You can now see the set list and reviews for the Cleveland, OH concert. The show included A Case Of You (solo), Cloud On My Tongue (solo), Upside Down (with band), Doughtnut Song (with band), Professional Widow, and In The Springtime Of His Voodoo. If you were at this show I would love to see your review on the Dent. I am on the road seeing Tori now, so please post your reviews in the Concert Reviews Forum if you can. You can still email me with reviews as well, but it may take me a little longer to post them.

More Details

Tori performed in Cleveland, OH on Saturday, August 16, 2003 at the Tower City Amphitheater. Tori's special guest was Ben Folds and the show started at 7:30PM.

Set List

The following set list comes from Mikewhy, who phoned in from the show to Carolyn who kindly posted it on the Dent.

Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Pancake/Ohio
Siren
Cornflake Girl
Black-Dove (January)
God
Bells for her
Wednesday

Band Leaves

Silent all these years
A case of you
Cloud on my Tongue

Band returns

Your Cloud
Upside Down (with band)
Strange Little Girl
Doughnut Song (with band)
Professional Widow
I Can't See New York
Precious Things

1st Encore

In The Springtime of his Voodoo
Past the Mission

2nd Encore

Amber Waves
Putting the Damage On

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 Mikewhy:

This will be a quick review due to time constraints on the road. The venue in Cleveland was one of the oddest places I have seen. It was a large metal canopy over a completely flat main floor, and the venue was erected in a part of town that was on the river, industrial and quite unattractive. But it was interesting, and we ended up with excellent seats for the show.

I predicted that Tori would perform Pancake/Ohio and she did. The crowd seemed to truly enjoy it here obviously.

My favorite part of secret time (or the Roadside Cafe I guess) was A Case Of You. It was extremely pretty and very emotional. Cloud On My Tongue was also enjoyable, and it made for a nice pair of songs together.

Upside Down with the band is more enjoyable each time I hear it. I must say I was rather concerned when I heard this song (which is one of my favorite Tori compositions) was done with the band and speeded up, but it really works live!

Doughtnut Song is another favorite of mine, and it was so good to hear it. I think this is one of her finest moments on Pele. Then came the highlight of the show, which was Professional Widow. It was one of Tori's strongest performances ever. She seemed as on fire during this song, singing very intensely and with passion. It had a very powerful ending that left many people breathless. It was truly a stunning rendition of this song. Her body language was extremely dynamic and expressive during this song.

I met some wonderful people in Cleveland and had a great time. I am glad the power outage from a few days earlier did not adversely affect the show...


From airam of seasidefairytale:

set list for cleveland

wampam
fairytale
pancake/ohio
siren
improv (3 blind mice tune)
cornflake
black dove (she said "wear a black speedo" in it)
god
bells 4 her
wednesday
band leaves
black-out improv
silent all these years
a case of you
cloud on my tongue
band returns
your cloud
upside down
strange little girl
doughnut song
pro widow
new york (a fight broke out right next to me)
precious things

1st
springtime of his voodoo
past the mission
2nd
amber waves
putting the damage on

other than all the people drinking to much. and the girl fight, it was an all together great show. for some reason every show i go to there. . .them people just can't hold their booze.



From Greg Wooledge:

Went to see Tori Amos and Ben Folds last night in Cleveland (the "Lottapianos" tour). I wasn't familiar with Ben's work, but he's really quite good. His songs are poignant, witty, and at times brutally honest. He's also a rather good pianist and loves to work with the audience. Other Tori Amos fans will probably enjoy his music.

Tori had some wonderful highlights to her performance. Early in the show, she did the song "Pancake" from her latest album, and in the middle she sang the chorus of "Ohio" (Crosby, Stills & Nash). A bit later, she sang (to the tune of "Three Blind Mice"): "We have lights / We have lights / See how they run / See how they run / Away from Detroit we ran / To Cleveland / We have lights". At the midpoint, when Jon and Matt left the stage so she could play solo, she did an impromptu musical story of her time spent in the (dark, powerless) lobby of the Townsend Hotel with her daughter. (She revealed that Steven Tyler, who was there at the time, is a good friend of Tash, and often sings nursery rhymes to her.)



