You can now see the set list and reviews for Tori's performance in Istanbul, Turkey at the Istanbul Jazz Festival. Tori set list included Me And A Gun, A Sorta Fairytale, Ribbons Undone and the covers Imagine (John Lennon) and Famous Blue Raincoat (Leonard Cohen) during Tori's Piano Bar segment of the Tori's performance. If you were at this festival and want to send The Dent a review, please email Mikewhy at mikewhy@iglou.com with your review or comments. You can also post your review of the show on The Dent's Original Sinsuality Tour Forum. Thanks for sharing your reviews with The Dent.

More Details

Tori performed in Istanbul, Turkey on Sunday, July 10, 2005 at the Istanbul Jazz Festival which took place in the Cemil Topuzlu Open-air Theatre.

Set List

Special thanks to Richard G., Elyse, Christoph, Sabrina and Michael for calling me with the set list after the show!

Original Sinsuality
Crucify
Sweet The Sting
Little Earthquakes
Yes, Anastasia
Seaside
Barons Of Suburbia

Imagine (John Lennon cover)
Famous Blue Raincoat (Leonhard Cohen cover)

Blood Roses
Liquid Diamonds
Amber Waves
Me And A Gun
The Beekeeper

1st Encore

A Sorta Fairytale
Cooling

2nd Encore

Ribbons Undone
Silent All These Years

Reviews

The latest reviews are at the bottom of this page. If you were at this show and want to send The Dent a review, please email Mikewhy at mikewhy@iglou.com with your review or comments.

You can also go to the Original Sinsuality Concert Review Forum and post about your experiences as well, or read additional reviews.


From Richard G., Elyse, Christoph, Sabrina and Michael:

Sorry for my delay in posting this review. I was out of town and unable to fully update until the following day!

Tori played the set list exactly as she had it written. The set up on stage was different in that there was only a miniature Bosey and one organ (not her own I have been told.) There was no Fender Rhodes and no second organ like Tori normally has on stage during this tour.

Tori said hello after the first few songs and mentioned this was her last show of this segment of the tour. She mentioned that she was going to become a normal mommy again for a while.

Me and a Gun, which I think was a debut for this tour, was extremely intense. As she has done before, she left out the "You can laugh, it's kind of funny" part.

Her performance of The Beekeeper was actually disturbing, because Tori was shocked by the organ. She was playing The Beekeeper on the organ when it appeared Tori was given a brief electric shock! She pulled back holding her hand, and then said something like, "Marcel, I got a shock...". She then finished The Beekeeper playing it on the piano, which was most unique, amazing and quite beautiful.

Richard found that her performance of Ribbons Undone was the best he has ever seen. The song was played very strongly and not really like a lullabye.


From Amber Lewis (New Yorker studying in Istanbul):

The concert in Istanbul was held at an outdoor arena under perfect warm weather with a slight breeze. Tori wore a white flowing dress, sleeveless dress with a high collar and a yellow tank top underneath, fish net stockings and really cute thin-strapped green heals.

There were lots of little improves during the night. I'm embarrassed to say, but I can't remember if it was during Crucify or Little Earthquakes, but she added bits like "I know where you live." She opened Sweet the Sting with a long trail of "you, you, you, you, you." Has she been doing this opening during the European half of the tour? It was really hypnotic and the crowed seemed to love it. Seaside was lovely. She whispered "gave sand a bath" each time and really emphasized the lines "innocence targeted/what god is this?" This had to be in reference to the London bombings. (If you can get the special itunes version released online I highly recommend it.)

When she welcomed us to the show she thanked us for letting her be "singing lady" tonight because after this show she had to go be mommy for a while. She said it was kind of "wild" because as mommy she was "mommy play cards, mommy watch Marry Poppins.." and so on.

While introducing the piano bar section she said this was the part where she plays our requests (meaning made earlier), but the crowd hollered out rather insistently the names of songs. Tori seemed a little aggravated, she said "well.. you'll have to see if you win. This one is from one of the great song writers..." and then she played Imagine. Again, given the London bombings it seemed an appropriate choice.

