I’ve watched a few snippets of Tori Amos live, dating back to the early years of her solo career, through to a couple of years ago. Now, I’ve not been too enamoured with the performances. Some of them were a little bit too ‘showy’ and the audiences themselves typically fanatical. Together with poor sound and unoriginal editing they didn’t really grab me.

Having revisited Scarlet’s Walk a few weeks back, I discovered the Welcome to Sunny Florida DVD which has the Scarlet’s Hidden Treasures. The DVD documents the last concert on the ‘Lottapianos’ tour of 2003. I decided to watch an hour of this last Sunday, then watch 24.

The concert opens with Wampum Prayer, which always opens her shows and Tori walks onto the stage to the backing of a sorta fairytale. From the moment she played the first notes I was hooked. It’s a mighty gorgeous opening. 24 would have to wait.

Through just over two hours of music, minus three songs which never made it to the DVD (despite being played at the concert), I was overwhelmed. I’ve felt this way at gigs before with Throwing Muses (Vicky’s Box, Rabbits Dying and You Cage always burst me), but never with the intensity I felt Sunday night. I was wrecked pretty much half way through and watched the remainder in awe. I didn’t intend to buy this DVD. Similarly, I didn’t intend to buy her book, Piece by Piece. But I did. I don’t know what forces have played with me over the past fortnight, but someone gave me these three things and they all help put things in perspective. What really matters to me, and to others.

Tori’s band now just consists of the two people who have been at the core of her recent recordings. Namely Jon Evans who plays bass and Matt Chamberlain who plays drums (and what a lot of drums!) One thing that becomes clear immediately is that the concerts are not simple renditions of the recordings. Most songs get reworked, some with extra breaks or verses. This allows a level of improvisation. Particularly impressive is the way that the early recordings are brought into the space that Tori now inhabits. Furthermore, it shows how important her vocals are. Whilst they are often drenched in reverb or delayed to add backing effects in places, they are always spot on musically and when you have a minimal musical setup, they really complete the soundscape. Nor does Tori work to backing tracks. Instead she has her own surround sound mix. Everything, including the soundcheck is there to make everything sound ‘just right’.

Concertina marks the first time in this gig that Tori plays two keyboards simultaneously: Rhodes and her Bösendorfer, including pedals. She’s renown for this, but it’s still a mighty impressive skill. Strangely though the combination doesn’t work as well on this song as it does later for other songs – the haunting I can’t see New York for example.

Take to the Sky is a song I’d never heard before. It was a b-side to Winter and it’s one hell of a groovy track, particularly with the bridge to Muhammad My Friend. This felt like the core of the performance. If anyone reading this doesn’t understand why I love her music so much, watch this. The band then leave for three songs and Tori plays Leather, Cloud on my Tongue and an angelic Cooling unaccompanied. We’re then into the second half of the concert.

During the concert there are two musical interludes which are little improvised vignettes about the end of the tour. They’re very cute, fun and remind me of the way that Jane Siberry treats her audiences and her fellow musicians.

Father Lucifer is played on an apple red Wurlitzer, the aforementioned Rhodes and her piano. Together with the looped vocals it reinvents the song. There’s more Rhodes and Wurly on the I can’t see New York and the finale Precious Things.

The first encore is missed off the DVD as is the first play of Tombigbee. It’s fascinating to see the slighty frantic off-stage discussion before the second encore because Tori wants to play it again (she wasn’t happy with the first version she played). Caught A Lite Sneeze was ditched from the planned encore as a result.

Amber Waves and Hey Jupiter close the concert and it’s a fine way to conclude a great performance which many Toriphiles reckon was one of the best of her career. What did I feel at the end? That’s easy: Love, Peace. And for the next week or so, there’ll be a big part of me bouncing around grinning happily. Music like this doesn’t turn up very often. But when it does, I know it.

