Went to see Tori Amos last night at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Tori is Damian's Debbie Harry, so while I'm not overly familiar with her work I love watching him watch her, knowing that every note, every movement, every aside means so much to him. (The super-gay crowd made for excellent people-watching, too!) The show was very moving, but perhaps my favorite moment was this one captured by a fan on a U.K. stop, where Tori performs "Bouncing Off Clouds" with a "Reindeer King" interlude. She's back in Brooklyn tonight if you wanna try to catch her -- I know Damian will be there!
P.S.
America: *casually passes the homophobic "don't say gay" bill*
One of my favorite moments from Tori Amos's show at the Beacon was when she did cover songs -- something she's apparently quite fond of. Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia" and Joe Jackson's "Real Men" were the stars that night. Her take on the title track from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' debut album is another favorite, as is this 10cc classic.
Saw Damian’s all-time favorite artist last night at the Beacon -- his Blondie, if you will. Tori Amos was never really on my radar — slightly after my time(!) — but after spending the night with her she kind of reminds me of Kate Bush’s half sister. (Oddly they are from different eras but were born the same year.) Although I didn't know one song from the other -- just Tori and a huge piano and an electronic keyboard up onstage, by the way -- it was highly entertaining watching a crowd full of people hanging on her every word, movement and hair flip, and seeing how much her music means to them. (Especially sweet to see Damian so happy -- he's going back again tonight.) P.S. It smelled like everyone bought “Like a Prayer” on the way there. (Brooklyn Vegan's review HERE.)
And in an exclusive new interview, Amos talked with Hornet Stories’ Alexander Kacala about getting her start in a gay bar/restaurant in Washington:
Well, when I was 13 years old, the first place that gave me a chance professionally was a gay club. There were all men there. My father had his clerical collar on as a minister [and we were] turned down at all these other piano bars. We walked into Mr. Henry’s on Wisconsin Avenue and there was a man there with a studded something. It should have been a key but my dad didn’t get it. And he asked, “Will you give my daughter a chance?” And the person said, “Can she play?” And my dad said, “Yes, she can.” And the person said, “Well, she can play for tips and then let's see how it goes.”
The audience embraced me and started asking me to play songs that I hadn’t heard of. I knew hundreds of songs but I didn’t know necessarily all the ones that were being requested of me. I had The Beatles’ catalogue, but they weren’t really asking for that. They wanted musical theater, show tunes, and ’40s, some of those wonderful torch songs. So they made a deal with me. They said, “If you learn as many as you can and come back next week, we will be here.” I went and learned things and then I came back and back and back. And that was the beginning.
Had no idea she was from the D.C. area. Mr. Henry's -- which is actually on Pennsylvania Avenue -- was a regular haunt of mine when I was crashing with my brother Bill on Capitol Hill and is where Damian first met my family! (Robert Flack also got her start there.)
Despite my love for female singer/songwriters, I somehow managed to almost miss the entire '90s-era "heyday" of them, with only Liz Phair getting retrofitted into my repertoire thanks to my brother Bill's persistence (and a road trip to and from Saugerties, N.Y.). As a result, this adorable email from my Tori Amos-loving boyfriend was a fun '80s-related surprise, one I'll bet some of you fellow Tori-obsessed types would appreciate as well, assuming you can turn Sarah McLachlan off long enough to read it!
Damian writes:
Something jogged my memory about this today, and I thought it would be fun to share with you. So Tori Amos had a false start into the music biz--namely, a late '80s hair band-esque outfit called Y Kant Tori Read. The out-of-print album was a big score for any Toriphile hunting through record stores in her '90s heyday, but it was the bootleg CD copy one was more likely to find (as I did).
It's viewed as an impossibly corny, selling-out footnote in light of her successful solo singer/songwriter career that followed, but there are enough kernels of what made Tori Tori in there to make it a not-bad listen, and if one actually appreciates the sound/trappings of the era, as we do, there are even a few things approaching standouts.
The first of these is 'On the Boundary,' which is a soundtrack-ready ballad.
Similarly, the album closer, 'The Etienne Trilogy,' kicks off with a worthy successor to the 'St. Elmo's Fire Love Theme' instrumental, and another torch ballad afterward.
This was the official single, 'The Big Picture,' accompanied by an unlikely video in which Tori basically channels a confrontational, ne'er-do-well big sister to her contemporary Tiffany, who of course was packing malls everywhere at the time. I have to be in the right mood for this one, and even then it barely ranks as a guilty pleasure. It has a cinematic opener that was somehow overlooked by awards committees of the time.
The only two tracks Tori would deign to actually include in her live setlists as crowd-pleasing--or -puzzling--rarities until her more recent tours were the awkwardly earnest 'Cool On Your Island' and overwrought 'Fire on the Side,' which I could only find in a fan-made video.
I am vaguely positive towards both, and I could see why she found them the most accessible and closest to her later work, hence my inclusion, but it's the first two links in this message I actually enjoy in their own right rather than as proto-Tori curiosities.
P.S. Damian also taught me about this old ad she did for Kellogg's Just Right cereal, beating out none other than Sarah Jessica Parker for the gig and reportedly getting paid $12,000! (It wasn't just right for Americans and is only sold overseas these days.)
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