Customer Reviews

Tori Amos - Live From New York [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've once read that when people hear Tori Amos's music, they don't merely get interested, they become obsessed. That is exactly what happened the first time I heard Tori's voice. There are many artists who sound wonderful over the radio but leave much to be desired live. This is certainly not the case with Tori Amos. Seeing her perform with her Bosendorfer is just such a magical experience, it will take your breath away. Her live performance proves just what a powerhouse of talent she is. Her playing is magnificent, and so is her astounding, soaring voice. There is also a complete ease and connection between the audience and Tori that one can sense right away. The audience loves her, and she radiates this love right back. I especially loved her renditions of "Cornflake Girl", "Waitress" (a song that MUST be heard live to be fully appreciated), "Talula", and "Marianne". I do think that "Precious Things" and "Caught a Lite Sneeze" could have been more effective with the backing of drums (like in "Talula"). Besides that, however, this is an excellent video, and one that I never tire of viewing.

I am an avid Tori Amos fan,who has really gotten into her over the past two years,buying all of her albums and b-side singles.Unfortunately,I have not yet had the opportunity to see her live.On the otherhand,this video fully met my expectations of what "the Tori Amos live experience" would be all about.The intimate aura that surrounds her on the stage,as she sings and plays lush piano on that bosendorfer,just warms up the attending audience and the viewer."Beauty Queen/Horses" sets up the mood,as Tori turns to the audience and artistically stares outward,like she is looking at each face watching her.Her alluring facial expressions really shine on songs like "Leather," when she sexually energizes her lyric: 'He had a nice big fat cigar',with a subtle smirk and her winking eyes.The feel of this show is very intricate.I see new things,each time that I watch it!Notice how she pounds on the harpsichord for "Blood Roses," before she sings.I love how she drags out and alters "Little Amsterdam".Keen listeners of her music and viewers,will know what I mean."Upside Down" is one of my favorite b-sides.I am glad she performs it here,and her interactions with that piano are mindboggling.Look how she feels the upper center of the piano,for emphasis,on that line 'I dreamed I loved a black boy'."Caught A Lite Sneeze" is the best song performance that she does for the show.The accompanying guitarist matches Tori's groove with some beautiful transient sounds.I love how Tori moves from the harpsichord,to the piano,and then yells as she returns to the harpsichord.Her musical transition is stunning and flawless."Muhammed My Friend" is a great crowd pleaser,particularly because Maynard Keenan (an underrated singer from Tool and A Perfect Circle),comes out to sing with Tori,as she runs through those savory lyrics.Everything from Tori's sultry voice,the way she interacts with the mic,or ad-libs intros and pieces of songs,to the way she gazes endlessly,and plays passionate piano,just makes this video a must have for anyone who enjoys this woman's magic.Whether you watch this video directly or just leave it running while you move about,you will be revived over and over by Tori Amos.

Tori Amos is one of the most beloved artists today. Her fans, Toriphiles, or Ears with Feet, depending on the person, are devoted to her so strongly, that people often wonder if we are desperate, or if she is as amazing as we say she is....Well, finally proof exists. Her albums are beautiful, but do not show the range of emotion that she shows in concert. Because of this, many people don't see the true passion that she has for her music, and why we are so stronly attatched to her songs. Some people are more visually moved than through song. These people will finally understand how powerful her music and her approach are through this video. Little Earthquakes, her earilier video had some very good live performances, but they were scattered, and her songs that were on Mtv style videos (winter, china, crucify,and silent all these years) were excluded live, and that hurt that video (it is still one of the best videos I own, and I highly recommend it...). But in Live From New York, she shines, performing a number of songs from her first three albums (Little Earthquakes, Under The Pink, and Boys For Pele), and b-sides (the beautiful Upside Down), from her vast repitore. This is older Tori, though, and it is necessary for anyone who is a newer Tori fan to see. This is nothing like her tours now, with a full band. This is just her and her piano, occasionally accomponied by Steve Caton on guitar. The music is well recorded, and the whole concert is on the tape, containing 17 songs....The price is high for this video in the USA because it is offically released only in Canada and Europe. This is the Canadian version (European videos don't work in North American VCR's), but it is well worth the cash to see her perform her songs. The versions are similar to on the albums, but no where near the same. Precious Things has a long ending with her sounding like she is going insane toward the end, but we are going insane with her. Her singing of Winter, Little Earthquakes, and Upside Down are tear jerking, and when she sings Me And A Gun, her song about when she was raped, let's just say that I cry everytime I see it. EVERYTIME....... So, get rid of those expensive low-quality bootleg live Tori videos, and get your hands on this magnificent video that chronicles her earlier years, and shows her true musical abilities so beautifully. And if you don't know much about Tori, this is a great place to start, but by no means the only thing you need of hers to complete a collection. Once you hear her, you will never be the same. How many other actors, writers, or musicians can you say that about?