From Mars:

Personally, I think the audience were all very supportive, or all very into her performing atmosphere. (I say "personally" because I don't know how it is comparing with other popular music concert or such, since the only non-classical music concert I've been to were two concerts of Tori Amos.) All people were screaming and very exciting when she finally appeared, after about a half-hour (or even longer) waiting. Fortunately Ben Folds' opening wasn't bad, otherwise it would be unbareable from 7:30pm until her appearance. At the end, all of the audience, none wanted her to leave... although it was late, and many people lived far, I guess all had hoped for the good music to last forever.

I liked the way she performed "Silent All these years" this time. Besides the fact she sang both parts seperately (in recording,the verse part has 2 voice... if you know what I'm talking about), she also improvised and sang a different melody around the third time of the verse. She didn't do as much solos as I remember of from her Nov. concert last year in MN. So that disappointed me a little. I'm so glad she performed "Upside Down" though! And I was really hoping she can perform "Winter" which is my favorite song. Somehow I think "Upside Down" could be better performed without band...

Overall I was... very glad I went there. Although it was a long drive. :o)



From mafmgb1:

Let me just say for the record that if it weren't for The Dent and your timely updates, finding current information on the Northeast Blackout and its effect, or a lack thereof, on the status of the Cleveland, Ohio Tori concert would have been a much more difficult and frustrating task. Kudos to you for your prompt (and much relied upon) postings regarding the recent power situation and its impact on both the Ohio and Michigan concerts. Also, it was a tribute to Tori and her dedication to her fans that she remained devoted to playing the Cleveland concert on schedule as well as the way she quickly rescheduled the Michigan show that had to be sadly postponed on Friday due to the power problems.

It would have been so easy for her to have simply cancelled all of those questionable Northeastern shows that were affected by the power and water supply problems and just taken a little break to avoid the whole situation. But, out of respect for her fans and because of the dedication she has to her performances, fortunately no shows will be missed and only one date had to absolutely be pushed back, and that show was only moved back a few days at best. This is why Tori has such a loyal fan following! There's a relationship between Tori and her adoring fans that I've just not seen with any other performers, and I've seen many a band in my day. Heck, I've seen big-headed bands cancel shows after only one song just because they didn't like the house sound system! I'll name no names here...however, I seriously doubt you would see this kind of childish behavior from Tori. She would make an effort to play for her fans no matter what adversity may face her. It seems Tori and her fans draw energy from one another and they both have a strong mutual respect for each other, which is a rare and special thing.

This recent Cleveland show was the third Myra Ellen concert I've had the privilege to witness. The first one was in Akron, Ohio on September 16, 1996, the second in Pittsburgh, PA on March 16, 2003, and the most recent was of course Cleveland, Ohio, which was yet again on the 16th. (A cosmic coincidence, perhaps?) Let me just say, like a fine wine, Tori just gets better and more interesting with age. I believe she is more sexy and a better performer today than ever, and she's got the energy and enthusiasm of a performer half her age. It was really a sight to behold the other night when she returned for both her encores dancing and hopping around the stage and appearing just as fresh and energetic as she was nearly two hours earlier when she had first begun her performance.

Compared to the earlier '96 show, the only thing I've missed recently was the frequent banter that she used to have with her audience. These days her conversations seem much more limited, though she still seems to offer at least one amusing tale per show. This particular eve was no exception as she told the tale of how she was caught the other day with her daughter in a Michigan hotel during the big blackout. Since becoming a mother she really seems to have found a special joy in her life and she visibly lights up at the mere mention of her. She is such a proud mommy! Anyway, from this little story she then segued into an impromptu song about being stuck with only a flashlight in the "scary dark" with a "scary man" in the hotel lobby. A bit earlier in the show she also offered up another little ditty about the recent power outage using the children's melody of Three Blind Mice to sing the lines "We have lights/We have lights" here in Cleveland tonight. She's so cute!

