Steady as she goes, Tori Amos walked onto an American concert stage for the first time in five years Wednesday night. Over the ensuing 95 minutes, the 58-year-old singer-songwriter demonstrated precisely how she’s endured through all of pop music’s endless contortions and upheavals: by affixing her sharp eye and keen...
The audience — a wide swath of ages, genders and sexual persuasions — was more than ready for its queen, roaring as she first appeared and continuing the enthusiastic reception all the way through to the encore. “We love you, Tori!” regularly flew out of the darkness, filling the spaces between songs.
On record, Amos can conjure dense thickets of atmosphere, but for this run, she’s pared things back a bit, leaning only on bassist Jon Evans and drummer Ash Soan. Opening with “Juarez,” from her 1999 LP To Venus and Back, Amos was locked in early — the sinister chords writhing amid the stage lights as Amos tossed her red tresses and sang of violence against women in Mexico — and sustained that momentum throughout.
The setlist, surprisingly, took an egalitarian approach to the alt-rock goddess’ career, showcasing just four tracks from. Indeed, it served to underscore just how deep and enduring her catalog has turned out to be, balancing cherished favorites with less well-known, but no less fervently adored, tracks like “Josephine” and “Take to the Sky,” which found Amos tweaking the lyrics in support of the Ukrainian people.Amos’ elastic, crystalline mezzo-soprano voice has lost none of its snap and power.
Evans and Soan complemented her athletic playing — restlessly astride her piano bench, as ever — and the trio delivered significant punch, elongating songs with extended intros and capping tracks like “Clouds” and “Girl” with raucous climaxes.Amos wasn’t particularly chatty — “We haven’t talked in a while,” she purred after “Crucify” ended — but reflected the adoration of the near-capacity audience right back at them, making frequent grateful gestures in their direction.
That visceral connection, it seems, is as sustaining for Amos as it is for those who gather in dimly lit rooms to sing her music back to her, the intensity of feeling practically palpable in the air., it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we'd like to keep it that way. With local media under siege, it's more important than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism.
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