Tiffany

Tiffany has made a lot of waves in the past year. From her standout set on The MixTape tour this past summer, to recording an ambitious album with "Pieces of Me" last year, she is riding the positive momentum and played to a packed room at the City Winery in Boston, Massachusetts on November 4, 2019. If you missed this show, she will return again to Boston's City Winery on Sunday, November 17, for a brunch-time concert (which starts at noon) labeled as a "Breakfast with Tiffany."

Fronting a four-piece backing band, plus a backup singer, Tiffany opened by belting out a few cuts from her new disc - "Beautiful," "Waste of Time," "Pieces of Me," and "Worlds Away" - a collection of Rock-filled tunes penned by Tiffany, that showed off a serious tone of the not-so-good side of relationships. The songs were forceful and also therapeutic for anyone in that situation. The songs were constructed and sounded great live, and Tiffany's passionate delivery gave the songs extra strength. More of a release, but certainly not a rant, and Tiffany's present musical direction is a universe away from the Pop songs (although, they were first-rate Pop tunes) she had to perform during her Mall Tour days in the 1980s.

For those who wanted to revisit Tiffany, circa the '80s, she said mid-set that she was going to revisit the retro hits and did a guitar-heavy performance of her 1988 heart-breaker smash, "Could've Been", which beefed up the ballad and the way she held on to the final note of the song was epic and a reminder that her pipes still astonish.

A few more standouts from her new record included the soul-wrenching, "Starting Over." A sobering look at a deteriorating relationship, saw Tiffany channeling her inner Alanis Morissette (the "Jagged Little Pill" version of Morissette), as Tiffany raged through an emotional juggernaut of feels of bitterness ("Thanks, you tore my world apart/Left dyin' in the dark) and leftover emotions ("There's no home, there is no place/Where I don't see your face") of a dying romance.

While she belted out "Butterfly," it reminded one of Ann Wilson and the 1970s era of Heart, while the self-explanatory song,"King of Lies," was steaming, as Tiffany dropped to her knees onstage, as some of the lyrics appeared to hit home for her (e.g. "The pain we called love/Was never enough/You're just the king of lies").

A very engaging storyteller, Tiffany spoke from the stage of how she had never done Karaoke, until one night when she met up with former NSYNC member, Lance Bass, and after a few cocktails, got on the mic and she now loves Karaoke. However, she confessed, "no one wants to sing it with me anymore."

Once again returning to her early days, Tiffany resurrected a couple cover tunes for the faithful who wanted a fix of nostalgia. An energizing take and slight rewording of the Beatles' "I Saw Him Standing There" brought the crowd to its feet, as did a great version of her iconic take on "I Think We're Alone Now" (her smash remake of the Tommy James and The Shondells' ode to a not-so-innocent encounter).

Once the Queen of Pop, Tiffany is certainly now a contender for Queen of Rock.

As a side note: In the audience attending the show was Jonathan Knight from New Kids On The Block, whom Tiffany traveled with all summer as part of The MixTape Tour. As Tiffany exited the stage, many members of the audience made their way to Knight's table and, being the gentleman he is, was very polite to take selfies with many of the patrons who stayed post-show to live out more of their 80's dreams.