Clowns and Dolls

Tori Amos and ICP square off.

by M.J. Fine

Round up the troops — Monday's gonna be messy. Tori Amos will be at Tower Theatre with her band, her Bösendorfer and one of her alter egos; you never know who'll show up. "Clyde," "Isabel," "Pip" or "Santa" will play several songs from American Doll Posse and Amos' back catalog; then, after a costume change, "Tori" — who isn't quite the same character as the woman who was born Myra Ellen Amos — will come out to finish the job. Count on an intense "Code Red," the MILF-affirming single "Big Wheel," a delicious improv and whatever else suits her mood. Six and a half miles away, the Electric Factory hosts Insane Clown Posse's Hallowicked tour. And if you're like most horror-rap aficionados and stage-diving jokers, you won't wanna be caught dead anywhere near Amos and her gang of goddesses. Here's how to tell the two posses apart:

	Tori Amos	Insane Clown Posse
Latest album's peak position on the Billboard 200:	American Doll Posse, 2007 – No. 5	The Tempest, 2007 – No. 20
First album's peak position on the Billboard 200:	Little Earthquakes, 1992 — No. 54	Carnival of Carnage, 1992 — did not chart
Posse members:	Clyde, Isabel, Pip, Santa and Tori	Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope
Audience members:	Toriphiles and Ears With Feet	Juggalos and Juggalettes
Key album art:	A bewigged, blank-eyed Tori, with a Bible in one hand and "shame" written on the other, blood dripping down her leg	Two wicked clowns riding a roller coaster
Representative rhyme:	"My dark twin, the annihilating feminine/ Does not need civilizing"	"She can blow me there, I swear, right through the air/ If I ain't really there, my balls do not care"
Most likely to inspire amateur pole dancers:	"Teenage Hustling"	"The Party"
Freakiest canine encounter:	"You Can Bring Your Dog"	"Growing Again"
Most topical:	"Yo George"	"News at 6 O'Clock"
Sappiest piano ballad:	"Girl Disappearing"	"If I Was a Serial Killer"
Autobiography:	Piece By Piece by Tori Amos with Ann Powers	ICP: Behind the Paint by Violent J with Hobey Echlin
Filmography:	Wedding singer in 2003's Mona Lisa Smile	Cop and crime lord in 2000's Big Money Hustla$
Previous collaborators:	Trent Reznor, Damien Rice, Michael Stipe	Twiztid, Three 6 Mafia, Kottonmouth Kings
Back catalog's Eminem-baiting songs:	"'97 Bonnie & Clyde" turns Em's requiem for a wife-killer into the final words of the woman dying in his trunk.	"Slim Anus" and "Nuttin' But a Bitch Thang" impugn Em's heterosexuality.
Signature beverage:	Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru 1982	Faygo