Most of her show offered a nice balance between songs from the new album mixed in with the older fan-favorites, but I'll spare you the set list here. The great part about a Tori show is you don't just get the old standards played back note for note, but rather she's always reworking the older songs and updating them so that they never feel tired or dated. Thus, you never know what new verse or musical twist may pop up during any given performance. As an example, when she played in Akron back in '96 she sang the old CSN&Y tune Ohio, which I thought was very fitting for that venue. Now, as I'm sure you've heard by now, she's currently incorporating that tune yet again, placing it in the middle of Pancake this time. And it fits seamlessly. Very clever.

I really dig the heavy groove and jazz-like feel Tori's been achieving lately. At some points her keyboard sound rivals that of the mighty John Paul Jones from back in the day. Band mates Jon and Matt help add to that heavy groove-feel as these guys are definitely just as talented as Tori is, in their own right. All three really complement each other extremely well on stage as they "talk" to each other musically and feed off of each other's vibe. It's cool to see this all going down at the show. And this time around it was also interesting to note Jon's instrument changes throughout the performance. He alternated from his regular five-string bass guitar, which he still favored most of the time, to what appeared to be an older Fender four-string sunburst bass guitar, to a stand-up bass which he even used a bow on at points. I don't remember seeing these bass changes during this past winter's concert, though I may have missed it--being mesmerized by Tori and all.

I must give a big "hat's off" to Mr. Folds and his performance as well. Funny and charming, he really seemed to be enjoying himself, and the audience was having just as much fun as he was. He's definitely not to be missed if you are planning on attending an upcoming show. It was a gas when Ben climbed to the top of his piano at the end of his performance and grinned like a madman with his arms in the air and drawing the crowd into a wild frenzy! I really don't ever remember seeing an opening act receive a standing ovation like the one Ben got at the end of his hour-long performance. The guy's a trip, man! A true performer.

I'm a bit sad to hear that this is probably the last tour for Tori until 2005 or later. She is such a joy to watch and listen to live. Well, I guess I'll just see you all again in about a year and a half then!


Read a review of this show from the Cleveland Plain Dealer


From Eileen:

"My friend H. and I had a great time at the Tori show in Cleveland, OH this past weekend.

I had a nice experience meeting some Toriphiles from the midwest, and we were fortunate enough to have seats fairly near the front of the venue. This was a good thing, because the Tower City Amphitheater had quite an odd layout. The floor of the venue was completely flat, and the "amphitheater" was basically a big tent with lines and lines of taupe folding chairs for seating. I'm not sure how well the folks at the back of the venue could see the show, but we had no problem seeing the stage from where we were sitting.

Tori took the stage in one of my favorite outfits from the "Scarlet's Walk" tour. She was wearing a flowing sky blue shirt dress that tied in the back, with a pair of cuffed jeans underneath. Half of her curly red hair was pulled back in a blue flower clip, and she was wearing a burgundy tank top and burgundy/turquoise necklace with her costume. I think she wore this particular outift at the concert at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, and I was happy to see it again.

Tori started the show with a fun improv to the tune of "Three Blind Mice" -- "We have lights!" -- and then moved into "a sorta fairytale". The setlist for the evening was very interesting. She played a lot of songs from "Under the Pink" and "Boys for Pele", and I was surprised by some of the choices and combinations throughout the evening. If I had to pin a theme on the evening, a lot of the songs had to do with girls, women, relationships, and the feminine experience. When Jon and Matt left the stage, we were treated to a fun improv about Tash meeting Steven Tyler (she liked him!) and Mr. Gene Simmons (he's scary, mommy...) and some really amazing songs. Tori played a very emotional "Silent All These Years". She also played "A Case of You", one of my favorite love ballads of all time. She finished her solo time on the stage with "Cloud on My Tongue", which had me in tears by the end. The whole group of songs just made sense.