Before Liquid Diamonds she did an opening playing on the word "liquid" for a while... Me and a Gun was stunning as always.. and then something odd happened. Half-way into Beekeeper she stopped and froze and said, more to her crew than to us, that she'd been zapped and it was electrical. Someone came out on stage and we clapped a little, she moved to the piano and finished the song and did all of her encores from there. She seemed ok, didn't rub her arm or her hands or anything...

It must not have been too big a deal (or she's just such a professional!) because she gave two full encores to a crowd wild with applause. (You can tell she has some serious fans in Istanbul!) She said goodbye with loads of kisses and motions to her heart -- and then singing lady was gone.


From Ali Caner ALKAN:

Its so hard to choose words to express my feelings about that night. It was more like a dream actually. She was there on the stage like an angel and I was sitting on my seat as if I were watching one of her shows on the tv. There's not much to say about the set list..it was awesome as always. She started with Original Sinsuality (one of my faves) and I was hypnotized at that very moment. The atmosphere was amazing..the slight breeze added A LOT to the charm of that night.

What disturbed me most was the moment when she was given an electric shock. I was really scared indeed but everything went fine afterwards. We were quite lucky to hear The Beekeeper solo on the piano though.

The entire show was stunning. Id never expect her to play Me and a Gun at the show so it was definitely a big surprise for everyone I guess.

Having waited sooo long to see her, it was the most amazing experience of my whole life. I hope she'll pay a visit to Turkey again really soon!


From Rabih:

This was my first Tori concert, so needless to say, I took all my chances to make it from Lebanon to Turkey. This was my only chance so I didn't want to miss seeing Tori after having waited for nearly 10 years.

I did a nice paper with a Piece by Piece look and song canvases for 3 Tori songs that affected me, with a colorful design that I put in a box with a small pack of lavender from my garden, hoping to give them to her. But of course, my flight was delayed by 5 hours, so I arrived at the venue 30 minutes late before the what was called Meet and Greet. In those precious 30 minutes, I heard that she went out and talked with a small number of fans. I heard she stayed behind the bars and she didn't sign anything. You can imagine how happy I was. Next, I got the tickets that I reserved for some 2 weeks prior to the show. I got bad seats, but those were the best I could get. So I was sitting in the last seat of the 14th row, which is to the far left. I could only see her during the Hammond songs. But my friend, who did not have tickets, got there the same day, and she got orchestra, which is second row, facing Tori. I was happy for her of course, but I was sad with my condition.

We heard the sound check from outside and it included: Silent All These Years (she even repeated the intro), and some bars of the following (in random order): Cooling, Jamaica Inn (with a piano / Hammond intro), Barons of Suburbia, A Sorta Fairytale, Yes Anastasia, Ribbons Undone and after a while, a nice Mother Revolution. [Sad that Revolution didn't make it to the show, but happy that I didn't have to endure the atrocity that is Jamaica Inn]. So needless to say, I knew that tonight, we would have a generic set list. Now the people next to me didn't make that easy on me. In front of me, a guy had his girlfriend and she hated Tori so she wanted to leave, whining all the time. Next to me, on the right, the girl was singing on SATY, Fairytale and Crucify (the hits she played). On the stairs on my left, the guy was talking on his cell phone, and above me, on the wall next to the stairs, the security guys were shouting loudly. All a very nice atmosphere.

I saw the guys doing the last preparations, including piano and Hammond check and placing the set list for Tori. But then came Tori. She came late, 9:15 approximately, so I feared she might cut the encores. No opening act for the night. She was wearing a long white dress which was very nice.

01. Original Sinsuality: (piano) Powerful start. I really like that song. And after having heard some mp3s, I knew I would love it. But something tonight was telling me that I would have a problem. She seemed to make every word longer, even in this song, and I didn't like that at all. I thought she would bathe in green lights but instead, it was a powerful red that was all over the place. I have to say that the lighting was very nice, especially since I hated the lights in WTSF. And there was no light triangle or whatever that was that had effects on it.

02. Crucify: (piano / Hammond) Nice, especially the ending in which she added some extra lyrics.

03. Sweet the Sting: (piano) First improv of the evening, which I want to call 'You know what to do'. It was very sexy, as was the song. Now in the middle, she added another different improv. * Talk: She didn't talk at all tonight, only a couple of words after Sting and before the Piano Bar. She said that tonight was the last evening of the European tour, and tomorrow, she'll be mommy again, and mommy do this and mommy do that. So she said: 'thank you for letting me be a music lady tonight.'

