You can now see the set list and reviews for the San Diego, CA concert. The show included Pancake/Ohio, Mrs. Jesus, A Case Of You (solo), Professional Widow, Liquid Diamonds, and Space Dog. If you were at this show and want to send The Dent a review, please email Mikewhy at mikewhy@iglou.com with your comments. You can also post about your concert experience at the Concert Reviews Forum. It would be nice to get as many different viewpoints about the show as possible.

More Details

Tori performed in San Diego, CA on Saturday, August 2, 2003 at the Open Air Theatre. Tori's special guest was Ben Folds and the show started at 7:00PM.

Set List

Special thanks to Matt Page for calling me with the set list after the show!


Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
God
Pancake/Ohio
Siren
Mrs. Jesus
Cornflake Girl
Father Lucifer
Wednesday

Band Leaves

Silent All These Years
Merman
A Case Of You

Band returns

Horses
Concertina
Mary
Rattlesnakes
Professional Widow
I Can't See New York
Precious Things

1st Encore

Upside Down (with band)
Liquid Diamonds

2nd Encore

Space Dog
Tear In Your Hand

Reviews

The latest reviews are at the bottom of this page, and I am adding reviews all the time. 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 Concert Reviews Forum and post about your experiences as well, or read additional reviews.


From Matt Page and John:

Tori had a lot of energy during this evening's concert. There were times during the show when Tori was really freaking out (in a good way during songs!). One example was the "Ohio" part of Pancake, which has some really intense screaming. Tori looked and sounded good. There was a ton of drooling tonight!

Before Silent, Tori said she loved "this place" and mentioned that Tash had said something about this being the place where women jump on dolphins and go swimming.

Tori began Space Dog solo at the piano doing the song's backing verse before the band joined in. She did this before during the 2001 tour, and it was great to hear her perform the song that way again.


From Erika Wilder:

the show tonight was beautiful; the first time i'd seen tori under the stars, which was nice. my dream came true when she played 'siren,' which was all i'd been hoping for. before she came out i predicted flowing sleeves, and sure enough... she wore a patchworky dress with long wing-like sleeves over capris and glamourous heels. she showed a lot of personality tonight: we got a lot of grins and some dancing. i wouldn't have minded a little more chit-chat, but we got a bit about how tash asked if this city is where "girls ride on dolphins and jump through rings of fire..." and then tori added "and the guys want to know if this is true!" or something to that effect. it seemed like things mellowed out for a little while there in the middle, and then 'professional widow' was an amazing surprise, as was 'space dog'. a great and passionate performance tonight, overall.


From Nimueheart:

Just an unbelievable show. She was in a great mood, cute as ever, and her voice was as strong as ever. In fact, I wonder how someone so petite has so much power in her voice. Tori is definately graced by the muses and all I can say is: please don't stay away too long. Now I must go to sleep; there was alot of driving today, not to mention the ecstasy of the concert. Bye. 


From tesserae:

there was a vulnerability in tori's show tonight, a vulnerability i haven't seen since the little earthquakes tour. she had few spoken words, only one comment about Tash and girls on dolphins and rings of fire. while it might seem that the lack of stories would make her more distant, it seemed the opposite was true. she was passionate, in love with her music and the atmosphere in the theater reflected that love and passion.


From April (Pelesfury):

First I must say this show was awesome! Tori had sooo much energy and sass tonite!! She was very into singing and dancing, tossing her hair, smiling at matt and jon as well as the audience, and she was just funky!!! She had on a very flowey blueish, greenish whitish top with jeans underneath that were rolled just below her knees. She had the hottest pair of green high heels on, they were so sexy!

God was awesome. The sounds and lights were beautiful. Siren was simply beautiful. I have always wanted to hear this one live. Father Lucifer was great. She was dancing and getting her groove on with this one. One of my personal favorites so I was very excited to get to hear this one! I couldnat believe she played SATY!!! The crowd went crazy. It was very lovely and reminded me very much of the younger tori! It was especially cute when she forgot her lyrics and just stopped and giggled and then she continued on. It was great!

Merman made me tear up because its such a beautiful song and I love it!

It was a nice surprise to hear a case of you. The only thing that sucked is that the crowd was so rude and annoying during this song you would have thought they were at intermission.

Horses and Concertina were very nice to hear.

I was so excited to hear Mary!! I loved it when she would sing real loud abutterflies donat belong in nets.a That was a good song to hear! After that came Rattlesnakes, always very nice to hear. Her voice is so beautiful with this one.

