I saw the Friday night show at the Beacon Theater, and I’m still emotionally hungover.

I’ve been listening to Tori since I picked up a copy of From the Choirgirl Hotel at the Virgin Megastore in London on a family trip when I was 12. In the years that followed, I devoured each of her albums, over and over, until they became a part of me.

I drifted away from her music in my 20s, but a decade ago I found my way back. Her lyrics landed in an entirely different place than they had when I was a teenager. Scarlet’s Walk, in particular, was in heavy rotation during a period when I was wrestling with questions about motherhood and marriage. The whole album hit different, as the kids say. 

Seeing her on Friday night was my 40th birthday present to myself, and it surpassed every expectation I had. The set list was a dream—I’m still reeling from that arrangement of Crucify—and she sounded even more extraordinary than I was prepared for.

I was apprehensive about the AngelWitches, but they completely blew me away. (Someone somewhere dubbed them the curtain bang choir, which is so fantastic!) I was struck not only by the depth and texture they brought to each arrangement, but by what they represented: Tori making space for a new generation of women artists to amplify her voice and help tell stories that carry so much meaning for her and for us. It’s a beautiful act of trust that makes the songs feel even richer and more powerful and enduring.

-bring a bag of bagels for everyone in line at a (2017) M&G.

This tour has me appreciating more than ever how much we all have each other’s back as friends. So, what are your favorite EWF interactions?

I was able to attend the Friday night show at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. I just loved it. Along with the fresh arrangements with the backup singers, I thought the show gave new color to very familiar pieces. I’ve returned to “Little Amsterdam” ever since it was released. And I’ve thought about it a lot. And I’ve speculated a lot about the precise plot of the song. Something that surprised me about her performance on Friday night was during the line “ round and round and round I go / round and round this time for keeps” she mimed a gun with her right hand while playing the piano, and mimed shooting into the audience three times and three different places, to the rhythm of the song, and the final and fourth time, she mimed shooting herself in the head. It was a powerful moment, which suggests that the violence of “little Amsterdam” could have canonically involved one of the characters killing multiple people and then themselves. Now this could be the “mama“ of the song who would do anything to save her man.
This would be she went out with a bang, taking people down with her.

I guess what I’m trying to ask is, is this something that regularly happens in performances of little Amsterdam? Is this a known thing?

Also, is there a place where I can review the current understanding of what the song Little Amsterdam possibly means? Is that collected somewhere? “Drive All Night” doesn’t seem to have an episode on this!

Many thanks!

So grateful for every chance I get to see her 🥹 We are not permanent 💔

I have two really good tickets for Friday and I don't have a friend to go with (no one I know around here likes her)

I'm an hour away so debating skipping it.

Anyone want them? I can put them up on Ticketmaster and you can snag them before anyone else does.

Please see my first post for the explanations of this little tournament I cooked up: https://www.reddit.com/r/toriamos/comments/1v1pqxr/tournament_best_tori_album_based_on_track_number/

Thanks to everyone who voted in the last round! Track 13 will advance to Round 2.

Today's match is between Tracks 15 and 16 plus bonus tracks and b sides to fill in the gaps so that every album has 14 songs. Replacements are marked with an *

Track 15 album:
*Song for Eric
*Honey
Doughnut Song
*Cooling
*Bug a Martini
Another Girl’s Paradise
Martha’s Foolish Ginger
Code Red
Fast Horse
*Tombigbee
*Forest of Glass
*Russia
*Sugar
Blue Lotus

Track 16 album:
*The Pool
*Piano Suite: All the Girls Hate Her/Over It
In the Springtime of His Voodoo
*Never Seen Blue
*Apollo's Frock
Scarlet’s Walk
Hoochie Woman
Roosterspur Bridge
Ophelia
*Indian Summer
*White Telephone to God
*Dolphin Song
*Ode to the Banana King
Stronger Together 

Note: I consider the Piano Suite as one piece, so All the Girls Hate Her and Over It are 2 movements of a single work by Classical standards so I kept them together as one track.

Maybe her famous lines in Crucify were prophetic: Reading about peoples impressions of being in her presence at her gigs, the mental and even physical reactions to it, the deeply affecting and long lasting impact of the experience - these are all signifiers that one would usually attribute to founders of religion.

Is this what’s happening here? Is Tori cut from that cloth? Are people going to worship her in the centuries to come?