04. Little Earthquakes: (piano) Very strong. Some weirdo sitting behind me was clapping in the 'give me life' part.

05. Yes, Anastasia: (piano) even if it was overplayed this tour, it still was the only song of the night that I wanted her to play. It had the Tubular Bells notes in the beginning, and she DID the long 'we'll seeeeee' that she had dropped lately. So it was magical.

06. Seaside: (piano) longer intro than usual. I don't know if this was played because Turkey shared borders with Iraq. Anyways, it was okay.

07. Barons of Suburbia: (piano / Hammond) Since there was no Fender Rhodes (thank you Tori), no Bells or Playboy Mommy or Rattlesnakes. We instead got this wonderful version of Barons. The intro was super-extra-long. Hammond solo, then Hammond and piano then piano then she launched. But even in this fast-paced song, I thought she slowed some words, and again, that was painful for me. Piano Bar

* Talk: she said 'this is when we do those songs' or something of that effect. So people started to shout requests like Hey Jupiter and Northern Lad, but that was because there was no piano bar sign. So they shouted her songs. She seemed pissed, and she said, if you know it, you're gonna get a prize.

08. Imagine: I knew she was not going do any new cover, so she said: 'this is one of the greatest songs of all time.'

09. Famous Blue Raincoat: lots of 'heeeeee' in the beginning so we didn't know what it was until she started it. And in the middle, she repeated the 'heeeeee' again, making it slightly different from the way she normally sings it.

10. Blood Roses: (piano / Hammond) Finally, a Hammond song for me to enjoy because she was facing my side of the theater. The ending was awesome, and the lights went out before she finished it, that is before she says: 'when chickens get a taste of your meat girl.' And then they came again for the ending and it was great. The 'god knows' part was done on piano.

11. Liquid Diamonds: (piano) It had the intro that she did in Australia. Since it was practically the same, I wonder if she has it recorded somewhere. She repeated the improv at the end of the song too. She put her hand on her head after she said: 'and you know it's madness.' She said at the end: 'you've got my lad T.' Very nice performance.

12. Amber Waves (piano / Hammond)

13. Me and a Gun: (a capella) I was still writing when I saw her facing the theater. I thought she would be saying some words to the fans. But instead, she started singing this. The place was crystal clear. No sound was heard (except for the f*cker whose cell phone was ringing at the end of the performance.) Now for the actual song. She was bowing her head until she said the first 'me and a gun and a man on my back.' Before that, she had her hand on her head (just like in Liquid Diamonds) while the other was holding the microphone. She changed a line in the middle, and that was pretty noticeable. After 'Me and Jesus a few years back' she said 'he was my friend and now he left me.' Very moving performance, for a song that hasn't come since 2001.

14. The Beekeeper: (first part on Hammond, second part on piano). I haven't heard an mp3 of this song, since I wanted to enjoy this live. Well, it was extra drawn-out and I am not sure I enjoyed it. Somewhere in the middle, after the second verse, she had what seemed to be an electric shock. It WAS scary. I froze for a couple of seconds. She said something I couldn't decipher, explaining that she had an electric shock. Someone (a technician or Mark) even came after that but she was cold ice with him. After some applause from the audience, she started from where she stopped, on the piano, and finished the song. After the incident, I wasn't sure if she would do any encore.

15. A Sorta Fairytale: (piano) I knew this was coming, since we heard it during the sound check. She changed lines in the end, stressing on the word 'imposters.' Here's how it went: 'we're just imp. (she cut the word) imposters in THAT country you know.' Pretty critical against the US.

16. Cooling (piano)

17. Ribbons Undone: (piano) All four encore songs were done during sound check. I was surprised I did like this one, especially during the parts 'she runs like the fire' which were much stronger than the album version, especially the piano.

18. Silent All These Years: (piano) Of course, super applause from the audience.

Save Anastasia, none of my favorites was played tonight, but I didn't mind. What bugged me is the elongation of every word and every sentence, it seemed so structure-less and each song went all over the place. I must say that her touring with the band is much better. But that's just my opinion.

Again, the audience wasn't on my side, so I couldn't focus 100%. But I wish Tori would come again to this part of the world and do such a strong show. Thank you Tori!