Tori Amos at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (gig review)

Tori Amos, performing at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, offered a mere handful of tracks from her new LP In Times of Dragons, alongside many others from her strongly-held 18 LP back-catalogue. She reminds fans that her two piano party trick, that controlled vocal, and her troubadour-like ability to weave stories, are not likely to go anywhere soon. 

Boldly hitting the stage in a vibrant, green outfit, she refused to fade into the hypnotic lull of her voice, and key tinkling.

She kicked off with her band and longtime collaborators, Jon Evans and Earl Harvin on bass and percussion, as well as her ‘angel witches’ backing singers. Gliding through her beguiling narratives, as she hauntingly hits us with ‘Shush’ from the new LP, the North Carolina-born singer, pianist and songwriter reminds us that she has more to offer than the renowned ‘Cornflake Girl’. 

More recently, her work has been addressing the tyrannical political forces that are prevalent in the US, and this is clear in the tracks that she performs from the LP tonight.

Impactful and wilfully melodramatic, In Times of Dragons flags Amos at her boldest. Despite 18 albums and several decades, there’s been a shift in the tales she tells but the playing and the vocal still hold.

Her repertoire is far from staid, as she illustrates with her set list, which varies from city to city with this tour. ‘Horses’ is just as haunting as when it first came out.

The more recently released ‘Stronger Together’ lingered between the ears long after leaving the venue. I was in awe as she intensely grappled with both pianos, offering an act of physical endurance, as she sits across her stool. The audience offered a standing encore for the finale: ‘Gold’ and ‘Big Wheel’ being played with big performance energy. 

She offers a performance that very few could imitate, and delivers that fearless vocal. Though Evans, Harvin and the ‘angels’ are not short of ability, Amos sits best at her most naked. Serenely intimate for the audience to hold, most clearly as she offers a rendition of Little Earthquakes’ ‘Crucify’ that had many grasping for their phones, before her erupting encore. 

Tori Amos’ new album In Times of Dragons is released 1st May