I had never been to the Arie Crown Theatre in Chicago before, and it is a great, great venue. Not too large, very comfortable, nice and clean. Absolutely perfect for Tori Amos.
After they finally opened the doors a little after seven, and we made it through the cursory body searches they were doing on people (two lines out the outside for the women, very long, and two lines on the inside for the men, never a line), we braved the crowd around the stand they were selling t-shirts, necklaces, and such at. I swear, the prices are going up - two t-shirts and a necklace for $75 - and the hoodie sweatshirt I really wanted was $50 (the "Satin Worship" jersey was $40, I almost gave up the necklace to get that). I still need to check Tori's web site to see if they have merchandise on there.
The opening act for the concert, just a little after the listed starting time of 7:30, was Rufus Wainwright. I know I've heard the name somewhere, I just don't know where. Anyways, he played a couple songs at the keyboard, and quite a bit more with the guitar. I was quite impressed - I liked him a lot. I'm going to have to check and find out more about him, maybe get a CD or two.
When the lights went off for Tori, the crowd let out such a roar! She started the show with 97 Bonnie & Clyde - there was a curtain with all sorts of holes in it to see the variety of lighting behind, and a picture of the song's character in the corner. Tori was offstage for the song. At the end of the song, they dropped the curtain, and right afterwards she came out on stage.
This is my third Tori concert. The other two were the Plugged Tour for From the Choirgirl Hotel, and the 5 1/2 Weeks Tour for To Venus and Back - so I had only seen her with the band. This time, there was no band. It was her and the piano. It's a very different atmosphere, and I did like it.
The Set List (courtesy of The Dent):
97 Bonnie & Clyde
Real Men
Hey Jupiter
Devil In A Blue Dress improv
Silent All These Years
Flying Dutchman
Not The Red Baron
Rattlesnakes
Little Earthquakes
Doughnut Song
Bachelorette
Bells For Her
Here. In My Head
Me and a Gun
Windows Of The World
1st Encore:
Butterfly
Pretty Good Year
2nd Encore:
Tear In Your Hand
Sister Janet
Baker Baker
The Devil In a Blue Dress improv was done after Tori talked a little about Halloween. She said she hadn't decided what to be for the holiday yet, and was talking about it backstage. She said that Tasha (her daughter) was going to be Tinkerbell - and that she picked it out herself. :) Someone in the crowd yelled out "Devil in a Blue Dress" - so she started playing a little bit of an improv song. There was even something at the end about getting ready for an extra horn. :)
There were a lot of B sides in the show - I recognized most of the songs, though some of them it was more or less like "I've heard this before". It was quite nice to hear some of them she played - I was REALLY happy to hear Tear In Your Hand, as I'd never heard it live before - I couldn't even find an .mp3 of it back in the days of Napster. It was also so nice to see her play Me and a Gun live - as she hadn't done it for the other two concerts I've seen. I must admit, it is so amazing how dead silent such a crowd can become. Silent enough to hear the two idiots working for the theater chatting away and laughing during part of the damn song.
Part of me was a little saddened that I didn't get to hear a lot of my favorites, as they're now more or less only done with the band, it appears (considering she hasn't played them in the tour to date). Precious Things, Cornflake Girl, Raspberry Swirl, God. Other songs I wanted to hear that she could have, but didn't play... Icicle, Winter, 1000 Oceans, Strange Little Girl. But you can't have everything, can you? :)
After the show, we walked back to the parking garage, where we had to wait a good 20 minutes before the cars around us even MOVED. Then there were delays on I-90 going back out to the suburbs, then a needed stop for gas. I am so glad my friend K drove, I hate driving in those areas. Anways, we left the parking garage at 11 pm, got back to my apt at midnight. We ended up making a run to Denny's, for some greasy sampler platters and some chocolate milkshakes. Thankfully, we all took Wednesday off work. :)