Amos, Morissette Display Contrasting Styles On Joint Bill
Two singer/songwriters each play 75-minute
sets on 5 1/2 Weeks tour.
Contributing Editor Frank Tortorici reports:
HOLMDEL, N.J. 霠Proving that Lilith Fair isn't the only bill in
which women can raise roofs across the country,
singer/songwriters Alanis Morissette and Tori Amos rocked the
PNC Bank Arts Center on Saturday night, but in noticeably
different ways.
Amos held the near-capacity crowd of about 15,000 enraptured
by emoting breathlessly on songs such as "Crucify"
(RealAudio excerpt) while parked on a stool pounding away
at a piano and electric keyboard.
Morissette, who played afterward, used the stage as a gymnasium,
running around constantly as she belted out such hits as "Hand in
My Pocket" while brandishing her nearly ankle-length hair like a
whip.
Judging by the sustained crowd response during the
two-and-a-half-hour show, both women had their champions.
"I've been listening to [Amos] forever because she's so
emotional and different," Jill Gletow, 19, of Franklin Lakes,
N.J., said. "I met one of my best friends in high school because
we both loved Tori Amos."
Amos and Morissette, who began their 5 1/2 Weeks tour Aug.
18, each played for 75 minutes.
The 36-year-old Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos) gave the show a
dramatic beginning, remaining offstage as a guitarist, bassist
and drummer introduced "God," a song from her album Under
the Pink (1994). When she finally entered, the band kicked into
the song's propulsive rhythm.
Sporting a ponytail and a long, maroon halter top over blue
pants, the redheaded Amos delivered most of her early
favorites, including "Crucify," "Precious Things" and "Silent All
These Years" (RealAudio excerpt) in a strong, clear voice.
She alternated between playing the piano and electric
keyboard, often during the same song.
The crowd, which included more men than the typical Lilith Fair
crowd, roared with enthusiasm after almost every line Amos
sang. She performed some new tunes, from her upcoming to
venus and back, which is due Sept. 21. Curiously, though, she
played nothing from her most recent album, from the choirgirl
hotel (1998).
During the tender "1,000 Oceans" 霠which she said she plans
to release as a single 霠she shook her head up and down as
she sang, "I can't believe that I would keep you from flying. ...
These tears I've cried, I've cried 1,000 oceans."
Amos was just as often aggressive. She closed her main set
with a loud rendition of "The Waitress," during which she
shouted, "I believe in peace, bitch" as her band created a
crescendo of noise.
Earlier in the night, Amos had introduced her 1994 hit
"Cornflake Girl," about a fair-weather friend, by telling the
crowd, "Alanis and I were talking earlier about how girlfriends
can turn on each other."
Morissette, 25, opened with a pair of smashes from her
multiplatinum 1995 breakthrough Jagged Little Pill. She gave
herself the difficult task of having to follow "Hand in My Pocket"
and "All I Really Want" (RealAudio excerpt), two of her
signature songs, but she seemed up to it.
With seemingly boundless energy, the brunette sprite, sloppily
dressed in sneakers, a black T-shirt and purple skirt over shiny,
dark pants, paced her set like a veteran.
Between hard-rock songs "Sympathetic Character" and
"Joining You," both from Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
(1998), Morissette nestled mellow numbers such as "That I
Would Be Good," on which she played flute.
A surprising and effective juxtaposition was a segue of her
Middle Eastern禟lavored cover of the Beatles' "Norwegian
Wood" into her rollicking hit "You Learn." During the former,
Matt Chamberlain added crashing drum work as Morissette
chucked the Beatles' use of a contraction by singing, "Is not it
good, Norwegian wood."
Morissette hardly spoke. But she did gush, calling the crowd
sweet after almost every round of applause. She dedicated "So
Pure" (RealAudio excerpt) "to anyone who thinks they can't
dance." The song features the lyric "I love you when you dance
when you freestyle in trance."
Bathed in red light, Morissette brought the set to a close with a
pair of Grammy winners, the suggestive "You Oughta Know"
and the moody "Uninvited" (RealAudio excerpt), from the
soundtrack to the movie "City of Angels." Each song won the
same two Grammys, for Best Rock Song and Best Female
Rock Vocal Performance.
She ended the evening with another hit, "Ironic," during which
she had the audience sing the first verse.
[ Mon., August 30, 1999 4:45 PM EDT ]
--
gender is just an excuse, relationship shouldn't just be an excuse,
love is often an excuse, although sometimes these excuses are all
we have to hold onto,
death is the reason and living is the celebration
- Beth Orton
--
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