You can now see the set list and reviews for the Phoenix, AZ concert. The set included Bliss, In The Springtime Of His Voodoo, Mr. Zebra (solo), Landslide (solo), Putting The Damage On, Tombigbee, and Caught A Lite Sneeze. 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 Phoenix, AZ on Monday, August 4, 2003 at the Dodge 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
Bliss
In The Springtime Of His Voodoo
God
Father Lucifer
Bells For Her
Crucify
Wednesday

Band Leaves

China (solo)
Mr. Zebra (solo)
Cooling (solo)
Landslide (solo)

Band returns

Putting The Damage On
Cornflake Girl
Tombigbee
Amber Waves
Hotel
I Can't See New York
Precious Things

1st Encore

Caught A Lite Sneeze
Tear In Your Hand

2nd Encore

Sweet Sangria
Hey Jupiter

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:

Caught A Lite Sneeze, Landslide and Cooling made their debut on the Lottapianos tour tonight. The sound tonight was incredible, the best sound on the tour so far according to Matt. Tori's voice was really soaring, especially during Hey Jupiter.

Before China Tori started telling a story, saying an old and dear friend was there that night from her 'Y Kant Tori Read' days. The audience then started shouting requests at her. Tori was obviously annoyed at this, and at one point said, "Fuck Mother, I'm trying to tell a story..." She then starting singing her story as an improv. I hope someone can send me detailed lyrics from the improv. The lyrics included lines like, "Girl who told you to put away your leather and pick up the piano" or something like that. The improv was extremely beautiful.

Tori deviated one time from her written set list. She was supposed to perform Virginia, but did Tear In Your Hand instead.


From Donny (Bˆsendorfer Boy):

Hi Mike!!! I thought I'd give you my set list and review for the 08.04.03 concert in Phoenix, AZ at the Dodge Theater.

This was my second Tori show and I had a blast!!! Starting at 7:00, Ben Folds was delightful, and he really rocked the hell out of the piano! I have only been exposed to a little of his music, but after seeing the fire in him tonight you can be sure I will be looking for some of his stuff. He talked to the audience quite a bit, and told some funny stories.

Tori came on at about 8:30, dressed in a turqouise outfit with really 'flowy' sleeves. I knew the first song was Fairytale almost as soon as Jon and Matt started playing. Beautiful live. They had some interesting reverb effects going on with her voice throughout the night, which added some depth to the vocals very well. Tori seemed to have a lot of energy tonight, and Bliss definitely showed it. She was jamming out! Voodoo was great too for the same reaons, she really got into that one and looked like she was having fun playing it. God was a surprise, and better than I remembered from the 5 1/2 Weeks tour. We got the standard flip-off during the 'never gain weight' lines of Father Lucifer, which was also great live with the Rhodes or the Wurlitzer, whichever. I'm afraid I don't know which is which. Bells For Her was fabulous live as well; I was surprised we got the 'Bells and footfalls and soldiers and dolls' verse, I haven't heard that in any of the live material. Crucify was good, she changed the lines up in the end during the 'never crawling back' lines, all I can remember is something about 'laying my hands at your feet' and 'never going back, no way' and more I'm sure I'm forgetting. Wednesday, lots of fun as well. Then the guys left.

China was very pretty this time too. . . afterwards, Tori started to talk to us a bit, and mentioned that an old friend of hers was here, and someone up front yelled out a guess. . . Tori said, "No, I'm doing something else." And she said that she had known her since after the Y Kant Tori Read days, and the same person yelled out, "Mother!" And (sounding like she was starting to get pissed at being interrupted repeatedly!) Tori came back with, "fuck mother!" and launched into the improv (which she said is about Cindy), the only bits I could jot down went something like "she was ther for me on a night when I came home decked out in leather. . . she was there for me, and she said, T, you've got to put down the leather, pick up your piano, let her [or maybe 'the leather'] go, you've been chasing devils all through town, still looking for home, she's waiting on every corner, Cindy, my girl, thank you for this (points to the piano). Thank you for coming home."

Then she went straight into Mr Zebra, then Cooling, which was a special treat for me because I have grown very fond of that song in the last month or two and listen to it a lot. Then we got Landslide, and the guys came back for Damage. Cornflake Girl was very high-spirited as well. After Tombigbee, Amber Wavesseemed very heartfelt live. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear Hotel, and she did do the face-close-to-the-keyboard thing during the beginning to each piano riff. I haven't listened to New York much yet but it was very lovely live. Precious Things was rockin' too, complete with crotch grab. Before the last note was even struck, the audience up front stormed the stage. CALS was first, then Tear In Your Hand, another personal favorite. Second encore started with Sweet Sangria, which is one of my favorite tracks off Scarlet's Walk. Hey Jupiter was a lovely closer to the night.

