Post by orfeo on May 16, 2005 4:29:34 GMT -5
I just thought I should start a new thread for my review, because it's so darn huge! I wrote it in stages after taking notes.
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[With apologies to those who object to mixed tenses. It just happened that way.]
She got a standing ovation from a large chunk of the audience just for walking out on stage. It was like there was a huge wave of appreciation to say “you’re finally HERE!”.
A couple of quick bows, hands clasped, and then she sat down at the piano.
A single shaft of light beamed down from directly above her, as she started to play a greatly lengthened introduction to Original Sinsuality. The first part of the introduction was entirely new, and the latter part was recognizable but still longer than the studio version.
As she started to sing, a tiny purple galaxy started to spin and grow on the hexagonal screen above the right hand side of the stage. There were times when the use of the screen didn’t impress me all that much, but there were other times, like this, where it seemed absolutely brilliant.
The lighting on the other hand was pretty darn good throughout, but the beam of light for this song was still a high point.
She sang the line “Yalbadoath Saklas I’m calling you” twice. There were lots of little variations like that throughout the songs, some of which I can distinctly remember but many of which I can’t. That was the first one though. I wonder whether she actually plans them out, or whether some of them simply happen on the spur of the moment because she feels it. Performing solo would certainly give her the freedom to do so.
She finished, the crowd starts cheering again, then they ROAR as she starts playing Yes, Anastasia.
I could hardly believe the intensity with which she attacked the piano during the introduction. Pounding bass notes, hunched almost into a ball, hair flying over her face. As a piano player myself, I’m astonished at how she throws herself at the instrument. No wonder they couldn’t cope with her at the Peabody Conservatory.
I was quite surprised that she started the song from the main theme (“thought I’d been through this in 1919”), skipping the 5 minutes of preparation. Presumably if I had paid attention to the reviews from the American tour I’d have known that she was doing this. Still, even in truncated form it was glorious. After a couple of extra cycles of the ‘chorus’ she finally did the long and high “we’ll see” that’s the climax of the whole song.
By this stage I’m well and truly feeling immersed in my first Tori concert.
Now it’s time for a chat with us. First thing she says is how it feels like she’s playing in someone’s living room, because we’re so warm and cosy. Huge roar.
This chat is really the only time the whole night that the crowd is noisier than they need to be. Some guy yells “we love you Tori” (or was it “I”? I think he included all of us) and she managed to practically run on her last sentence to respond “and I love you too”. More cheering, followed by another guy from the same part of the audience shouting “You’re my God”. She had an expression on her face that said okay, maybe now you’ve gone a bit too far.
She continues on with the story she had started, about going to “the zoo” (I presume she meant Taronga) and being told by this woman (a guide?) that here in Australia we have the cutest butt in the world. She explains – to us and the woman – that she’s married and shouldn’t be thinking about or looking at such things. Eventually she’s persuaded to come over with her eyes closed, and there, “behind glass, with his three wives and 17,000 ape children” is a gorilla with a seriously cute butt.
The punch line is obvious but it’s still greeted with plenty of laughter.
She turns around to the Hammond organ on her left and starts playing Blood Roses. The lights are a mixture of strong reds and blues, and something that looks rather like blood cells swims across the hexagonal screen. The organ, played with lots of vibrato, makes a good substitute for the harpsichord, somehow having the same kind of old, foreign sound to it. It’s the kind of sound you’d get from a small pipe organ in the attic of a haunted house.
She doesn’t change key for “God knows I’ve thrown away those graces”, which to my mind helped prove how brilliantly jarring the key change was in the studio version. It still sounds good though. She switches to piano for “The Belle of New Orleans”, who gets to go around twice. Then back to the organ. In this last stretch, her intensity rises. We get at least twice as many cries of “c’mon” as on the album. I think to myself, this is the same woman who some people claim has lost her edge, with the smooth sound of her last album. Who are they kidding?
Straight into Take to the Sky on the piano, which gets very quickly recognised. Each verse is accompanied by a big slap of the right hand on the side of the piano. About half the audience is clapping along as she slaps.
Many of the songs have pauses in the rhythm. Sometimes it’s for effect, but often I think it’s just because it makes singing the darn thing a lot easier (there aren’t opportunities for layering vocals when you’re all alone on stage). In Take to the Sky she keeps the rhythm going the whole time except for just once, one of the times she reaches the line “and my priest says…”. Big pause, big look in our direction. There are a lot of coy looks and sexy expressions during the song. At one point she uses her free hand to push her hair back in a thoroughly suggestive manner.
I’m quite sure I have a big smile on my face by now if I didn’t already.
Cloud on my Tongue gets another large and instant cheer as she starts a long and convoluted introduction. It’s beautiful. Each of the instrumental bits of the song gets expanded as well, and they’re all riveting.
However this was the first time during the concert that I got a bit distracted. There’s something about Cloud on my Tongue live that doesn’t sit quite right with me. Partly I think it’s that I’m too familiar with it already – it’s on the Venus live disc, it’s on the DVD as well. Partly it’s that I think the studio version is so goddamn brilliant, structurally speaking, that any tampering with the proportions seems like a backwards step. I find myself checking off each section in the structure without really listening that closely.
But I’m still enjoying it. There’s nothing about tonight that I don’t enjoy. It’s just that I’m sitting there noting my enjoyment instead of being completely carried away.
