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Radio Station NDR in Hamburg, Germany
Taped October 8, 2002
Broadcast November 11, 2002

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Tori was in Hamburg Germany on Tuesday, October 8 and played a small accoustic set in Studio 1 of radio station NDR. Look below to read reviews of what happened! (This showcase was broadcast on radio station NDR on Monday, November 11, 2002 at 9:00pm.)

These are the songs Tori performed during the taping of the performance on October 8, 2002:

Scarlet's Walk
Mrs. Jesus
Pancake
a sorta fairytale
Virginia
Strange
Mrs. Jesus (again)
Crazy

When radio station NDR broadcast this on November 11, 2002, they aired all the songs, but only aired Mrs. Jesus once, after Scarlet's Walk. One would assume they used the second performance of it, but that is not 100% definite.

You can download MP3s from this performance at this German web site. (Thanks LA aka soundscape.)


A review of the evening by Bekky:

I nearly went mad when a friend of mine, Nadja, rang me on Monday to tell me that we'll be able to see the promotional concert in Hamburg.

We went there yesterday and were able to enter the small room where the event took place at 6.30 p.m. There was only room for about 150 to 200 people. I expected a lot of journalists and photographers - but I was wrong: It was a concert only for the lucky winners of a drawing by our local radio NDR2.

The decoration was wonderful: To the left and to the right big photos from the Scarlet's Walk era had been placed on easels. There was no stage, the Bösendorfer stood on the wooden floor, about 2 meters away from the first row. Of course we placed ourselfes right in front of it! The "stage" was decorated with candelabrums with white candles, ivy, bowls with swimming candles in them, bamboo (true!) and lanterns with coulored glass in blue, green and yellow. It was a great, warm atmosphere and there was a kind of cozy gloom all around.

At 8 p.m. a moderator from radio NDR2 came and held a short speech. All that bla-bla about little Earthquakes, success and so on. Unfortunately we were asked not to take photos.

Then Tori came and walked right in front of us. It was so close, you could smell her and hear her shoes making scratching noises on the floor!

She looked great and very natural, wearing a white, woolen pullover, blue bootcut-jeans and high-heel (oh, so high!).

She started with "Scarlet's Walk", singing the first line "Leaving..." over and over again. Suddenly she stopped, because something was wrong with the microphone, the echo didn't work. It was a funny situation because the technician who had to fix it was somehow embarrassed. Then Tori tried again, but it still didn't work. She said:"The thing has to go to the technical hospital." and they tried to repair it. Then Tori waved to the audience and said to the nervous technician:"Don't worry about them, they know I'm doing this all the time!"

Well, but after that everything was okay and the song started again.

Actually, the phrase "Scarlet's Walk" is sung not only once but twice, during the chorus. It is something like:"I'll take her ancient path, Scarlet's walk" and "Tell your Gods the deaths are free to leave". This song really reminded me a bit of "Golddust", maybe the album is getting sadder and sadder towards the end.

The second song was "Mrs. Jesus". I liked it very much, Tori sang full of power. But I've the feeling that "Mrs. Jesus" needs the support of the band on the album. It's more lively... It is so hard to say something about that one because I've never listened to it before and I was so amazed by being so close to Tori. But it was about "taking a ride with Mrs. Jesus", that's all I got.

Then a familiar one:"Pancake". I`ve listened to it before - and it's so much different when Tori sings it alone on the piano. I totally agree with our "reporters" from Vienna and Paris. Tori acted cool singing "I'm not sure who's fooling who here" and turning her face into a grimace.

The fourth song was "A sorta fairytale". Tori stood up at the beginning and played an intro, after that she sat down again and started to sing. I had to hold back my tears because I was very moved by her high, sweet voice singing "Am I so sad...". It was breathtaking, even though she played the short single version.

After that came "Virginia", which was very hard to make out. At first I thought the song was called "Clockwise" because that word was repeated during the chorus. The title, "virginia" is only sung a few times at the end. I don' treally remember the text, but I had the feeling that Virgina was not the State but a woman whose story was told over hundreds of years. Well, as Niel said that "Scarlet may be a person or my be the land" , I believe that Virginia is a person AND the state. I'm not familiar with the Indian history in the US, but it could be that this song is about the oppression of the Indians.