Tori blew us away with a powerful rendition of "Professional Widow" with the band. Her voice was sounding a little ragged at points during this show, but she pulled out all the stops for "Widow". Her hair was whipping around and the spit was flying as she stormed her way through the song. My section gave her a spontaneous standing ovation when she finished it.

All in all, it was well worth the 12 hour drive from Boston to see this show, and I was really moved by the performance."



From Rick Sawyer:

Wanted to give you a few details on that "venue" Tori played at Saturday night.

Cleveland has a beautiful medium sized outdoor ampitheater in the Flats: "Scene Pavilion at Nautica". This venue is owned by House of Blues productions. HOB also handles Blossom shows (our 20,000 seat ampitheater). Clear Channel Promotions was not happy about losing all the summer shows to HOB so they decided to take an old industrial parking lot, put a tent over it and call it an "ampitheater". It's a joke, and I like to refer to it as "Tower Shitty Ampitheater".

Unfortunately, since Clear Channel dominates the concert promotions scene, most summer shows now come to that dump. Clear Channel really does suck, they've got way too much power over the music industry.

Despite the awful venue, I'm a huge fan of both Ben and Tori and was thrilled to see both on one ticket. It was my 6th Ben Folds show and 13th Tori show. I can't really compare Ben's set to the 5 headline shows I've seen him do. He's much better with a full 2 hours and a crowd that really knows his material, however the crowd participation was still pretty good. I'm glad to see all the positive reviews he's recieved on the Dent's tour page.

As for Tori, this was perhaps the most emotionally intense performance I've seen from her, especially the 2nd half (after secret time) and the encores.

The energy level was amazing. The highlights for me were:

1) the performances of Black Dove & Bells For Her in the first half

2) all 3 songs in "secret-time" plus the ad-lib about the power outage at the hotel, Steven Tyler and Gene Simmons

3) the intensity of the entire 2nd half, highlighted by "Professional Window" which was beyond amazing. That was as good as it gets.


From Amanda Morris:

The Cleveland show was just full of suprises. This was the first Tori show back from the big blackout and it was pretty exciting to be there when a couple days before there was no electricity at all anywhere in that area.

My first big suprise came to us right away when we were spontaneously handed front row dead center seats. This venue was not all that attractive. It looked like someone stuck a big circus tent randomly in the middle of the road and called it a venue. It was all a flat concrete floor and I was not expecting to be able to see Tori at this concert. So I was shocked and so incredibly happy that we were being handed front row center at one of the crappiest venues I have seen.

It is so exciting being so close and anxiously waiting for wampum prayer to finish to see Tori come out on stage to begin A Sorta Fairytale. She was just so close, and I just had my eyes focused on her the whole time. It was like the rest of the audience practically disappeared for me.

Being in Ohio, she of course, did Pancake with the Ohio bridge in it which I was very happy to hear. I like this version better than the original.

She did a cute little improv relating to the blackout. She sang it to the tune of the childhood song "Three Blind Mice" but she sang the words, "we have lights, we have lights...see how they run, see how they run" with another verse following (which I do not remember the words to). It was very cute though.

She mentioned the blackout again at the beginning of solo time/Roadside cafe when she talk/sang an improv about being in the hotel in Detroit when the lights went out and how she saw Steven Tyler in the lobby.

The whole solo time was a huge highlight for me. I always love Silent All These Years...it was the first song I really connected with when I first started listening to Tori in 1996. Supposedly a big majority of the audience sang along to this one, but I was so close and so focused on Tori that I thankfully did not notice this at all. She also sang A Case of You, which was one of my biggest highlights of the night. I have always loved Tori's version of this and have really wanted to hear it live and it was absolutely beautiful. She also sang my favorite song from Under the Pink, Cloud on my Tongue, which was followed up with Your Cloud and I loved the flow of those two songs together.

