Watchmen and Tori Amos

Silk Spectre and Dr. Manhattan

So the movie Watchmen has left a big impression on me.  I loved the character Dr. Manhattan as he is cerebral.  He goes to live on Mars and he's blue and shimmers!!!  The character Rorschach is intriguing too.  Silk Spectre is the daughter of Sally Jupiter, the original Silk Spectre. 

Speaking of Jupiter - Tori Amos performed Hey Jupiter from Boys for Pele in The Grand Canal Theatre on Wednesday night.  I was lucky enough to be there.  Tori wore green and performed from her current album Night of Hunters which is a concept album that Amos has described as "a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years."

Tori Amos - Night of Hunters 2011 Tour

Dublin, Ireland 09-11-11 SETLIST

SHATTERING SEA
TUBULAR BELLS / GOD / RUNNING UP THAT HILL (Solo)
SUEDE
... MR ZEBRA (Solo)
MAYBE CALIFORNIA
FEARLESSNESS
LITTLE EARTHQUAKES (Solo)
OPHELIA (Solo)
JOSEPHINE (Solo)
SNOW CHERRIES FROM FRANCE
WINTER
STAR WHISPERER
YES ANASTASIA (Solo)
A SORTA FAIRYTALE (Solo)
LOVE SONG (Solo)
HEY JUPITER
NAUTICAL TWILIGHT
CLOUD ON MY TONGUE
CRUEL

First encore

A MULTITUDE OF SHADES
YOUR GHOST

Second Encore

LEATHER
PRECIOUS THINGS
BIG WHEEL

"...if I only could I'd make a deal with God and get him to swop our places, be running up that road, be running up that hill...."



Tori Amos Live in Dublin

It stayed dry and she played Silent all these Years (my scream got lost in a paper cup), Crucify (you're just an empty cage girl if you kill the bird), Winter (when you gonna love you as much as I do) and Horses (but threads that are golden don't break easily) among many others.  She didn't play Cornflake Girl.  She also performed her cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit (when the light's out it's less dangerous here we are now entertain us).  How cool!

The Iveagh Gardens is a lovely venue and the crowd were of a mature and appreciative age.  Amos' live performance couldn't be faulted.  She stopped half way through the first verse of Silent all these Years to hear the crowd singing.  "So the Irish can sing!" she exclaimed with glee.  I'm only sorry I can't see her all over again tonight.  Come back soon Tori!

Tori Amos Iveagh Gardens Dublin

Okay there is no doubt that I am getting so excited tonight about going to see Tori Amos in concert on Friday night heeeeeeeeeeeee.  For a couple of weeks now these lyrics from Father Lucifer have been floating around my mind:

Father Lucifer you never looked so sane you always did prefer the drizzle to the rain tell me that you're still in love with that milkmaid, how're the lizzies, how's your Jesus Christ been hanging?

This song is off her 1996 album Boys for Pele which affected me greatly in my late teens.  I had the tape cassette of this album.  On the album cover Tori is pictured sitting on a chair with a shotgun resting on her lap.  It is my favourite album of hers.  I love the songs Horses, Hey Jupiter and Caught a Lite Sneeze from it.  It also spawned the club hit Professional Widow.  Boys for Pele was partly recorded in Co. Wicklow.

I suppose Amos first came to my attention with her hit Cornflake Girl. It reached no. 4 in the U.K. chart and is from her 1994 album Under the Pink.  The song is about betrayal between women; the cornflake girls are narrowminded and prejudiced while the raisin girls are openminded and multi-cultural.  I remember having one of my first sexual encounters on a couch listening to Tori Amos.

Another song I love by Amos is Winter from her 1992 album Little Earthquakes.  It also appears on her collection Tales of a Librarian which is a compilation album.  Other songs I love by this artist are Crucify, Silent all these Years, and The Power of Orange Knickers which is from The Beekeeper released in 2005.

What I love about Tori Amos is that you can get lost imaginatively in her lyrical world and find inspiration or safe haven there.  Her work is deeply intelligent and layered.

I can't believe I'm actually going to hear her performing live!!