In Times of Dragons – July 31st – Leader Bank Pavilion
One of the things I’ve always respected about Tori Amos is that she never seems particularly interested in making the record people expect her to make.
After more than thirty years, she probably could. She has the audience. She has the catalog. If she wanted to spend every summer playing the songs everyone already knows, there would still be plenty of people lining up to see her.
That’s never really been her thing.
When Tori Amos comes to Leader Bank Pavilion on July 31, she’ll be touring behind In Times of Dragons, her eighteenth studio album. It’s the kind of record that reminds you she’s still chasing ideas instead of comfort.
The album follows a fictional version of Amos as she escapes an abusive billionaire husband and heads across America. Along the way she crosses paths with mythical figures, old friends, and eventually the version of herself she’ll need to become if she’s going to survive the story she’s living through. It’s an unusual premise, but Tori Amos has never really worried about whether something sounds unusual on paper.
The mythology isn’t really the point. It’s the way Amos uses it to explore questions about power, fear, and the choices people make when the world around them starts to feel unfamiliar. Amos has said the album grew out of trying to process the political and emotional uncertainty of the moment. Rather than write songs that tell listeners what to think, she built a fictional world and let those ideas live inside it.
That’s a pretty good description of her career, honestly.
She’s never been the kind of songwriter who hands you easy answers. You spend time with her records. Sometimes they click immediately. Sometimes they don’t. Then you come back a year later and hear something you completely missed the first time.
That’s why this tour feels interesting.
It isn’t built around looking backward. From everything that’s come out about the early shows, the new songs are being given room to breathe alongside the older material, and the setlists continue to change from night to night. If you’ve seen Tori Amos before, you already know that’s part of the appeal. If you haven’t, it’s a good reason to start now.
Another thread running through In Times of Dragons is family. Several songs were written with her daughter, Natashya Hawley, who also sings throughout the album. It feels like a natural fit for a record that’s already thinking about what gets carried forward from one generation to the next.
Whether you’ve been listening since Little Earthquakes or you’ve never spent much time with Tori Amos at all, this feels like a good moment to catch an artist who’s still following her own instincts instead of leaning on everything she’s already accomplished.
Sometimes that’s all I really need to know before buying a ticket.
Show Information
Tori Amos
In Times of Dragons Tour
Thursday, July 31
Leader Bank Pavilion – Boston, MA
Tickets and additional information are available through Tori Amos’ official website.
About Show Spotlight
Show Spotlight is Ink on the Merrimack’s recurring series highlighting upcoming concerts, the artists behind them, and the stories that make each show worth seeing.