All it took was one night with Tori Amos for final proof that the ’90s femme-plosion is back.
Signs were already there: Alanis is playing Riot Fest, Courtney Love has been teasing Hole revamps, Sarah McLachlan made a Lilith Fair documentary (and Olivia Rodrigo has created her own version of the fest this summer). But when Amos whipped out an earth-shattering version of her 1992 debut track “Little Earthquakes” at the Auditorium Theatre Friday night, it unilaterally unlocked memories of wearing out her albums (nay, her bibles) while burning incense sticks and flipping through Jane and Sassy magazines.
And it felt good to be back.
The Day 1 fans were ready for the journey. They sold out the show, proudly brandishing vintage “I Believe in Peace, B—-” shirts (a lyric from 1994’s “The Waitress,” which Amos also nailed in the set). Grown men and women also shrieked when she pulled out rarer songs like a stunning gospel take of 1996’s “Way Down.” And the house gave Amos a standing ovation upon her first steps to the stage, before she even perched at her trusty piano.
There are music fans, and then there are Tori Amos fans — and over the course of nearly two hours, the beloved singer-songwriter delivered a show that activated her base and signed up any new members still on the fence. Even more remarkable, it’s all in spite of not playing her undying hits, “Big Wheel,” “Crucify” and “Cornflake Girl.” Indianapolis got that trifecta a few days prior, but Chicago got a mystifying “Winter,” a ghostly “Precious Things” and a rattling “i i e e e,” so, clearly, no complaints.
Amos has been mastering unique sets for each night of this current tour, which is a feat considering it requires the rapt focus of her backing ensemble, although they’re probably used to it by now. “We’ve been playing together forever,” Amos said, introducing musical director/vocal arranger/bassist Jon Evans and impeccable drummer Earl Harvin whose percussive wizardry and tribal thumps added to the ethereal mood of the night and allowed lots of space for Amos’ personality and vocals to fill. Helping her was a trio of “magical angel witches” on backup vocals, including Liv Gibson, Deni Hlavinka and Hadley Kennary, a Chicago native and graduate of New Trier. Their coordinated syncopation was downright stunning, evoking the alluring power of mythological sirens on the high seas.
There is one part of the Amos’ set, however, that has been repeated each night like ritual. It’s a mood-setting opener of “Fire to Your Plain” (2009) into the bold-new manifesto “Shush” from her latest album, “In Times of Dragons.” It’s a dark elegy that lambasts the silencing of women in the face of oppression and authoritarianism. In it, Amos calls out both the cursed prophet Cassandra and the modern heroine Courtney Love while also paying homage to the girl who wrote “Silent All These Years” long ago. Amos didn’t perform that number, but the message was still clear. Nearly 35 years after her groundbreaking debut, all the themes she wrote about back then — feminism, power, trauma, sociopolitics — are ever-relevant and there’s still work to be done.
That theme is the bedrock of “In Times of Dragons,” a concept album that Amos wrote (some parts with her twentysomething daughter Tash) as an allegory of the fight for democracy against tyrannical imposition. Friday’s show drove it home with curated imagery. As Amos barreled into “Shush,” the silhouette of a dragon appeared on a circular screen behind her, its claws moving, ready for a kill.
Yet, on later songs, as the proverbial heavy curtain lifted by the time Amos got to a defiant “God,” the circle became more of a mirror or looking glass for what a future could be if we perhaps learn from the truth speakers.
In these strange and harrowing times, the cultural coven has been activated. In recent months, feminist witches from Florence Welch to Lorde have been invoking similar messages and casting their own spells on attentive audiences. While Amos may be a mother of the movement who opened the floodgates for the many transfixing singer-songwriters today, she wasn’t the first and she paid homage to one of her predecessors Friday.
The night wrapped with something “special” for Chicago: a rare performance of her 1992 B-side track, “Take to The Sky,” mixing in a bit of renegade Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move.” If there was any parting message, it was knowing that “In Times of Dragons,” it’s the ones who speak and sing with fire that have the power.
Tori Amos set list for Aug. 14, 2026, show at Auditorium Theatre
Fire to Your Plain
Shushi
i e e e
Bliss
Angelshark
Icicle
Way Down
Little Earthquakes
Sweet Sangria
God
Winter
The Waitress
Taxi Ride
Precious Things
Encore
Body and Soul
Take to the Sky