-------------------------------------------------------------
[With apologies to those who object to mixed tenses. It just happened that way.]
She got a standing ovation from a large chunk of the audience just for walking out on stage. It was like there was a huge wave of appreciation to say “you’re finally HERE!”.
A couple of quick bows, hands clasped, and then she sat down at the piano.
A single shaft of light beamed down from directly above her, as she started to play a greatly lengthened introduction to Original Sinsuality. The first part of the introduction was entirely new, and the latter part was recognizable but still longer than the studio version.
As she started to sing, a tiny purple galaxy started to spin and grow on the hexagonal screen above the right hand side of the stage. There were times when the use of the screen didn’t impress me all that much, but there were other times, like this, where it seemed absolutely brilliant.
The lighting on the other hand was pretty darn good throughout, but the beam of light for this song was still a high point.
She sang the line “Yalbadoath Saklas I’m calling you” twice. There were lots of little variations like that throughout the songs, some of which I can distinctly remember but many of which I can’t. That was the first one though. I wonder whether she actually plans them out, or whether some of them simply happen on the spur of the moment because she feels it. Performing solo would certainly give her the freedom to do so.
She finished, the crowd starts cheering again, then they ROAR as she starts playing Yes, Anastasia.
I could hardly believe the intensity with which she attacked the piano during the introduction. Pounding bass notes, hunched almost into a ball, hair flying over her face. As a piano player myself, I’m astonished at how she throws herself at the instrument. No wonder they couldn’t cope with her at the Peabody Conservatory.
I was quite surprised that she started the song from the main theme (“thought I’d been through this in 1919”), skipping the 5 minutes of preparation. Presumably if I had paid attention to the reviews from the American tour I’d have known that she was doing this. Still, even in truncated form it was glorious. After a couple of extra cycles of the ‘chorus’ she finally did the long and high “we’ll see” that’s the climax of the whole song.
By this stage I’m well and truly feeling immersed in my first Tori concert.
Now it’s time for a chat with us. First thing she says is how it feels like she’s playing in someone’s living room, because we’re so warm and cosy. Huge roar.
This chat is really the only time the whole night that the crowd is noisier than they need to be. Some guy yells “we love you Tori” (or was it “I”? I think he included all of us) and she managed to practically run on her last sentence to respond “and I love you too”. More cheering, followed by another guy from the same part of the audience shouting “You’re my God”. She had an expression on her face that said okay, maybe now you’ve gone a bit too far.
She continues on with the story she had started, about going to “the zoo” (I presume she meant Taronga) and being told by this woman (a guide?) that here in Australia we have the cutest butt in the world. She explains – to us and the woman – that she’s married and shouldn’t be thinking about or looking at such things. Eventually she’s persuaded to come over with her eyes closed, and there, “behind glass, with his three wives and 17,000 ape children” is a gorilla with a seriously cute butt.
The punch line is obvious but it’s still greeted with plenty of laughter.
She turns around to the Hammond organ on her left and starts playing Blood Roses. The lights are a mixture of strong reds and blues, and something that looks rather like blood cells swims across the hexagonal screen. The organ, played with lots of vibrato, makes a good substitute for the harpsichord, somehow having the same kind of old, foreign sound to it. It’s the kind of sound you’d get from a small pipe organ in the attic of a haunted house.
She doesn’t change key for “God knows I’ve thrown away those graces”, which to my mind helped prove how brilliantly jarring the key change was in the studio version. It still sounds good though. She switches to piano for “The Belle of New Orleans”, who gets to go around twice. Then back to the organ. In this last stretch, her intensity rises. We get at least twice as many cries of “c’mon” as on the album. I think to myself, this is the same woman who some people claim has lost her edge, with the smooth sound of her last album. Who are they kidding?
Straight into Take to the Sky on the piano, which gets very quickly recognised. Each verse is accompanied by a big slap of the right hand on the side of the piano. About half the audience is clapping along as she slaps.
Many of the songs have pauses in the rhythm. Sometimes it’s for effect, but often I think it’s just because it makes singing the darn thing a lot easier (there aren’t opportunities for layering vocals when you’re all alone on stage). In Take to the Sky she keeps the rhythm going the whole time except for just once, one of the times she reaches the line “and my priest says…”. Big pause, big look in our direction. There are a lot of coy looks and sexy expressions during the song. At one point she uses her free hand to push her hair back in a thoroughly suggestive manner.
I’m quite sure I have a big smile on my face by now if I didn’t already.
Cloud on my Tongue gets another large and instant cheer as she starts a long and convoluted introduction. It’s beautiful. Each of the instrumental bits of the song gets expanded as well, and they’re all riveting.
However this was the first time during the concert that I got a bit distracted. There’s something about Cloud on my Tongue live that doesn’t sit quite right with me. Partly I think it’s that I’m too familiar with it already – it’s on the Venus live disc, it’s on the DVD as well. Partly it’s that I think the studio version is so goddamn brilliant, structurally speaking, that any tampering with the proportions seems like a backwards step. I find myself checking off each section in the structure without really listening that closely.
But I’m still enjoying it. There’s nothing about tonight that I don’t enjoy. It’s just that I’m sitting there noting my enjoyment instead of being completely carried away.