Ok, then came Professional Widow. She rocked this one soooo hard!!! It was sooo full of energy and she was very feisty. I loved it and so did the crowd. She was definitely getting off on this one as well. VERY AWESOME!!

I cant see new York was very nice as usual

I love precious things so when I heard this one coming I was stoked! Very meaty and long GIRL

So the first encore ruled my world!!!! Upside down with the band is the most awesome thing!!!

AND THEN LIQUID DIAMONDS. My most favorite song and she played it. I couldnat stop crying and laughing at the same time. Very beautiful. By this time most of the crowd was standing and dancing along!

Second encore was great as well. Spacedog was very good. I love that song! And tear in your hand was a cool onebecause she ended the show with it and really sang to the audience amaybe its time to wave goodbye nowa and did the one handed version of the patented tori wave. It was wonderful.

Over all the best show ive seen, with a fantastic setlist and tori in great spirits all feisty and full of spunkthe only thing annoying was the crowd with the spontaneous shouting. Other than that the energy and spirit of the night ruled!

I also though Ben Folds was soo funny!! He is very talented and I will definitely be looking forward to seeing him in Phoenix and Tucson as well.


From Jamiane:

The perfect follow-up to the Greek. A lot of the same songs as the Greek with just as much energy. I'm pretty sure it was the beginning of God when a huge amount of spit flew across the piano. It made me giggle. Before Pancake, I may be wrong about the song, she stood and danced and worked the piano for a loooong time. It was a treat. She kept pressing herself against it. During Silent All These Years, her mouth got dry, she had to stop and smile and lick her lips a few times. After A Case of You the microphone made a bad noise, she started to ignore it, but had to giggle. Liquid Diamonds was very well done, she got into it a lot more than I've seen at other shows. Just when you thought it couldn't get better, she does Space Dog and rocked it! I'm suprised no one mentioned the drunk-ass couple dancing in the aisles, dancing like twirling and dipping all over the place. P.S. I was in the front of the section behind the pit, it was cool because it was at the same level as the stage, so no heads obstructing the view, and it was dead center. When I saw the piano bench directly in front of me and how close it was I nearly had a heartattack. =)


From Bryan Bradford

Tori was positively resplendent in San Diego! It was my first Tori concert and I was thoroughly impressed. Ben Folds played for an hour and around 830 you could hear Tori singing the sublime Wampum Prayer off stage. The band started shortly thereafter with the opening beat of Sorta Fairytale and then to the rapturous applauds of the audience Tori came sauntering out from backstage. She looked magnificent in a gossamer coverlet composed of light green and white fabric, underneath which she wore functional jeans--Tori made even denim look elegant. She engaged directly with the audience for a moment and then got right to work on Sorta Fairytale. Astonishingly, she didn't move off the framework of the stage for the next 2 hours 15 minutes.

The live version of Sorta Fairytale is a stunning rendering of the song. God came next; she elongated the "wind blows" section to due beautiful effect. Pancake, one of my favs off Scarlet's Walk, was beautiful. To my delight, next she sang Siren off the Great Expectations soundtrack next. It worked perfectly in the movie and perfectly on the stage. Silent All these Years was another solid, extremely emotive piece. The lighting was inspiring. Tori really outdid herself with Concertina, Professional Widow, and I Can't See New York. Throughout the set I was really impressed by how well the songs came off on stage--I have to say I came away from the night with a bunch of new favorites.

The night sky above added the perfect ambiance. Tori's wonderful piano playing (she played two at once several times) provided a perfect canvas for the music. The lighting effects were apt and stunning; Tori's hair looked like spun gold under the refulgent lights. I was so impressed by Tori throughout the evening. She worked so hard to give the right tone and impart her feeling in the songs. Her piano calisthenics in between song and swaggers throughout added another personal layer to the songs. The music really resonated with the crowd; we all stood for about 15 minutes during the encore! A beautiful night and a stunning singer. Kudos to Tori!


From Brian:

I know my review is late...but being this was my 15th Tori show(and the last for some time) I thought I would say that Tori is truely in top form. Seeing her live is always such a huge excitment, and this show(and the greek), did not disappoint. The drums in the chorus of Mary really boomed. It was awesome to see them all rockin out again. I miss the 'jam sessions'- a la Waitress- but the band, even without the guitar, is truely a powerhouse. Upside Down is really rockin' too. The new arrangement seems like it always could've been there...And in SATY I think she forgot the words for a minute..it was really cute. The audience cheered even louder, cos, duh, we love her.