I had such a blast tonight, Ben was an amazingly fun guy to see live, and Tori was lovely as always. Added bonus, one of my oldest, dearest friends was sitting in the row right behind me and I hadn't seen him in quite some time, hello again Brandon!

Hope everyone else had as much fun as I did.

We actually did have the "Roadside Cafe" sign last night.


From AbyssDancer:

It's hard to get quiet and follow only one voice right now . . . so many thoughts rush to my ears, begging to be acknowledged . . . but the strongest voice is the softest, because she is the wisest . . . and that is how I would describe this show . . .

The energy for this show was ramped up . . . Tori writhed and shimmied and swayed and stomped when playing and singing . . . Jon would kinda thrash his hair and embrace his bass . . . Matt did a kind of tarantella behind his drum set . . . yet the mood was a kind of subdued peace of mind . . . I have conquered my demons, I am still alive, I'll let you in on the secret . . .

And the set list reflected this message, I think . . . lots of old friends like Crucify and Bells for Her, with new hairstyles, a few wrinkles, but without the pout and the slouched shoulders . . . now the pout was a Mona Lisa smile, now the shoulders flung themselves back with a dare to the world to weigh them down again . . .

Because even though these "older" girls had come out to play (Crucify, Bells for Her, Hey Jupiter, even Precious Things), they had matured . . . the tunes and rhythms had metamorphosed, reflecting the tone of her voice as she sang the familiar lyrics with a new sense of purpose . . . "I have felt this pain, sometimes I still feel this pain, but I have overcome it" . . . "I'm still alive" . . .

My sister was kind of disappointed with the newer versions of some of these older songs . . . the band joining Tori for Bells for Her kind of jarred her out of the starkness she had always associated with the song . . . the pounding heartbeat that drove Crucify had faded . . . yet even though I have listened to these and all the other songs hundreds of times for the past ten years, it was like I was listening to these songs for the very first time . . . because they delivered new messages with the same words . . .

There were two profound moments during the show when these messages were particularly clear:

One of the most profound moments of the show came for me during Crucify . . . the rhythm is now slower, jazzier . . . and Tori started it with a new intro about how this "will always be close" as she cradled her hands in front of her heart . . . she changed the emphases when singing the lyrics, and chanted the words "never going back again" over and over and never asked "why do we crucify ourselves" at the end . . . she still acknowledged the pain she experienced when first performing that song, but the highlight of the song is now the confidence she feels because she DOESN'T crucify herself anymore . . . or if she finds herself doing so, she knows how to stop herself . . .

The other profound moment came during the Roadside Cafe part, after China . . . she sang this beautiful improv about one of her best friends since Y Kant Tori Read days, who Tori came to "wearing her leather" . . . I can't remember the beautiful lyrics (hopefully someone recorded them!), but I will never forget that feeling Tori imparted about gratitude, about support, about maturing . . . put down the hairspray, strip off the leather . . . there's something underneath that you're hiding, that you're afraid to contemplate . . . and thanks to her friend's honesty (is she talking about Beene?), Tori found the courage to do just that . . .

I'm waxing a little too religiously, perhaps . . . I must confess, I'm at this major crosspoint in my own life, and I splurged on Tori tickets a few weeks ago seeking a religious experience . . . this was my third Tori concert, and although I thoroughly enjoyed the others, this concert did indulge me in my religious experience . . . Tori can still scream and shout the same brilliant lyrics, can still let the same girls out to play . . . she can still see the original experiences that bore these girls . . . but these girls have learned new games to play, and they're letting us in on the rules, so that if we care to join them, we can do so . . .

I stripped off my leather . . . I'm ready to play . . .

Thank you, Tori . . .


From Andrea and Whitney:

We agree with earlier reviewers who said that her voice was nearly perfect. And she graced us with an absolutely beautiful version of Hotel that really showed off her amazing range. Finally being able to hear some of our favorite songs live (i.e. Cooling), made it a great show. Equally touching was the song she sang for her friend, Cindy, who we met briefly after the show. It showed that Tori is truly a gracious and selfless person who stays true to her friends throughout the years.

We know you'll get a lot more detailed commentary than this, but we just wantd to somehow explain how beautiful we felt the show was. We were lucky to meet some first time Tori concert-goers and we feel that this was as special an experience for us as experienced concert-goers as it was for them. Thanks so much!!!


