There’s no denying Tori Amos’ musicianship. The youngest student admitted to Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory at the age of five, Amos has been playing piano since she could reach the keys. Sandwiched between a set of synths and a baby grand on the stage at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, she’s in her element. There's no need for a band, she’s got enough sound, sometimes reaching for the baby grand with one hand and the keyboards with the other. Her independence as a solo musician and natural skill as a vocalist and pianist means that she’s also totally free up there to reach for as many notes as she can and hold them as long as she’d like.
Given the downsized, intimate nature that comes with being a solo performer, alone on a stage before the audience, you’d think that Amos would take the opportunity to connect with us in the crowd a little more. It's not that her onstage demeanour is cold, but there still seems to be some kind of a wall between audience and artist. She’s mostly just here to play songs. It’s a little while before she even talks to us and when she does, it’s a dig at, of course, Donald Trump. The aesthetically-minded back drop of a forest is replaced by a photoshopped Fox News logo reading Fake Muse Network, as Amos acknowledges the crazy times we live in, with, gratefully, no mention by name of the crazy man behind them. It’s more than a little out of place as the background for an otherwise ethereally flawless cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River”, maybe seasonally a little early given that it’s a Christmas song, but as she has the vocal range to cover it with a musical and emotional freedom, we’d be happy to hear it in the heat of July. It’s followed up by, of all things, a darkly emotional “Smells Like Teen Spirit” cover, which almost makes you wish she’d keep up the covers for more of the set.
Finale one ends with arguably one of her more well-known songs, “Sorta Fairytale”, which, as is the case with some of Amos’ classics, falls short lyrically, leaning on dramatic cliches. Yet, the power of her vocals and skills as a pianist enable her to turn it into something new. The audience demands an encore, and Amos obliges, but only for one more song. The crowd of devotees applauds and applauds in an effort to bring her back to the stage yet again. Still, no matter how loud they cheer, the house lights still rise, our cue to go home. She won’t be coming back tonight.