News: Emory Wheel Concert Review (November 15, 2007)

Kenny Franklin reviewed the concert at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre for Emory University’s student newspaper, The Wheel. The review appeared in the November 15th edition of the paper. Check it out on their website or below.

Thanks to Kenny for letting us know about the review and extra special thanks for the shout-out in the article for the site!

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Amos Brings Posse to the Fox

By Kenny Franklin

Some people attend church. Others attend synagogue. Then there are those who attend Tori Amos concerts. Religious and non-religious alike, hardcore fans were treated Wednesday night at the Fox Theatre to a renewed, energetic Amos, backed by a high-tech rock playground led by Matt Chamberlain (drums), Dan Phelps (guitar) and Jon Evans (bass).

Amos has been touring the planet with the four alter-egos — Pip, Clyde, Santa and Isabel — who, along with “Tori” herself, provide the conceptual basis for her 2007 album, American Doll Posse. With everything from their own costumes to MySpace blogs, the characters are based on female Greek pantheon and each sings different tracks on the new album.

In an interview with the Wheel, Amos said she began looking at concepts of women in other cultures and comparing them to our own. As a minister’s daughter, she was fascinated with the way in which concepts of women figurehood and leadership are, in essence, edited out of mainstream Christianity.

At each concert during her latest tour, Amos walks on stage dressed as one of the Posse dolls and performs a six-song set of some of that character’s album tracks, intermixed with older tracks relevant to the doll’s character.

On Wednesday, the audience met Santa, the originator of some of the more showtune-esque music from Posse like “Body and Soul” and “Programmable Soda.”

She then hurried off stage while the band jammed to a remix of “Professional Widow,” a fan favorite off Amos’ third album, and returned as “Tori” in a sparkly jumpsuit resembling the American flag.

The encore of her debut album’s “Precious Things” was the night’s highlight. Like much of her set, it featured Amos’ characteristic style, including the sharp, biting tinkle of higher register keys overlaid by glam-rock guitar layers, penetrating bass lines and fast, sophisticated beats from Chamberlain’s personalized onstage drum studio. The result was the classic Tori Amos creation that has made her so obsession-worthy: a mind-numbing hypnosis of hard-core, piano rock.

Her eerie rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” sent the audience into a dreamy daze, which continued through her beautiful wailing near the song’s end.

With original lyrical poetry that touches on everything from intensely personal confessions to political satire, Amos is known to call to her fans’ emotions, sometimes causing them to cry at concerts. Adding to fan appreciation is her respectable accessibility during tours and her management’s strong relationship with Undented.com, her largest and most updated fan site.

Amos said meeting fans before concerts is a way of knowing what is on the minds of her audience. She often incorporates things gleaned from fans into improvised segments of her set.

As her tour ends in the near future, Amos said her next project will be to write a musical, something she has wanted to do since the age of five. If her creativity on this endeavor is even half of what it has been, fans should be in for quite a ride.