Professional Widow was definately the highlight of both SoCal shows. Its different too--more rock. And it did ROCK. I was sitting in the seats right above the pit so I had a pretty clear view of the whole place, and nowhere that I looked did I see a head not bobbing to the beat. It was fuc*in' cool. Gave me goosebumps. She really can put out a vibe. Thats what's awesome about Tori and her concerts. She definately moves you. I'm sad that SD was my last show and I'll say to anyone who hasn't gone or isn't going this time- you really should cuz you'll be missing out if you don't. All two of you...anyway, enough rambling. Till next time Tori-We Will Miss You!


From Jonathan Summers

I wanted to attend the concert at SDSU since Tori's last concert in the San Diego area at RIMAC, La Jolla at UCSD.

However,I thought of the huge traffic problems down town got discouraged and then said to myself the hell with it and decided to go over Route 78 to I-15south from Vista, CA to see how bad it really was. Surprisingly at 1PM, as soon as I turned onto I-15, I came upon Tori's Tour Bus doing about 50 mph down the 15 south toward the 8 freeway!

Traffic bogged down and nearly stopped for many miles and I was getting ready to discard the entire idea, but something told me to push on to see Tori who I love in every was as a fan perform under the night skies in the 3,500 capacity OIT (open air theater) at SDSU.

Tori got really turned on by appearing at her favorite venue, the Greek Theater in Los Angles (where she met many friends the night before), following her exceptional and candid radio interview which I heard broadcast on 102.1 FM, San Diego at 8AM Friday Morning just prior to her leaving Vegas to L.A. on Friday moning.

I arrived very early at SDSU,(actually before she did!) then enjoyed hearing her daughter Tash playing outside near the trees. I managed to get a quick view only a few seconds of her walking and talking on a cell phone, while she was in the green room "so to speak" as the tech's tested the equipment.

Then it was cool to hear her practice for an hour but I could not see her!

The concert was super fantasic! Of course it would be enhanced by a video camera of her face projected on the back curtin "so everyone could see how well she looked!" (other fans told me the same thing which they felt was lacking at all her concerts.) Tori was in much better spirits this tour then the last one and it was quite obvious during the performace!

I did hear some of what she said on the mic, however she needs to speak slower and try to quiet the fans down before talkingduring concerts.

The audio was far superiorcompared to RIMAC and that helped a lot. The fans were drinking beer and wine and talking in the upper center elevated rows of the venueand everyone was complaining ofhow much they paid and resented the noise from the drunk fans who kept spilling beer!

Why she needs a warm up act is beyond me, but this guy was 1,000% betterthen the lip sync jerk guitar player she had at RIMAC SDSU, La Jolla in December 2002!

Also, I might add that she had no "meet and sign" which was disappointing to a lot of people expecting it,me included! She really gave it her best in my opinion Mike and what more can one ask of her?


From BrookeElaine:

I traded going to the Greek to going to this show, and wow! I'm glad I did. She was wearing white wrap dress that had chartreuse polka-dots on it and had sky blue wispy sleeves. There were pants underneath and a tank top, I think. She smiled more at this show than any of the other three Scarlet's Walk shows I have seen. She was having a little trouble with her drooling.

She sang the version of Silent All These years where she sings, " Years go by, years go by, will I ever understand, Years go by, if I'm stripped, If I'm stripped, and the clouds (no orange!) raining in my head, Years go by, Will I choke, Will I choke, till there's nothing left.." The lyrics to Liquid Diamonds were also slightly different, for the part where she usually sings the lines including "I go into a shell...." she sang something entirely different for about a minute, but I couldn't make out what she was singing. I wanted to add that the reason Tori paused during Silent All These Years was that she was having an absolute drooling fit. That is why she was giggling. She seemed a little shy about the whole thing.

During Tori's too-brief chit chat she mentioned something to the effect of "coming out to see" her "Navy boys". Then during the intro to Space Dog she stressed the word "Navy" and looked straight at these people sitting two rows in front of me in the front row. By this time we were all squished because we were standing for the encore. I think something was up, it seemed as if one of these boys was shipping out and she was singing this song for him. They were very excited and saying, "Oh, we knew she'd play it!" and Tori was looking at them the whole encore and looking at this one particular boy, and when she sang the refrain from Tear in Your Hand, "Time to say goodbye..." she looked at the same boy and waved goodbye and laughed. When the set ended she waved and blew kisses directly at him before she waved to the rest of the audience. It was very moving, even though I'm not too certain of all the details.

The show was awesome! I was floored by Silent All These Years, Case of You, and the full blown version of Professional Widow. One of the best Southern California shows, ever.