Matt Bielejeski, Staff Writer 

Watching some red-haired banshee belt out songs for an hour and a half is well worth some lost sleep. 

Fall break ended in a pleasant manner for me two Sundays ago.  I hung around Raleigh to catch Tori Amos at Walnut Creek Amphitheater. 

 Although we didn’t arrive back in Boone until 3 a.m. (my friends and I, not Tori and I, don’t I wish...), it was well worth the late arrival. 

I first heard about this red-haired vixen when I arrived here as a freshman, waaaaaaaaay back in 1996. Almost every female I knew had some sort of Tori paraphernalia adorning her dorm room, usually with accompanying music being played 24-7.  Whenever I was hanging out in the rooms/Tori shrines, I began to like her style of music.  However, I was never motivated enough to go and spend my hard earned cash on a CD. I always told myself though, that if she ever came to North Carolina for a concert, I’d definitely be there. 

About two weeks before the show, I was browsing through The Appalachian when I saw a schedule for Walnut Creek that said she was playing. 
 
I alerted my friend (a die-hard Tori fanatic), and we decided to go, even though it was on a Sunday night and the drive back would be a pain in the...uh...posterior. We snagged our tickets and looked forward to the break a little more than most people. 

Due to my friend’s casual feelings about time, she arrived at my house five minutes after the concert had started, or so we thought. The tickets said 7:30 p.m., but she was convinced that we’d get there in plenty of time. Turns out she was right.  Chalk one on the Jeski-Incorrect-Tote (kind of like they use for Dr. Drew on LoveLine). 

We arrived at Walnut Creek about 7:45 p.m., with no music booming from the speakers. We hadn’t missed anything. Our date with destiny was still intact. 

Proceeding to mill around the venue, we decided to throw down some hard-earned cash for a souvenir T-shirt, conveniently over-priced at $27. But hey, it’s Tori. You just have to get something to remember the night by, right? 

We found our seats and hung out until the lights went out and there was a great rustling backstage.  The curtain fell, the band played, Tori walked out, and for the next hour and a half, I was paralyzed. 

Paralyzed in a good way, mind you. The time went by so quickly that when I blinked, she was walking offstage. However, as every good concert-goer knows, there pretty much has to be one encore. 

After about 30 seconds of rousing fanfare from the crowd, the Lady in Red (dress and hair) launched into “She’s Your Cocaine” and “Raspberry Swirl,” two high-energy songs from her most recent album. At one point during the first song, she played both the piano and the keyboard at once. The cool part was that they were 180 degrees from each other. She had a swivel chair so she could switch musical instruments in the middle of a song. 
 
During the encore, she had to turn completely facing the audience and play the grand piano with her left hand and the keyboard with her right. Wow. 
 
Thirty minutes and three songs later, she left the stage for the last time, never to return that night. I felt deflated.  One of the most intense musical experiences of my life had just occurred, and now it was over. All that was left were memories. Consequently, I listened to her newest CD (the only one I had) on the way during my three-hour trek back to Boone in the middle of the long, cold night. 

I’ve heard many people describe going to a Tori concert as nothing short of orgasmic. I can now understand why. More than one female friend of mine has confided in me that they’re strongly heterosexual, but they’d do Tori. I can now understand why. 

I could ramble on and on about the intensity of her performance, the passion in her song writing, and the honesty of her music. To do that, however, would be blasphemy. Trying to put an experience that powerful into words is doomed to failure. The column you’ve just read has been one more writer’s feeble attempt to clothe the intangible in a tangible form so others can get an inkling of the experience. 

All in all, the concert and the surrounding events were nothing short of amazing. If you ever have a chance to see her live, don’t pass it up. I have found another musician to add to my list of favorites. She was great, stupendous, and spectacular. It all boils down to one thing: you go, girl.