Tori did Carnival tonight (makes sense if you think of what today is), as well as In The Springtime Of His Voodoo, Rattlesnakes, Girl and Twinkle (solo). If you were at the Durham, NH show, please email me with your reviews and/or set list or post your review or comments in the Dent's Concert Reviews forum. (You can post under any name without registering, so it is quick!)

More Details

Tori performed in Durham, NH on Tuesday, March 4, 2003 at the The Whittemore Center Arena. The opening act was Rhett Miller.

Set List

Many thanks to John who phone me with the set list after the show.

Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Pancake
God
Crucify
Cornflake Girl
Honey
Sweet Sangria
Wednesday

Band Leaves

Baker Baker
Crazy
Twinkle

Band returns

Carnival
In The Springtime Of His Voodoo
Rattlesnakes
Girl
Take To The Sky
I Can't See New York
Iieee

1st Encore

Caught A Lite Sneeze
Liquid Diamonds

2nd Encore

Juarez
Horses

Reviews

The latest reviews are at the bottom of this page. For more reviews, please check out the Dent's Tour Reviews Forum. Please post your own review if you were at this show!


From John:

With today being the day before Ash Wednesday, Tori's performance of Carnival was timely. John did not think this was Tori's best show overall, but Carnival was nice.


From Chelly:

Tonight was a little strange for me going to Durham to see Tori. I saw her here in 98 as a UNH student with my one and only Tori friend, and tonight I saw her alone as an adult with a job, responsibilities, etc (ie cannot pick up and follow her around for 6 or 7 shows like Jeff and I did in 98--I love you Jeff if you read this). It was sad to realize my friend is so far away and god knows when we will share a tori concert experience ever again...end of tangent

I think Tori likes it in Durham...right before she was about to intro the band, someone yelled out, "We missed you!" and she responded with a genuine, "I missed you too!" Then went into a story about how she thought one of the decorations backstage was the cutest thing ever and that she wanted to steal it, and actually, that she already had stolen it and they could bill her or whatever...she said something about it having lobsters and crabs, etc...and Tash loved it...and somehow that story was tied into the Dave Matthews potty mouth story...what was really funny was she asked, "Now who's the guy who loves to talk about 'that'?" and someone in the audience answered, "Jon?!" and, with a funny, horrified look on her face she said, "No! Jon doesn't talk about THAT!" Very funny banter with the audience...she seemed relaxed and in a great mood...and she said that Tash loves this arena and she, like, wants to live here...that tugged at my heart because, of course, I did live there (on campus)...

show highlights...secret time hearing solos i had not heard before...crazy and twinkle were amazing

carnival was a great surprise

god sounds awesome

can't think, can't think...i hope she comes around again...kind of sad

sorry that this is not really a "review" but rather, "comments"

Tori, you have been and continue to be the ultimate goddess



From Onthehorizon324:

Hi.. just got home from the Tori show at UNH. I got there at 2pm and met up with about 25 others for an anticipated meet and greet. We were told it was canceled, but she may change her mind, so hopeful as ever we never left our post. Though they were kind to let us hang in the lobby in the warmth. Anyway, she was a lil under the weather we were told and because of the cold air, she'd not be coming out. About 6:45pm a press guy gave his 2 tickets to some girl, who saw they were better then her own.. we took their old ones which were better then what we had and sold the other pair minutes before the doors opened. So that was pretty cool. Opening act was ok.. but I couldnt tell you his name. Sorry. Then wonderful Tori came out. I had a few definete songs I wanted to hear, and didnt get one. She didnt do Taxi Ride which was a surprise.. I wanted to hear Sugar, Never Seen Blue, Cruel, Tear in your hand, Carbon and Hey Jupiter. At any rate...... its Tori. She could have just sang the alphabet, you know? She played a longggggggg set before her first trip off stage. It was great. She was great. As far as UNH goes, kinda disappointing they were so damn strict about anyone dancing in the large open area on the floor. That is, except for one guy who was very expressive, and limber in his moves. It was a good night!


From Gary:

I read in The Dent forum last night how fans were told there would be no meet and greet today, but I decided to go to the arena in the afternoon anyway. My sister and I arrived about 2pm and couldn't find any Tori fans around at first. There were no lines or groups of people at all. A little bit later people started coming by and we ended up in the lobby. A girl asked at the ticket window if there would be a meet and greet, and she was told there definitely would not be one. We looked through the doors and saw them setting up around the stage and testing the microphones. I was going to meet some people there, but I didn't see them yet. Therefore at about 2:45pm I went back home.

