News: PerthNow Concert Review (September 27, 2007)

Jay Hanna reviewed the first Perth concert for The Sunday Times and the review was posted on PerthNow — where this photograph can be found as well.

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Tori Amos, casting off Cornflake

Review by: Jay Hanna, STM Music Editor
September 27, 2007 08:00am

TORI Amos claims to have never been “a Cornflake girl”, but ironically that is exactly how she is known.

She is the kooky, quirky, defiant, smutty, sexy, red-headed Cornflake Girl and boy, oh boy do her fans lap it up.

Like many of Amos’s songs “Cornflake Girl” is about betrayal and personal tragedy.

Her songs are intimate, personal tales that probe issues such as masochism, homophobia, misogyny and religion.

Her feminist leanings are more than evident in the predominantly female audience, in whose eyes Amos is nothing short of a goddess.

There is an emotional intensity to Amos’s songs, that requires an equally intense performance and here Amos excels.

She bashes, teases and caresses her Bosendorfer grand as it were her lover in a passionate and violent relationship.

She knows the power of employing light and shade, of whispering her fears, her anger and her regrets one minute and then bellowing them from the depths of her lungs the next. Her devoted fans hang on every word, cheer every tug of the heart string or every defiant “f*** you”.

To kick off her show at Perth Concert Hall, Amos stepped aside and allowed one of her “American Doll Posse” alter-egos to take charge.

It was Pip, the dark and dangerous, vampy, aggressive, street-smart rock chick with the massive chip on her cynical shoulders.

Wearing a light purple mini-dress with pvc stockings and boots, Pip told confronting tales of “Teenage Hustling” punctuated by more crotch grabbing than you would see in your average Michael Jackson video clip.

It seemed a little ironic then that later in the night, when Amos addressed the audience for only the second time in the entire show, she told a tale of catching her seven-year-old daughter in a compromising position aboard the plane from Sydney.

“We don’t play with our privates in public,” Amos had to inform her daughter. But does she really wonder where she learned that trick from?

While many expected the entire American Doll Posse to materialise during Amos’s two hour performance, only Pip made it.

After a handful of songs, Pip left the stage with a salutatory flip of the bird and a flash of pvc-clad backside.

Amos returned as Tori, dressed in a baggy green sequined jumpsuit with a long strawberry blonde wig. Or as the stranger next to me whispered: “she looks like Ariel, the mermaid”.

Fitting then that she performed Silent All These Years which contains the lyric “But what if I’m a Mermaid?”. As this mermaid-type character Amos was far more friendly. She smiled with childlike glee, waved and skipped back to her piano.

There could be no complaints about the set which contained a healthy spattering of tunes from Amos’s 17-year solo career. Kicking off with the melodic, bluesy Big Wheel from American Doll Posse, the second set featured old and new favourites such as Sugar, Crucify, Leather, Cornflake Girl, Little Earthquakes and 1000 Oceans.

While the performance was hampered by a dodgy sound mix that had the drums and bass too loud in the mix, drowning out the piano and guitar, Amos still put on an impressive show.

Her dual piano and keyboard playing was truly impressive as was her stripped back solo set which featured a stunning rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

Surprisingly Amos returned for both encores still dressed in her unflattering green jumpsuit. Anyone hoping to catch a glimpse of her in the chic blonde bob of American Doll Posse’s Santa, were left disappointed on that score. But no-one could be disappointed as Tear In Your Hand, Bouncing Off Clouds and Hey Jupiter wrapped up the show.

While the adulation flowed, Amos chose not to bask in it. Instead she waved, smiled and skipped of the stage, casting off the Cornflake Girl as she went.