Upside Down with the band works out better and better each time I hear it. It really is so different and so much more fast-paced than the solo version, but this version with the band really works well. Doughnut Song with the band was really beautiful as well. There was quite a large flow of emotion going on for me at this point in the show.

Perhaps the biggest highlight for me was Professional Widow. I had heard this song live once back in 1999 but everyone was standing and I could not see it at all...I could just hear it. So this time, I had a perfect view and could see everything. She was just on fire during this song! It was so amazing to watch her moving and shouting out the lyrics. I saw lots of spit flying up in the air, especially with the letter P.

In The Springtime of His Voodoo, I am always happy to hear, especially the first song in an encore. I love to watch her come out on stage and dance as the band starts up this song. This is the main song that I felt she gave some looks in my direction. It looks like she is just singing directly to me when she does that. I have no idea if she can even see me at all or if she just happens to be looking in my direction, but either way, it is really intense, and it happened a lot during Voodoo.

Putting the Damage On closed the night out at the end of the second encore. I personally love this song and I really like it to close the night. It just filled me with emotions of happiness.


From Dana:

I thought the show was amazing.Tori's blouse/dress thing was light bluish & she had on this awesome, rather large red leather choker w/ a jade stone in the middle of it. I was lucky enough to sit 2nd row center The guy in front of me brought his daughter~ cute as all heck little blond girl ~ Tori knew her & she kept gesturing @ smiling at her during the show~ it was adorable

Pancake (ohio)-~This was also the best I've ever heard live.

Siren ~ sort of mellow~ non the less beautiful

After siren like I predicted Tori did a little improv about the black out. It goes something like..." we have lights-See them. Out of Detroit we run to Cleveland"

Cornflake

BlackDove ~ wonderful. On the "but I have to get to Texas" part where the band joins lots of energy.

God

Bells for her ~ God I love this song, although the bass was a bit loud.

Wednesday

Band leaves:
Another improv ~About the Black out, Tori's stay at the Townsend Hotel & Tash's run-ins with Steven Tyler & Jeans Simons. I got as much as I could....

"So hows everybody doing? Two days ago we were in Detroit & so we were kind of going ok whatever. (Tori asked the audience about the name of the hotel she was at and someone answered "the Townsend) Thanks.. You know into the lobby, into the lobby, we found some funny looking candle things back to the Townsend. Into the lobby, the lobby at the Townsend. Tash- Mommy there's Steven. I said that's right that's Steven Tyler. She says mommy I like him. He sings nursery rhymes to her can you believe that, but he does across the road. Mommy he's scary. I said girl hold on to the trail. Hold on to your flashlights. That man is scarier to little girls then a blackout. Good evening Mr. Gene Simmons."

Silent all these years

A Case of you~ just breathless!

Cloud on my toungue~ beautiful! my fav pink song

Band returns:
Your Cloud ~ going along w/ the cloud theme

Tori Applies Some lip gloss
UpsideDown~ Wonderful with the band

Strange little girl~ damn this was good live & Tori was really into it.

Doughnut~ flawless

Professional Widow~ God I fell off of my chair. It made the show~ totally rocked!!!

I can't see NY

Precious things~ i never get tired of this~ awesome

1st encore
In the Springtime of his woodoo~ fun song

Past the mission~ happy song~ lots of smiles from Tori.

2nd encore
Amber waves~ i don't care what anybody says I love this song~ it was beautiful

Putting the damage on ~ good yet predictable ending


From Jim Mathers:

Don't Drink the Water

On August 16 Tori performed in downtown Cleveland, OH at the Tower City Amphitheater. The location was sort of a surreal environment. This amphitheater is located in the flats in an area surrounded by the superstructures of a past glorious industrial age. Flashing red lights on a ramp to nowhere were seen through the curtains on the stage. To the right of the stage sits a raised railroad bridge over the river. About 20 years ago a fully loaded freight train traveling at 60 miles per hour rammed into the counter weight and the locomotive was crushed to a length of 6 feet.