If you love Tori Amos even one-tenth as much as I love Tori Amos, you have to have this video concert performance (which is still, most inexplicably, not available on DVD). There is no concern experience remotely like the Tori Amos concert experience. Most stars rely on pyrotechnics, intricate light displays, huge video monitors, and the raucous playing of all sorts of loud instruments to wow their audiences - but not Tori. What you basically get here is Tori and her piano (and an organ, which she plays on a few select songs); there's a guy on electric guitar off in the corner that plays on a number of songs, but the whole setup is minimalist at best. Tori's performance itself is truly almost impossible to describe; it can only be understood by way of experience. She does things no other artist would ever do: she sometimes sings in the barest of whispers, produces some guttural wails that don't even sound human, bobs up and down as she plays, and makes an assortment of odd gestures and motions that non-fans would probably consider unnatural. The uninitiated might well think Tori is having fits or some type of seizure at times, and that is why I must stress the point that this concert performance is really suited for established Tori fans only. If you don't get Tori's music, you certainly won't get this performance.

I always have a devil of a time trying to review Tori Amos material. Tori is much more than a brilliant musician, songwriter, singer, and performer - she is a spiritual guru; cosmic truths fall from her lips, and you want to be there at her feet so that you can catch all of them. She gives everything, even more than just her heart and soul, into her performance. The expressiveness of her face is almost magical. Take the song Winter, for instance - you can see Tori become a child again at one point, with a vulnerability that is palpable. There's an erotic quality to her performance, as well, although it is by no means intentional. Tori is, simply put, not human - she lives on a higher spiritual plane than the rest of us, and I for one feel blessed to have her here with us.

This concert took place on January 23, 1997, in Madison Square Garden. It was a benefit concert to launch Tori's "Unlock the Silence" tour, which helped raise awareness for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (Tori, if you don't know, was a victim of rape). At this point in her career, she had released three albums, so the majority of these 16 songs come from Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink, and Boys For Pele. Tori also includes two songs not found on those albums.

The concert starts off rather calmly with Beauty Queen/Horses and Leather, then Tori spins around to play the organ on Blood Roses. After Little Amsterdam, the intensity goes up several notches with Cornflake Girl. Before she sings, Tori hops out to the front of the stage and does some kind of bizarre dance that I can't begin to explain, but the way she nails the first notes of the song even before she even completely sits back down at the piano is just magical. Waitress is always a crowd favorite, and the less familiar Upside Down is a wonderful song (some of Tori's most popular concert songs have always been B sides or previously unreleased material).

Winter is truly special. As I mentioned above, you will be mesmerized by Tori's expression as she sings what will always be one of her most beautiful songs. From here she goes into Precious Things. This has always been one of my very favorite songs, with lyrics that clearly come from the painful experience of youth lying deep inside Tori's heart. In this performance, Tori holds nothing back; it is almost traumatic in spots, as you see raw, heartfelt emotion poured out of Tori's very soul. It's then back to the organ for Caught a Lite Sneeze (actually, Tori alternates between organ and piano on this song) and Talula. Talula is clearly the most energetic performance of the night, which makes the next song, Me and a Gun, all the more powerful. Me and a Gun is, of course, Tori's a capella song about being raped. Her courage is awe-inspiring; without music accompanying her, Tori is essentially up there alone and completely vulnerable as she sings about one of the most traumatic experiences one can have. Marianne is another song not found on one of her albums, and it is given special meaning as it has to do with a friend of Tori's who apparently killed herself. Silent All These Years, the signature song for the "Unlock the Silence" tour, rounds out a stellar performance. The sell-out crowd wants more, of course, and Tori returns with Tool front man Maynard James Kennan to sing Muhammed My Friend, after which she closes out the night with an amazing version of Pretty Good Year.

