you for a while

I am still so utterly shocked that I am having trouble speaking in full sentences.

There are many reasons why I hate Chicago Tori Amos Concert goers (here Hate = Insanely Jealous). But one reason reins supreme:

You got to witness the world stopper that was Pip’s performance of Me and a Gun (video below). For those of you just tuning in to this penultimate Tori news moment…Pip closed her set with a terrifying, angry, emotional belting out of Me and a Gun while Matt and Jon played on. Pip stood center stage, leather-clad as usual, and literally spewed forth Me and a Gun like she was verbally thrashing her attacker himself. Such venom, pain, fright, and hatred all in one scary yet beautiful performance.

During the performance Pip held a knife to her throat, then threw it to the ground and picked up a gun and held it to her throat. Reports from the lucky (I hate you) fans who were there say that Tori…er, Pip had tears in her eyes and a snarl on her lips as she captivated her weak-kneed audience.

I applaud Tori/Pip’s performance as a tribute to what it really, truly must be like to live through torment such as that. Tori was brave before, when she got up on stage and owned her experience by singing Me and a Gun a capella. But this, geez, this is something else. This was a play-by-play of the actual experience. Pip takes us to a place we hope never to go…and makes us appreciate Tori for her honesty, openness, perseverance and strength even more.

I don’t know about you, but after the initial shock and awe I was left with one question. Where did this come from? With Tori, there is always a reason why she chooses songs…1) Why did she decide on Me and a Gun? and 2) Why did she decide to perform it this way? I have several guesses…perhaps she was reminded of the experience recently, or maybe she connected with a sexual assault victim in Chicago, maybe she was singing it for someone, maybe she has always wanted to do it and finally got the courage, maybe she Googled herself and saw that there are people out there who are actually doubting that she was raped and was absolutely enraged, maybe its been a long time coming…

One thing is for sure…this had been practiced. Tori never plays a song live that she hasn’t practiced over and over, especially if the boys are on board. The preponderance of the evidence falls in favor with this theory (imho):

When she sings Me and a Gun as Tori, she sings it from the place of a survivor, from the place of someone who has lead a movement to spread awareness of sexual abuse and to help women and men who have lived through rape or incest. Therefore she sings it the way it was written–in the moment when she took control over her emotions and decided to salvage strength from the experience and refuse to be a victim.

However, the concept of ADP is that we (as women) tend to section off parts of ourselves to present the world with one easy-to-understand image. The dolls represent all of those parts and through Pip, Tori was able to express to us, the audience, not the “survivor” or “leader” Tori but the extremely enraged, terrified, out of control, I-could-kill-you-motherf**ker-for-doing-that-to-me, Tori.

In other words, I think Tori knew that she herself was prone to sectioning off parts of herself and called herself out on it. She used Pip to give us (and herself) the full range of emotional experience and to be truthful to herself as to how she really feels.

Your thoughts?

One things for sure, I cannot wait until an interviewer asks her about this one.

Okay…so, other reasons why I hate the Chicago audience. You got two friggin’ shows for one thing! Oh, and Santa debuted Raspberry Swirl. *mean face slightly tinted with green*

The rest of the sets were equally amazing…full setlists for both Chicago shows are listed below (Chicago I also hate you because you got Winter, Your Cloud, and 1,000 Oceans)…NOT to mention an embedded YouTube vid of the harrowing Pip-does-MAAG experience.

(PS. I really do love Chicagonians!!)

Tori Amos in Chicago Night 1 Santa: Body and Soul She’s Your Cocaine Improv Dragon Secret Spell You Can Bring Your Dog Raspberry Swirl Tori: Big Wheel Concertina Tear In Your Hand Cornflake Girl Your Cloud Take To The Sky T&Bo: Improv China Cooling The boys are back: 1,000 Oceans Hotel Code Red Encore: Precious Things Hey Jupiter **

Tori Amos in Chicago Night 2 Pip: Cruel Bliss Teenage Hustling Fat Slut Smokey Joe The Waitress Me and a Gun Tori: Big Wheel Sugar Almost Rosey Cornflake Girl Liquid Diamonds Caught a Lite Sneeze T&Bo: Winter Improv Happy Phantom The boys are back: Digital Ghost Hotel Code Red Encore: Precious Things Bouncing Off Clouds Hey Jupiter

Filed under: ADP Tour on November 7th, 2007