The date of the concert was up in the air to the last day because of the massive power failure. As a result of the power failure, all the city water was contaminated and many of the restaurants were closed. An interesting note is the reason for the cancellation of the meet and greets on this tour was the lack of water. Maybe someone had a crystal ball.

Without the meet and greet, much was lost in the social gathering of the Toriphiles. I hope Tori did not read my last review and take it seriously (The Sperm Game). I took the rapid transit downtown and showed up about an hour before the show and still had a chance to meet a lot of the fans. The automotive engineer was there from Detroit and I got a chance to meet Mike Why again. I thanked Mike for his continual updates that made my planning a lot easier. I also sat next to two pretty young ladies from Cleveland. One was a financial executive who was out of work and the other grew up near my house in Greensburg, PA. I met the two ladies at the RAINN booth.

The opening act was the best Tori has had in all of her concerts I have attended. Tori came out and again I was in heaven again. The high point of the concert for me was of course Silent All These Years (SATY). This is the third time I heard it live at a Tori Concert. The first time was in 92 at a little nightclub in Pittsburgh called Rosebud. Tori was still the nightclub singer and before playing SATY she announced that the Amos clan hated this song. At that time the song was really about a girl dumping her mate for no real rational reason. What flashed in my mind was "Good grief! I have listened to song hundreds of times and it has dominated my life. Tori, don't you know the immense power you have over us! You was not simply a nightclub singer but a deity."

The second time was in Cincinnati in 1994 on the UtP tour. By that time she figured out the fans wanted her to be a deity and the concerts became church services. This time in a real concert hall she was delivered SATY with such overwhelming power and it was one of the highpoints of my life. SATY by this time was transformed to an anthem for abuse and later adopted by RAINN.

After another tour, Tori decided not to be a deity but a rock star and recently sort of drifted back toward a deity. In her last tour she varied between being a deity (Columbus) and a rock star (Pittsburgh). Saturday night SATY was delivered in a pseudo rock star environment but Tori still re recreated all the power her deity age of 1994. The pace of this concert was like a roller coaster ride with the pace going up twice and cooling down for good at the end. Tori's description of her daughter's reactions to the blackout brought back some happy memories of my daughter as a young girl. My daughter has grown up, had a baby, and is now battling cancer.

Most of the concert I was watching the audience as much as Tori. The audience seemed to be a composite of the different Tori's. The vast majority seemed to be from the deity age who sat there in an almost hypnotic state only distracted by an occasional input-output function biological drives (beer and the logical consequences of the consumption of beer). Some were part of the Rock Star age who was there just to be there with no real attachment to the music. And there were the dancers who seemed to be offspring of the Dead Heads and where I expected to see a cobra rise up from the audience hypnotized by their moments. I suspect many were holdovers from the deity age that rejected the rock star age and came back hoping to recapture the old magic. The girl who grew up near me was part of this category and reacted with great emotion when Corn Flake Girl was played. I noticed that part way into the concert when the first song from Tori's latest album was played, there was a mass migration for biological functions.

When all is said and done, I did not want the concert to end. But it did. It was one of those moments when I wish there was a pause switch in the space-time continuum and I could have held these moments and enjoyed them. But there isn't and I was onto the rest of my life waiting for the next tour. Two years is long time to wait for the next tour. My worry is that these two years between tours can turn into infinity.

I walked back to the terminal, took the rapid transit out to my stop. Got chased around the parking lot by a fellow who wanted something that I really did not want to know about and made a quick escape to the motel. At four in the morning I was awakened by massive digestive noises from the room next door. I again was reminded that Cleveland is a nice place to visit but don't drink the water after massive power failures!

Have to end.

Jim Mathers jmathers@westol.com

Footnote: I was at a microscope convention in San Antonio, TX a few weeks ago. During a visit to one of the vendors, I had an inspiration. I am going to market a new version of the game "Operation". Instead of the buzzer going off when you screw up, a lawyer pops up and hits you with a malpractice suit.