Amos offers dramatic UM concert

Those who came to see Tori Amos Friday night at the Maine Center for the Arts got more than just a concert. They got an event.

The sell-out, mostly college-age crowd had come to see the critical darling. And they didn’t leave disappointed.

Amos took the stage after a 25-minute intermission. Garbed in a black, spaghetti-strap dress with matching black bra and over-the-knee black hose, she opened with her version of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.”

Through the next 80 minutes, Amos played many tunes from her two Atlantic albums, “Little Earthquakes” and “Under the Pink,” along with covers of Nirvana’s “(Smells Like) Teen Spirit” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide.”

But Amos had three elements that lifted her performance above a regular concert. First was her sweeping soprano, a versatile instrument which she took from a whisper to a scream.

Second was her keyboard mastery. Amos didn’t just use her hands. When she played the high notes on the scale, her entire upper body went up and down with the music.

Third was the emotional resonance which Amos invests in her songs. Feet stomping, her auburn hair whipping, her body gyrating, she put her all into it. When she sang the stark, a cappella “Me and a Gun,” about her being raped, there wasn’t a noise in Hutchins Concert Hall.

A major part of the performance was excellent lighting, which largely matched the music. When Amos sang softly, the lighting was subdued. When her volume rose, so did the brashness of the lights.

Drama and theatricality were a big part of what Amos did. So wrapped up was she in her performance that the audience became almost superfluous. She cut off applause with each new number, and addressed the crowd only once during the show. Yet she came across as focused, rather than aloof.

Opening the evening was Peter Stewart. Stewart wove social commentary with plaintive tales about relationships in a semi-intelligible style reminiscent of the early Springsteen. He slowly but surely won over the audience during his seven-song set.