audience's desire to seek her out in a live setting anymore -- and fragment our loyalty to her. I'm feeling right now like I wouldn't even want to GO to an event like this, or if I do, I'll pick Arco because it's much smaller. I'm just so sad and I feel betrayed by the people who represent Tori. I wanted to find out how everyone else has been feeling, especially those of you who took the time to wait in line all that time -- was the club show worth it? Would you go to an arena to see Tori? Would boycotting do any good? I think we all need to think about this, of course, I could be wrong... but it seems really important. Beth However, that's not so much what really >> I think because of how fast her tickets sell out for each concert I feel it wouldn't be fair if she didn't do stadiums. It would be unfair for her fans who couldn't get tickets because of the size of the venue. I have been a fan since Under the Pink and from what I have noticed that this type of success was inevitable, and I find it ridiculis that her playing stadiums would destroy her hard-core fan-base, what would really destroy it would be doing brainless pop music and having her songs be used in a McDonalds commercial. Me boycott Tori Amos? Not even if Hell froze over, and Tori would have to do the unspeakable if I were to do so. Before you or anyone calls for extreme measures we should all give Tori a chance and see her perform before we pass any harsh judjements. I think even you as fan should have seen this coming, look at her album sales, the amount of fans, and as I stated before, how quickly her concerts sell out, that until the ferver dies over her that these days are gone. I miss those days too but if an artist never changes then they are no longer interesting, for an artist to succeed in art they must take risks or people just forget about them or shrug them off for doing the same thing over and over. Just as Tori hasn't made the same album she hasn't done done the same concerts. But don't panic just yet, she did do a club tour, and she most likely do a few more intamite venues again, a few radio shows. But we have to remember that the tickets for them will sell out in like 5 minutes for the smaller ones. And just because she's doing stadiums doen't mean that the quality of her live music will suffer, and it doesn't mean that she's just another Celine Dion or Spice Girl. Tori has earned her fan base that has led to her performing in stadiums, not like the Spice Girls whose music has been rammed down everybodys throats. It has been seven years since Little Earthquakes, and I feel suprised that she hasn't been performing in larger venues sooner. - -Amy ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V3 #172 *************************************