Tori Amos @ O2 Academy, 10 May

Tonight we are very much guests in Tori Amos´ house. There is a reassuring assertiveness and sense of purpose in the way the singer, now turned 50, suggests the main bar closes from 8.30pm. Far from being a sober drag, the resultant lack of clinking change in tills and people skipping back and forth across the all-seated eye-lines is gratefully accepted. Especially when Amos invests so much of herself in her music. Rising and plunging on a sea of faux ivory dynamics, there are few moments that bear missing.

Amidst the solid and well-received newer material from imminent 14th LP Unrepentant Geraldines are a handful of playful covers (the Scottish setting inviting nods to The Eurythmics and James Taylor) as well as some truly exceptional older numbers, including arguable concert-highlight Winter, which is accompanied by some beautifully judged lighting and finds itself settled in that most clichéd – yet fitting – of categories: spellbinding.

An entreatment by some of Tori´s minions, prior to the show, that the first few rows leap to their feet and stand throughout the encore, is the only slight jarring note. Especially when the plea was made on the basis that we need to “show Tori how much we love her,” the ticket price, clocking in just under £50 with booking fee, apparently not proof enough. Yet that is a small gripe in an otherwise captivating evening. [Chris Cusack]