I’ve been away for a while, and I apologize. I went to two more Tori Amos shows and I’ve been trying to pick up the slack after missing three days of work. Let’s see here. Overall, I found this run to be the best thing she’s done since the Strange Little Tour, in terms of the energy and the level of playing. As a writer, I understand how the stuff I pen is much better when I actually FEEL like writing (as opposed to a lot of the stuff I put out there every day for work, or, like, right now, for instance), and that’s what I noticed in her this last week. It was really evident she wanted to BE on stage, and to take her performances to a different level. She even acknowledged that this was her favorite tour ever, and I believe it. But more than that, she elevated her game at the end. I saw the first five shows of this tour and the last five, and the difference between the two sets is immense. It’s kind of bittersweet, actually, because after seeing the Anaheim and San Diego shows, it became really obvious what she is capable of, and it made prior, tamer tours pale in comparison. It’s sad to see her vanish into the Cornwallian countryside until 2010, but that’s the way it goes. Better to leave on a high note.

It was especially cool for me as a fan to be up front for these shows, given that I shrieked and danced and smiled my face off like a newbie all over again. In a way I felt like I was filling out a positive comment card after an excellent meal at a restaurant or something. Gold stars! I mean, when she started “Mountain” and “She’s Your Cocaine” in San Diego, and “Heart of Gold” in Anaheim, I jumped around and hit things. I know she noticed the crowd reaction during these songs, and loved it. I was glad to be a part of the throng that lost its mind every night. I hope the feedback influences her choices in the future. Although I guess she has her favorites songs, and we have ours.

Anaheim was simply transcendent, despite the fact that I’m way too old for a GA show and I had two gremlins crawling up my back for the entire set. It’s hard for me to pick my favorite show between San Diego and Anaheim, because both were outstanding for very different reasons. I go back and forth on this, so I think I’m going to have to call it a draw. The Anaheim set was flawless; not one song I’d consider missing to go to the bathroom or fetch a bottle of water (and it was hotter than a locker room in that mess). The five Choirgirl songs plus Pretty Good Year and Precious Things really made it feel like a Plugged show, which can’t be a bad thing.

By Los Angeles, it was obvious she was totally spent, and I can’t blame her for that. Insiders say she was supposed to do all four dolls, but only ended up doing two in the end. I believe the initial plan was to do more than one doll at all of the shows after San Diego, but obviously her energy level dictates more than we know.

It took me seeing these concerts to get the whole doll concept. And while I felt that three of the dolls were fully baked, I wonder if Clyde couldn’t have used a few more songs, or at least more of a cemented identity. It didn’t surprise me that Clyde was the only doll to not be lumped in with another doll in a show, simply because she felt so disconnected from the other characters. Months ago on this blog, I criticized the dolls as being contrived, lame, and unnecessary for Tori to hide behind to get her point across. At the shows, I found myself wishing they would stay on stage longer. Conceptually, I never understood the “Tori” thing. Was she morphing into a parody of herself each night with the red wig, and the dumpy sequenced jumpsuit my friend Casey opined made her look like Beyonce’s grandma? For me, it was difficult to find the narrative arc. I kind of wished she had given the dolls their own shows. I think it would have been awesome to see her interpret staples like “Cornflake Girl” and “Precious Things” through various lenses; it certainly would have breathed new life into them. And after watching her come back on stage in Anaheim and perform “Suede” as Pip in the encore, I’m confident she could have done that. I also wonder if she would have experimented with giving the dolls longer legs if the tour continued on. My sense was that the tour really began in San Diego, and she really hit her stride creatively. This makes it a bummer that the tour had to end so soon after she found her footing.

But the same could be said for the Scarlet’s Walk tour in 2003. She was en fuego during the last few weeks of the second leg of that tour, as if someone suddenly flipped a switch, similar to a shooting guard finding his rhythm and nailing five three pointers in a row. People think that just because concerts can’t be measured in baskets or home runs that they are impossible to quantify objectively. And while each person’s experience at a given show is truly subjective and influenced by song choice, seat location, and tertiary things like having to pee, eat, drink, or yell at someone, one needs look no further than a website like RottenTomatoes.com for validation that an aggregate sample of many, many reviews by people who watch a lot of movies (or go to a lot of Tori Amos concerts, in this case) are usually right on. And I took a straw poll of traveling regulars and friends from my real life who have seen her once a tour since ‘98 and everyone agreed these shows rocked. I’m kind of sad there isn’t going to be a third leg in a few months, but even then there’d be no guarantee it would be on the same level as this last leg. Just look at Lottapianos.

Thank you to Matt Chamberlain, Jon Evans, and Dan Phelps for working so well together and for pushing her beyond her limits as a musician this time around. Five shows was enough for me, and I’d encourage anyone who finds themselves not enjoying her shows that much to cut back and only go to a handful. Balance definitely works better for me.

I am going on a cruise this Saturday to Acapulco, Mazatlan, and Cabo, so I probably won’t be updating this thing for a while. Happy holidays, everyone. I hate this time of year, so my Christmas wish is for everyone reading this to survive it.

Oh, and I’m pretty sure the girls who got kicked out of the San Diego show were porn stars after all. I went and looked at that link and I’m pretty confident those are the two lovely ladies I spoke with during Professional Widow. Also, can we talk about how that whole thing became an international incident? A bunch of music blogs like Stereogum linked to this site for my account of it, and I had no idea. I feel like I witnessed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon or something. Too bad she didn’t do that at the beginning of the tour. It was tremendous publicity. Also, I hope she doesn’t do the VIP thing ever again. I didn’t do one, but I was inside the venue in Anaheim when she was greeting the platinum people and girlfriend seemed exhausted. I’m not really sure she needs to put herself through a bunch of meet and greets every day. I hope she doesn’t need the cash that badly. It just seemed like a lot to handle, especially given the press requirements, the long travel, the regular meet and greets, and all the tapings for the DVD she did during soundcheck the last week. In Anaheim she taped “Me and a Gun” over and over again. It just seemed like a lot to ask for her to go from that to another meet and greet. Anyway, that’s just my armchair opinion. Hopefully she enjoyed it and made a gaggle of cheddar.