Two disappointments: the lame 4:3 letterbox pseudo-widescreen, and the censoring (muting) of the lyrics to Professional Widow which is pretty unforgivable given that it ruins the power of the song and of course obliterates the final word. Funny how you can buy the entire Boys For Pelé album without any Parental Advisory, but a DVD gets neutered.

Coming to the UK in June 2005 without her band. Gimme.

Fans of Tori Amos are a bit obsessive about her. One of the more interesting diversions at present is the discussion of track orders on albums, particularly for From The Choirgirl Hotel and for the current album The Beekeeper.

The general consensus is that From The Choirgirl Hotel is better if the tracks are organised as per the order of the lyrics in the liner notes. So that’s one for me to look into. More puzzling though is The Beekeeper. The songs for this album are organised into gardens, each garden representing a particular aspect of relationships, femininity or spirituality, with The Beekeeper being the central force that maintains the gardens. However the track order doesn’t go from garden to garden. Instead it hops about. I’m sure that the track order is intended, but I’m going to try this alternative sequence.

Nokia have put on ice their plan to put fuel cells into mobile phones, reasoning that the market is not yet mature enough. Or, as I’d like to interpret, “It was a daft idea. Who wants to carry around flammable liquids to top up their mobile devices?”

And there’s more: Last week, Apple launched the second generation of iPod minis, with a staggering 18 hours’ battery life. Some reports indicate that extends to 26 hours in some circumstances. Today PortalPlayer announced a new on-chip media player that decodes 160Kbps streams at less than 25mW, achieved through parallel architectures and lower clock rates, thereby tripling battery life.

I’ve finished Tori Amos: Piece by Piece and it was a delightful read. It was a pretty emotional experience. I’ve already written about it earlier but here’s a few more insights into what makes it so great and so important to me:

Chapters 3 and 5, which describe how Tori writes her songs and transfers them into studio recordings and live shows. Chapter 3 starts with an incredible poem. Two pages of why and how Tori is the person she is and it conveys the passion she has for her piano. You’d think the live shows were quite straightforward, and certainly if you’re doing the same show night after night they are, but Tori doesn’t. Every show is conceived and tailored to the location, venue and everything else that’s happening at the time. It’s a meticulous arrangement.

Chapter 4, Demeter: The Journey into Motherhood. All of it. I spent the whole time thinking I had no idea. What you read in the music press is only a tiny piece of the whole story. If you ever need to work out priorities read this chapter.

Chapter 6, Sane Satyres and Balanced Bacchantes: The Touring Life’s Gypsy Caravan: Yes, it’s all about touring, so it’s grown from Chapter 5, but if you’re a manager of any kind of group or organisation, or you are responsible for them, this chapter provides great wisdom.

Chapter 8, The Lioness: Surviving the Music Business: Ever wondered why To Venus and Back has a live CD as well as a studio CD? Or why and how the Strange Little Girls project came about? Or the rationale for Atlantic Record’s Tails of a Librarian compilation? I had ideas when they were released. Call them artistic suspicions. I should have paid more attention. I’ve written before about musicians who get screwed by their record companies. Tori, fortunately, is wised up to this and more. Chapter 8 is monumental, hence the (cleaned up) title of this post. Anyone who is thinking of going into the music industry should read her experiences.

But there’s one section above all else that I feel the need to repeat here. I’m probably not legally allowed to, but it’s important to me that I do so. Whilst I was reading the book I became utterly convinced that in my next life (and let’s face it there will be one), I want to write music. That’s all I want to do. This from Tori:

“I’ve felt music’s integrating effect throughout my own life. Music more than anything else is what keeps me on this planet. I don’t know if in another life I would be given music. So I’m going to create with it as much as I can. It is the only universal language that’s tangible. Love is a universal language, but that’s a much more abstract concept than being able to communicate with anyone in the world because the two of you can dance to a rhythm that we all innately understand without having to say a word. Music is more than a privilege; without it, I really don’t know how I would cope. It’s one reason I haven’t gone off the rails.”