Her CD releases this decade (Scarlet's Walk, The Bee Keeper and American Doll Posse) have been not only among the finest but also among the most adventurous. American Doll Posse is epic in scope, so it was little surprise that it would be equally ambitious as a concert tour.
The album speaks through characters and, for the tour, one of them opened each show: Isabel,
Clyde, Pip and Santa. After 'they' opened, she would leave the stage and return as Tori. Along with featuring the strong material from the new CD ("Big Wheels," "Bouncing Off Clouds" and "Girl Disappearing" among them), she also dipped into the vault and, judging from what we saw and the e-mails we received, appears to have performed all the tracks that have appeared on her albums at one point or another. The set changed repeatedly (as did the character who opened the show) so if you were fortunate to have Tori in your area for multiple dates, you could have seen a different concert every night.
The US leg of the tour opened October 9th in Albany and concluded December 16th in Los Angeles. The bulk of us caught her performances in Boston and Oakland (caught both locations) but whether the others caught her in West Palm Beach or Atlanta or elsewhere, we all agree it was an amazing tour.
The tour, like the CD, was about expressing your own strength and grasping that the political was personal. Ambitious and she pulled it off. Missed the tour or a date or two you wanted to catch? The official Tori Amos site is offering downloads.
As she sings in the album opener "Yo George:"
I salute to you Commander
and I sneeze
'Cause I have Now
an Allergy
To your policies it seems
Where have we gone wrong America?
Mr. Lincoln we can't seem
to find you anywhere out of the millions
From the deserts
To the mountains
To the shores
Is this just the Madness of King George
Yo George
Is this just the Madness of King George
Yo George
Well you have the whole Nation
on all fours.