Live Review: Tori Amos

With a career spanning over 22 years and exhibiting no visible intention of slowing down, there must come moments in Tori Amos’ life where she just thinks ‘To hell with it’ and does what she wants.

Pretty sure that’s what happened at her Sydney Opera House concert on Monday night anyway. Amos, the long-running and indisputable queen of folk, who has graced our shores for a string of concert dates on the heels of the release of her 14th studio album, Unrepentant Geraldines, decided instead to make use of wonderful Sydney Symphony Orchestra that were joining her and take a trip down memory lane.

The 18-track set list was something of an introspective journey through Amos’ extensive career, beginning with her 1994 offering, Baker Baker, and sliding up and down the timescale with ease. Crucify and Leather were early highlights from her 1992 debut album, Little Earthquakes, whilst the newest offerings of the night were a handful of tracks from Amos’ 2012 album, Gold Dust. That’s right, not one single track from Unrepentant Geraldines was played, but with such a diverse range of golden oldies on offer, no one seemed to mind.

Amos utilised the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to the utmost, featuring them in all but a handful of solo songs. Tracks like Jackie’s Strength and Edge Of The Moon faired greatly with the orchestral lift, the flurry of violins and the richness of the brass section adding that extra something to the songs.

Indeed at times it seemed like Tori Amos was almost upstaged by her amazing backing orchestra but then she would go and do something crazy impressive like singing Bells For Her whilst playing a keyboard and a piano at the same time. Crazy impressive doesn’t even cut it.