Tori Amos – Live At Montreux 1991/1992 (Eagle Vision DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B     Extras: D     Concert: D

 

 

I do not like Tori Amos.  I never did or likely ever will.  She is shrill, self-centered, pointless, stylized to the point of satire, sounding her same whinny self on all her songs and with such a sense of self-importance that she is the anti-Kate Bush.  So now Eagle has issued a new DVD of two (ahhhhhhhhh) of her concerts on a single disc and though, well, let’s see if the clarity this disc offers makes her better and/or gives me new respect for her.

 

Wrong!  It just got worse.  The songs include:

 

1991

1)     Silent All These Years

2)     Precious Things

3)     China

4)     Crucify

5)     Leather

6)     Song For Eric

7)     Upside Down

8)     Happy Phantom

9)     Winter

10)  Thank You

 

 

1992

1)     Little Earthquakes

2)     Crucify

3)     Silent All These Years

4)     Precious Things

5)     Whole Lotta Love/Thank You

6)     Me & A Gun

7)     Winter

8)     Smells Like Teen Spirit

 

 

To say this becomes self-satire quickly is an understatement, including the Nirvana cover (as if she were the female Kurt Cobain) to the Led Zeppelin cover (which makes her seem like Celine Dion, but smugger!) and it goes on and on.  At least Upside Down is not a cover of the Diana Ross hit, which points to the sickest point of all.  She thinks she is all sensuality and no sex, which is as pretentious and anti-woman as I can think of.  The two shows are 90 minutes and to say the least, enough is enough.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 is an HD shoot, but looks like 1080i if that, showing softness throughout, though color could have been worse.  The DTS 5.1 mix is clear, too clear, delivering good fidelity for a recoding of the time, while the PCM 2.0 Stereo mix is not bad and Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the weakest of the three.  There are no extras except a paper pullout in the DVD case with an essay, but isn’t this enough?

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo