Tori Amos serenades her ‘Circle of Friends’ at the W Midtown Hotel
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Prior to her concert tonight at Chastain Amphitheater, veteran alternative rock goddess Tori Amos treated 40 fans to an intimate mini concert at the W Midtown Hotel.
During the hour long set, Amos spun her usual magic, mesmerizing the audience with her signature seductive vocals and haunting melodies. Not a single word was uttered from the crowd they clung to every note as she performed four songs including well known staples like “Leather” and “Silent all these years” and some new material, “Lady In Blue” and “500 miles” from her most recent album Abnormally Attracted to Sin.
Amos is well known for her informal pre-concert chats with her loyal followers. In between the two, two song sets, Amos answered a couple of questions from the fans.
When asked how these crowd chats came about she said, “I wanted to know who was coming to the shows. Because you’re singing all this emotional stuff and you figure, ‘well it doesn’t seem right not to be able to see each others eyes.’ And I get a sense before every show just by meeting people and talking to them and hearing what’s been going on. You get a tone of what’s being going on in that city on that day. Every event like this changes it, because it brings it to such a real place.”
Her fans were interested to know that Amos creates her concert set as she rolls into each town. However they were surprised to discover Atlanta holds a special significance for her and the concert set list process takes on a life of its own whenever she’s in town.
“Atlanta is different because my mom and dad went to Emory (University). My mom (Mary Ellen Amos) worked in the Dean’s office and my dad (Rev. Dr. Edison) was on the ministry side. My grandmother came down from the Smokies as an indentured servant to North Georgia, so there’s a trail that I’m following that is driving this whole thing as a bloodline,” she states. “Certain cities that I’m not connected to through family, I come in from a completely different detachment but with this place (Atlanta), you can’t get away from the ancestors…they take over.”
The questions tendered during the session were not limited to Amos’ music. When a fan, Kenny, asked for advice on passing his upcoming bar exam, Amos quipped, “You have to go like you’re going to a concert. I know people who’ve failed the bar several times because they get so worked up – you can’t get worked up. You have to walk into the side of Kenny that already has passed the bar. You’re already passed it on a different plane, so you have to now come back from your future and just take it.”
Today’s show is part of Dave FM’s ongoing “Circle Of Friends” concert series. Listeners can find out more about this shows and register for upcoming concerts from their website.
Bonus:
Tori Amos Performs “Silent All These Years”
(Photo by Adam Davila)
They’ve been called the black Eurythmics. They even ate pancakes with Prince.