We returned (my sister, friends, and I) to the arena a little before 6pm. As we approached the arena, fans were at various locations...outside, in the lobby, etc. We could hear music and then realized Tori was inside singing and we could hear her. She was singing Carnival. Now I regretted not being there earlier. I talked briefly with another fan who told me that Tori had been singing for about an hour. Why didn't we get there earlier! He said she sang Father Lucifer about 5 or 6 times, and also parts of Cornflake Girl. Carnival sounded so beautiful. Once people started to arrive, Tori stopped singing. The doors were covered with paper this whole time, so you couldn't see Tori, just hear her.

I found Gina and Andrew, two fans I had met online, and we waited for the doors to open. The show was not sold out - I was surprised, but there was certainly a good crowd. I bought a poster, postcards, and my sister the necklace. I had bought the program at the Lowell show.

The set list and comments about the Dave Matthews story have already been posted, so I won't go into those again.

When the Roadside Cafe sign came down, Tori started singing something that included "A little sign takes me back to the days..." and it was obvious her first song would be something from an earlier album, which turned out to be Baker Baker.

As for the show, I had 5th row center seats, my best ever for a Tori show. It was awesome. Another friend of mine (who is doing a review for a local newsletter) had a ticket about 3 rows off the floor. Well, she went to buy something and was having trouble with her debit card. The guy waiting on her apologized for whatever the problem was and gave her a front row center seat! As you can imagine, she was excited!

This was my fourth Tori show, and the 2nd on this tour. The other show I saw was in Lowell, MA back in November. It's basically the same size arena, so I can't really compare it to smaller venues. Sitting so close and being with a lot of friends made this show very special, but I think "overall", for whatever reason, the Lowell show was slightly better. Perhaps it was the set list, perhaps the performance, I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong, I thought Tori was great tonight and she smiled a lot with Matt and Jon. Her voice seemed fine to me as well. Fans sat through the whole show until the encores, when people went up near the stage.

After the show, Tori's security guy (Joel?) took several gifts from fans for Tori and brought them backstage. He really seemed to be taking the time to get everyone's gifts. I wish I had brought one!

I'm not sure I can name one highlight, but for me: Rattlesnakes - This and Boys in the Trees were the two I really wanted to hear tonight, so I was happy to hear Rattlesnakes. I can't see New York - If you're sitting just right (like I was) and view Tori against the clouds on the screen while she is singing this, it is really an awesome picture - if you can visually block out everything but Tori and the view. Not sure if anyone has ever mentioned that, but something about that whole visual was quite amazing for that song. Well, I could go on about each song, but they were all really great. One that does stand out to me is a song that really wasn't a favorite of mine, Liquid Diamonds, but that really got my attention tonight (in a good way!).

That's all...Oh, Rhett Miller was quite good I thought, but everyone I heard talking seemed to prefer Howie Day. Rhett met with fans in the lobby after his performance.


From Erin E. Lynch:

Sorry too late for full review, but here is the setlist from tonight's show.

Wampum Prayer
A Sorta Fairytale
Pancake
God

-talk about decor in backstage bathroom, "I don't talk about that," and Dave Matthews

Crucify
Cornflake Girl
Honey
Sweet Sangria
Wednesday

Roadside Cafe:
Improv- "I Have a Little Sign"
Baker Baker
Crazy
Twinkle
Carnival

In the Springtime of His Voodoo
Rattlesnakes
Girl
Take to the Sky
I Can't See New York
Iieee

1st Encore:
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Liquid Diamonds

2nd Encore:
Juarez
Horses

Great show; looked great and seemed in good spirits; floor crowd managed to stay seated for entire show until encores and everyone was pretty quiet.


From Robert Lombardi:

I'd like to start by saying that I have been a fan of Tori since the "Y Kant Tori Read" debacle of the late 80's. I have been to no less than 12 Tori concerts in the interveneing years between "Little Earthquakes" and finally "Scarlets Walk". I have yet to attend a BAD Tori Amos concert. Like always Tori poured her passion and heart into the show, though I must say that she has cut way down on her usual 'banter' with the audience. Though not important it does make her more personable than most artists out there and when it's not there it is missed.