The last official song was "Strange" - and strange it was. It was my favourite of the new, unknown songs, I nearly forgot to breathe. Words like "strange" and "stranger" are repeated during the verses. But what was most taking was the chorus of that song. For me it is such a haunting melody that doesn't get of my ears again. Again, I don't remember a lot of lyrics, but a line said:"And I wonder when will I learn, yes, when will I learn...". I can`t wait to hear the album version. It's so hard to describe why I loved that one so much and I want you all to LISTEN to it!!!

After these six songs Tori left us again, bowing down and throwing kisses into the audience.

The moderator came back and told us that she would come back and sing the second song again because they had a problem during the recording.

So we were able to listen to "Mrs. Jesus" again (well, I didn't mind!). I don't know if I'm alone in my opinion, but this second try was even better than the first one. Tori put more emotion and power into the song, the singing was clearer and sometimes louder. Well, but maybe I felt like that because I had so many different things to look at when Tori played it for the first time. The Bösendorfer, Tori, the light, the melody, what she is doing with her legs all the time, her face, her hands....

When she had ended the song she looked at the technician and but her hands up, forming two holes with them. The guy put his thumbs up - everything went well!

Then Tori turned to us and said: "Okay, now this one is only for you because you had to listen to Mrs. Jesus twice!"

"Crazy" is my favourite track from the promo-CD, so I melted away when she started to sing the first notes with a wonderful timbre:"Ouuaaa, ouuaaa, ouaaaa" (know what I'm talking about? That song was fabulous! The greatest lines of all will always be "Heard that you were once TEMPTATIONS GIRL!"

I will never forget this wonderful evening, I'll always treasure it in my heart. All I can say is that the new songs cannot be compared to anything she did before. This is not Pink, it is Scarlet (noticed the word play?)! And the songs ARE scarlet, dripping with blood, tears and sorrow. Maybe that's my feeling because it is a great difference to listen to the songs played by Tori alone or together with a band. While I find that "A sorta Fairytale" is quite a lively pop song, the version she played yesterday evening was so sad, I just can't discribe it.

You'll all love the album, I'm sure.

Here is another review of the performance from Jenny aka oskaline aka icicle224 who was also there. Her list of songs does not match the review above, and because Jenny is not sure sometimes, I would go with the songs reported by Bekky above. But Jenny's review is still valuable and she has most of the songs right! If anyone else was there and can send me the definitive set list, please do!

I just came back from Hamburg und wanted to you send some impressions of Tori's little concert at NDR2 tonight. I was one of the lucky ones that won the tickets for this show. :)))

There where about 100 people in the small studio1 of the radio station NDR2. There where a lot of candles and some plants all around the Boesey and Tori and it looked very beautiful. It was a really private atmosphere....

Tori started playing at 8:00PM. She played about 50 minutes. I think the first song was "sweet sangria", but I'm not really shure about this. She started to play her first song and then she stopped suddenly, because they had some problems with the technology. After solving this problem she started again. It was a very beautiful song and she was singing it with a very soft but loud voice...really nice and deeply impressing. Her second song was "mrs. jesus". After that she played pancake, a sorta fairytale, strange, virginia and "crazy" (I'm not really shure if this is the right order). While " a sorta fairytale" after singing the line "for me to break your bread" she put her hands open on the the top the piano and it looks like she want's to receive something or to give something away. I don't know?! After this set she left the room and came back a few minutes later for one encore...but she had to play "mrs. jesus" again, because they had another technical problem while she was playing the song the first time. Tori was smiling and said to us: " I'm sorry for that, but thank you for listening a second time to that song...a little déjà vue...hm?!" Her last song tonight was "taxi ride", I think. After that (at 8:50PM) she was leaving very quickly. Everybody was waiting for an second encore, but she dind't came back. :( And there was no interview with Tori.

The said that you can listen to the taped concert on NDR2 on november 11. at 9:00PM.

This evening has been very very special to me, because we where very close to her...even it has been a long way for me to go to Hamburg, but I would take this long trip again everytime. :)



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