From Michael Weiss-Malik:

People have commented on the song Tori played for "an old and dear friend" at the Phoenix concert. I just wanted to shed a small amount of light on the matter.

I had the good fortune (THANK YOU DIANA!) of getting post-concert backstage passes for me and my friend Ginger. Tori's close friend from the song was there! I don't remember her name myself, but BosendorferBoy from the ToriTraders forum says she was referred to as "Cindy" during the concert. She talked to Tori in private for a long time before Tori came out and greeted us all. There were only about ten people total backstage, and besides Ginger and I, everyone else was there as a guest of Cindy's. The way the two of them talked and acted, they seemed to truly go way back... Tori flat-out credited Cindy as the person who motivated her to get back into music some time ago. I'm assuming this was someone who helped her decide to press on with Little Earthquakes after YKTR?

They seemed so close (arms around each other at times), I almost felt like I was intruding... after all, I'm merely a fan of the music, not some friend from the past! As a result, I even skipped asking for an autograph :), it just didn't seem appropriate. But Tori was extremely gracious to us as well, and we were just glad to get to meet her! Plus it came up that it was Ginger's birthday, so she got a birthday hug from Tori.

When we left, Tori and Cindy went back into the dressing room to chat... it wouldn't surprise me if they're still there right now, hours later!


From Richard Handal:

Richard email me this right after my first review above.

Wow, Cindy Marble was at the concert last night; "Girl who told you to put away your leather and pick up the piano" is obviously her. I expect you know this, but here it is, just for grins, from All These Years at the end of chapter 5:

[ . . . ] And it hit me at that moment that I was a joke, that I had become a joke. And in that second I went back to being four years old. I could just feel my four-year-old in my body going, 'This is not what I envisioned.' To go from a prodigy to a joke at twenty-four was very hard to accept. But I walked out of that restaurant with water-proof mascara, not a lot of dignity, went home and took off my make-up, threw on a T-shirt, and pulled off my thigh-high boots."

She then went straight to her friend Cindy Marble's place. Cindy owned an old piano, and Tori sat down and began to play while her friend sat in the corner of the room. Tori's hands did not leave the keys for five hours until her friend said, "You have to do this, this is what you were meant to do." Tori remembers, "I said, 'Cindy, I can't. Because if they cut this up, there would be nothing left of me.' And she said, 'Well, what's left of you now? At least have your dignity, at least you can walk away going, "This is what I do, and I do it well, and I know I do it well and that's enough." Now you're not even showing anybody what you can really do.'" The next morning Tori woke up and rented a piano which she had delivered to her apartment that same day.

Read a review of Tori's Phoenix, AZ concert from The Arizona Republic


From MIKEE

I just wanted to share my Tori experience from last night.

This was my fourth time attending a Tori concert and it was the loudest! The acoustics were great in the Dodge Theater. There were some minor changes in this show that may have already been mentioned. One thing that stood out the most was the background! It was just one big sheet with these four icons on each corner and a huge circle and one cross in the center made out of rocks. I personally liked the background from the first and second legs of the Scarlet's Walk Tour, but this was a total change for Tori.

Before her solo set, Tori did a strong improv about a friend from the "Y Kant Tori Read" era. Someone from the audience yelled out "HI" and she responed. Then someone yelled out for her to play "Mother" and "Humpty Dumpty;" but she said "Fuck Mother! I'm doing something else," and then she continued with her story. "Caught a Lite Sneeze" was the surprise of the night although her entire set list was very strong. I cannot wait to see her again...


From Brian Ignacio:

I went to the Tori Show last night here in Phoenix, what a beautiful night and what a beautiful voice. I’ve seen EVER Tori show here is PHX, last night was just amazing. Her Voice never sounded any better and she really blew my mind. 


From Jamiane:

One of the best things about this show is she was wearing the blue feathery shirt from the oxygen tv concert special. Her past set lists in Phoenix have been better than this. My ultimate favorite was Mr Zebra. That was a treat. Of course the improv was amazing. It seemed really thought-out and planned, she put it down like a song instead of a little improv. I hope the person who screamed out requests didn't piss her off too much and make her hate Phoenix now. I loved that she gave us a little oooh woo, oooh woo before Springtime of Voodoo. There couldn't have been a better encore than Caught A Lite Sneeze. And I'm really liking Tombigbee on this tour. I didn't really get the groove of it till seeing it live on this tour. =)