Any Tori Amos concert is a unique, phenomenal event. This is a video you will play again and again, as it contains Tori magic in one of its most concentrated forms. I would repeat my advice, however, to only approach this concert video if you are already a Tori fan. This concert video was made just for us.

Tori's stellar performance gave me chills. Her jazzy rendition of Cornflake Girl made me want to dance, and I have to admit to singing along to that one as well. But the greatest moments were when she pulled out Maynard James Keenan (Who has the voice of a God) to sing Muhamed my Friend with her. And the almost traumatic performance of Tori's masterpeice, Precious Things, will have you in tears.

I thought this video was wonderful. Tori was captavaiting. I myself could not of lived without this, she start with music from Pele (buy it!) and does some from pink and earthquakes. She does wait a long time to Do "Silent All These Years" bbut it is one of the best she does. I also loved it when she did "Muhamed my friend".

It's one thing to listen to Tori's songs,but it's quite another to watch her perform them. I couldn't take my eyes from the screen. To see her animated face and provacative gestures was enough to get me wiggling with delight!! I was pleased that there was so much material on the video, not to mention the variety. I absolutely loved "Upside Down",and both "Winter" and "Me and a Gun" brought me to tears. Some of the camera angles could have been better, but other than that, this video was wonderful. It's a definite must have for any Toriphile.

Live From New York was my first viewing of Tori Amos in a live setting. I have all of her studio LPs and I was interested in how they would translate to a live atmosphere. I was surprised seeing as how the songs were taken drastically altered from their studio version with Tori lingering on words and twisting syllables into weird pronounciations. I don't think any other performer could pull it off, but Tori does it with grace. Her occasional fleeting smile and unpredictable manner in which she switches vocal gears in a split second and sometimes breaks out into an all out frenzy as in the end of "Precious Things". Instead of ruining the performance as one might think, it added a pecuilarity and energy to it. As Kurt Cobain once said (I don't have this verbatim): "You can play something as sloppy as you want but as long as it has passion behind it." And that's primarily what happens at a Tori Amos concert from what I saw. The passion and conviction behind what Tori was singing made the performance the success that it was. At times, she seemed to go off the deep end with the vocals but her amazing piano solos keep her grounded. "Me And A Gun" is definitely the highlight performance of the video. Just in how the shadows play off her face and her wide eyes stare unflinchingly into the camera as she sings. It's definitely a powerful moment. The duet with Maynard was a highlight as well bringing a new dimension to "Muhammad My Friend". All in all, if you are a Tori fan this will only increase your devotion and respect. If you don't like Tori, your opinion won't change with this video and you'll probably dislike her even more.

As usual, Tori's performance is amazing. Her songs take on a new quality when played live....I love her quiet intro to "The Waitress" (shivers), and that little dance before "Cornflake Girl" is just adorable. Yes, she does lose herself in "Precious Things" to an almost frightening degree (but that's why we love her, right?). And I was happy to see "Upside Down", a favorite b-side of mine, make an appearance. This video is a nice cornerstone for any Tori collection....I also recommend the Little Earthquakes long-form video.

Wow! This video from Tori Amos (possibly the most talented yet under rated artist of current times) is simply phenomenal. I have never seen her play live and this video confirms praise for her live performances. She starts off slowly with "Beauty Queen/Horses" and eventually goes on to her more familiar songs. Tori's facial expressions are classic, and she leaves the audience in awe with her beautiful voice, wonderful piano playing. I cannot say much else about this except BUY IT if you're a Tori fan. If you aren't, well you just won't understand what true talent is.