I thought her set list was excellent, most of her CD's were adequately represented. I wish she would have performed the title track from "Scarlet's Walk" as that is a personal favorite of mine! Her performance of "I Can't See New York" was mesmirizing to me and well worth the ticket price.

I have only one complaint and it is something I have noticed in the last 3 shows I seen. I should note that I attended the show with my fiancee, while not a rabid fan she is, nevertheless, and 'appreciater' of Tori's talent. Sherri mentioned to me that she enjoyed the show she just wished that the accompanying muscians should not have been as loud as they were. I too must agree with her sentiment. While the bass and the drums are important to the music they most definitely should not have been driven as loud as they were. At times especially in the beginning of the show there was much distortion of the bass which took away from the rendering of "A Sort of Fairytale". I don't know if the sound engineer was asleep at the switch or just inexperienced but clearly he was not doing his job. I hope this wasn't an intentional effort to hide some flaw in Tori's voice. The sound quality did improve through the show, I don't know if that was from the engineer's efforts or just the nature of the chosen pieces played. The songs Tori did during her "Roadside Cafe" set were beautifully done and truly show Tori's immense talent! All in all I was happy as I am with all Tori's shows... I would give this one a B+, points taken off for sound quality. Anyway that's my humble opinion and I am sticking with it.



From Samaida124:

Honestly, I was somewhat disappointed with the set list from last night's show. I also went to the Portland show, and she didn't switch up the set list as much as I had hoped. She didn't seem as in touch with the audience as she was last night, which I can understand. The audience last night was a little bit overzealous, screaming and cheering in the middle of songs. The Portland audience was more calm and laid back. She performed very well as usual, but there just seemed to just be a better vibe in Portland. Arena shows tend to be more loud in general, though. In terms of Tori's performance, she didn't seem as passionate as the night previous (probably because she was tired), but it still was very enjoyable.


From Jennifer Powers:

I saw Tori last night at in Durham, NH and I have to say out of the five shows I've seen, this was the best..yes there were many songs that I wanted to hear that she did not play, however, she was in a playful mood and was totally amazing! It was so nice to be in a venue that was not too crowded. I really missed the good old days of seeing her in small places until last night. I felt like I'd come home. There is no one in the world who moves me more than Tori...she is a precious gift from above.


From John D.:

This was the best Tori concert that I've attended! Tori sounded great, and I thought that the set list was fantastic. I was thrilled to hear her play Liquid Diamonds, I had never heard her play this song live. The only down-side for me was that the acoustics at the Whittemore Center are terrible. The bass sounded muffled.



From the student newspaper The New Hampshire


From Pamela:

My boyfriend, who is one of the biggest Toriheads, and I went to the concert in Durham this past Tuesday. Let me tell you it was awesome. Tori's gown was beautiful, a slim black number that had wavy ruffles. Of all the concert experiences I've had this was the most moving and heartfelt. The way the lights interacted with the audience and seem to reach out and tingle as the music poured out from Tori and her band members. Some of the moves Tori did on stage made you look twice, and told you right off she is a woman that has nothing to hide, and is proud of her expressionism. Tori did stopped to talk to the audience, stating she had stolen something out of one of the bathrooms and that they could sue her, but she was going to keep it. She also talked briefly about her daughter, and that she was there with her that night. During the end of the concert Tori played on both her pianos at once, she is such a talent. She did two sets of encores, two songs each. I originally went to the concert because my boyfriend had intorduced me to Tori's music and what she was all about. After the concert though, I could really see it. She is truely moving in action, and I was dispointed I didn't get to see her in person, but understood she was a little under the weather...perhaps another time. All together though, it was one of the best times I've ever had, and one of the most moving.


Read a review of this concert from SeacoastOnline.com


From Kym:

Something about the New Hampshire show was much better. I don't know if it was my seat (I was much closer to the stage this time) or her outfit. Ok I am a very visual person. I really enjoyed the show. I am amazed at her ability to play a piano in front of her and a keyboard behind her and SURPRISE she had another keyboard on top of her piano. She has an incredible energy and stage presence.

Only one complaint. The people sitting behind me having a conversation obviously loud enough to hear each other over the music. It was somewhat distracting and I really don't know why you would go to a concert to have a conversation with the person sitting next to you. Some consideration please.