A rainy Friday night was enlivened by the return of hometown heroine (and Richard Montgomery High alumni — Go, uhm…Rockets! Right? Y’all are the Rockets?) Tori Amos, who took to the DAR Constitution Hall armed with her giant black Bösendorfer piano, her touring band, and a new record. That record, American Doll Posse, is an odd sort of concept album revolving around a bunch of different characters that Amos invented, costumed, and, I believe, even gave blogs. So, it’s a little bit like the career of Ryan Avent. I’m just glad the record is better than her last, The Beekeeper, which sounded like a bland stab for adult contemporary radio airplay.

I’ll readily admit that I do not have the fullest grasp of the underlying conceit of ADP, so, we’ll leave it to my wife to explain:

American Doll Posse is a response to the war in Iraq, along with other worldly disasters. Rather than just Tori singing the songs, she has enlisted the help of four “other singers,” each with her own views and personalities, to fill out the album. The other singers are, in fact, aspects of Tori’s own self. (It’s interesting to note that the album, while listing the various characters’ names for the vocals, always credits the Bösendorfer playing to Tori Amos. No one but herself touches the precious Bösey, not even manifestations of her own mind.)

Why does this matter? Because Tori has been carrying this conceit over into her live show, where one of the “characters” opens each show with a five-or-six song set of her own. In our case, the blonde-wigged documentarian “Isabel” came out to play, and I'm told that this makes sense because she’s the most overtly “political” of the personalities, and, appropriately, opened the show with “Yo George” on the record. I’m guessing you don’t have to have a degree in semiotics to know who that song is about. Honestly, the whole character thing, it didn't necessarily add much to the goings-on. Besides a wig, I mean.

Soon enough, though, “Isabel” finished her mini-set, leaving Tori to change clothes as her band played along with one of the remixes of “Professional Widow.” Amos returned to stage a few minutes later, and, to the delight of everyone, was wearing a one-piece sequined jumpsuit that looked like an American flag.

So, right away, you got the feeling that this wouldn’t be one of those shows where “Me And A Gun” got played, you know?

And, indeed, it wasn’t one of those shows. Maybe it was the fact that she was home in D.C., maybe it was because she wanted to brighten a rain-soaked night, maybe it was because she was wearing a giant, sequined American flag, but Amos kept the mood buoyant throughout the remainder of the show, seemingly bent on the fairly simple mission of having as much fun as possible. So she glammed it up in a most unladylike fashion (one wonders what Laura Sessions Stepp would make of Amos), grinding her crotch above the piano bench, adding bright touches to songs like “Bells For Her” and “Cornflake Girl,” and just generally maintaining a festive air, to the extent that even some of her more melancholy tunes, like “1000 Oceans”, seemed shot through with a tripping lightheartedness.

From what I’ve gathered from the forums, however, Amos’ good time did not necessarily equate to a good time for all of those assembled, many of whom place a higher importance on having an intense, cathartic experience. As one commenter on www.undented.com complained, “She hasn’t played a good show in DC since the [Strange Little Girls] tour. It was day the US began attacking Afghanistan and it was one of the most intense shows I have seen.” Yeah, yeah. I was at that show myself, and can concur, but jeez — you just can’t bomb Afghanistan every day, you know?

Amos has always kept a couple traditions alive throughout her touring career. One is her ever-changing set list, never the same from show to show, which always digs deep into her back catalog. Another is a mid-set turn with just her and her piano – on this tour, that time is called “T & Bö” – which gives long-standing fans a thread back to her earlier, pre-backing band days. Friday night, she played “Leather” and “Jackie’s Strength” without the band, dedicating the former song to some (presumably sexually liberated) friends in the house.

It’s also become something of a tradition for fans to gather at the front of the stage during her encores – a tradition that was honored Friday night. Tori gave the audience two encores, leading off with “Precious Things,” which, with the band behind it, has transformed over the years into a raucous and elastic rock animal, following it with a soaring "Pancake," the ebullient new single “Bouncing Off Clouds,” and the ever-beloved “Hey Jupiter” to finish things off.

Oh, and hey: Remember when Arcade Fire came and asked fans to come down toward the stage? And then remember how days later, they went to Radio City Music Hall and did the same thing, only to have venue officials wade into the crowd and start wilding on people? As much as DAR gets maligned for it’s awful, cavernous acoustics, at least the folks that run the place actually let the rock shows happen. And, yeah, what happened Friday night wasn’t a searingly intense glass case of emotion, but it was energetic, sly, and perhaps the most purely fun Amos show I can recall attending. So while normally, I’d totally call out the people who brought an eighteen-month old baby to the show to have its cochlea permanently damaged for being full-on idiots, I’m going to take a cue from our area homecoming queen made good, and simply repeat: I believe in peace, bitch.

Set List:
Yo George
In The Springtime of His Voodoo
Devils and Gods
Almost Rosey
Tombigbee
Scarlet’s Walk
Professional Widow (Remix)
Big Wheel
Parasol
Hotel
Cornflake Girl
Bells For Her
Spring Haze
Leather
Jackie’s Strength
1000 Oceans
Concertina
Code Red
Precious Things
Pancake
Bouncing Off Clouds
Hey Jupiter

Photo from toriamos.com