I have been, let us say, fixated on being able to share this concert video widely for more than 20 years. My unstoppable friend Jerry recently began rescuing items from my soon to be vacated storage unit, and he came up with the missing parts. This is from the portion of this historic tour when Tori and Caton were well used to the repertoire, they were in the pocket, and they weren’t tumbling down the final portion of the hill in a race to the finish line-​although I have special affection for the last few weeks of the Dew Drop Inn tour. At least, from recordings. I wasn’t in attendance ​that late ​except for the last two shows which were in Boulder, plus the Concert for RAINN on 23 Jan 1997, which was conceived as a DDI concert, but was more a retrospective. Mind, I love the Concert for RAINN, but to those who saw the video of that and feel it’s the best DDI show there ever was, give this one a go and you might reconsider.
I feel this show, and the Peoria and Normal shows, all from Illinois, are the top musical examples on video from the tour, but the setlist on this Springfield show can’t be beat. My usual motto at Tori concerts has long been, “Screw the setlist,” but this one has more than its share of the custard-filled songs topped with cream cheese icing. I still believe, however, it’s music, not a competition.
The audience, for other than a few brief moments, are rapt. They are fully in it. They slowed their minds at the start with the single note guidance of “Beauty Queen” through the whirling Leslie speaker, then followed Tori through the warrens of the rabbit hole. Despite misconceptions held by some, Tori will give a better concert when the audience is fully bought in on the ride. Not like bag-of-rocks silent, but quietly listening, where she feels the energy of engagement coming to her during the songs as a performer on a stage. When the audience focuses, she can go deep.
This concert exhibits the major ritualistic touchstones of the DDI tour. “BQ-Horses” to start, after entering to Dusty’s “Son of a Preacher Man” over the P.A. “Precious Things” is being played through the dead center of the concert at the 50-minute mark. “Me and a Gun” ends the first set, followed by a healing song when she returns to encore, and a song on the harmonium to end. You can see her signal for the harpsichord to be wheeled out and the harmonium to be rolled in. The video looks good for what it is, a multi-generation audience recording from the mezzanine, and it sounds good, but there are imperfections. Sadly, the videotape ended before “Hey, Jupiter” did, but we got three-fifteen of it, also my favorite lyric from it: “A magazine.” The last 40 minutes are noticably out of sync. If anyone has a nicer copy of this or any of the other DDI Illinois concert videos, I’d be happy to try to get a friend to digitize and upload it. Now wait for when you can pay attention for 100 minutes and enjoy!
July 27, 1996
Springfield, Illinois - Sangamon State Univ. Auditorium
Beauty Queen/Horses
I'm On Fire
Blood Roses
Little Amsterdam
Cornflake Girl
Butterfly
Little Earthquakes
Mr. Zebra
Tear In Your Hand
(talk)
Precious Things
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Talula
Landslide
Me and a Gun
Encore 1:
A Case of You
Alamo
Encore 2:
Whole Lotta Love (a few lines, a cappella)
Past the Mission
Honey
Hey Jupiter (harmonium)
Set details sourced from Toriphoria: www.yessaid.com/tour-1996.html
• Tori Amos & Steve Cato...