Dor's Tori Story

As posted to the rec.music.tori-amos newsgroup on Saturday, June 6, 1996

Hello! My name is Dor. I don't post much here, but i really wanted to
write about my experiences. This is my story about the five Tori concerts
I saw this month. (one in MN, four in CA) Sorry its taken so long to
post it.. but please read it everyone! even though its long! there are
setlists and stories about what she said between every song... and much
more including information about how to get your VERY OWN copy of a very
cute picture i took of Tori.

Sorry about any and all typos!


My first Tori Amos concert was at the Northrup Auditorium on the
University of Minnesota Campus, on June 10th. My close friend Aaron and i
began our day at noon. we'd been waiting for this concert for about two
years, and had always planned to try and meet tori beforehand. so, we
woke up, grabbed some quarters for the city bus, and set out for the
fanciest hotel in mpls. alas, she wasn't there. we tried a few others, and
didn't find her, then decided we'd better just head to the northrup, so we
could catch her signing autographs before she went to do a soundcheck.
on a whim, i suggested we try one more hotel as we were walking to catch
the bus to the theater. my mom had thought she might be at a certain
hotel that happened to be a little out of the way for us at that moment,
but i knew i'd never forgive myself if my mother was right and i didn't
check there, so we decided to go. we walked in and asked the woman at the
front desk if Tori Amos had arrived yet. she opened her mouth to respond
when, out of nowhere, came her boss, who hustled her into the back room. i
heard them whispering to each other, and when they returned, the woman
answered dryly, "i'm sorry, no one by that name is staying here" without
entering a single keystrock into a computer to check.
her suspicious manner convinced us we were in the right place, and we
were really certain we should stay when, just outside the hotel we spotted
anohter fan, sitting down next to a tourbook, and a sharpie pen, set on
top of a Pink Earthquakes box. his name was jeff, and he'd just come from
the milwaukee show. the three of us chatted about that concert, tori, and
her security guards until they actually walked out, and told us she'd be
out shortly.

joel gave us the "she'll only sign ONE thing" lecture, and told the hotel
staff it was alright if we stayed. (they'd been trying to make us leave!)
after another 30 minutes of aaron and i letting it sink in that we were
actually going to meet her, out she walked, her hair tyed back and under a
red plaid gap hat. she was wearing a tight longsleeved yellowish shirt, a
short blue and white striped skirt, blue jelly shoes, and (of course) her
earrings. jeff gave her a zepplin shirt, and she gasped and said "you'rea
genius". aaron told her thank you from himself and his mother for Me and
a Gun, because the song means a lot to both of them. tori hugged him,
took his hand and said "i really get you" then, hugged him again. I had
brought her a drawing that i had made for her that had taken me MONTHS to
finish. i was really proud of it, and really hoped she liked it. it was
framed. anyway. i gave it to her, she looked pleased, said thank you, and
gave it to Joel.

Jeff asked her if she would please play Purple Rain, and she said she
would try, and wrote it on her hand. "if that one doesn't come though..."
she added. "what is another one that you might want to hear?" "china!" i
offered, quickly. she wrote it on her hand. aaron asked her to play Me
and a Gun. She nodded solemnly, took his hand, looked right into his
eyes, and said "we'll make magic tonight." we thanked her, and she sped
off in her limo, just after posing for a picture.
jeff, being the nice guy he is, drove us right to the theater, where, when
we got there, Tori was still signing autographs. we stood at the end of
the line to say thank you one more time. i ook a picture of just her*.
then aaron and i went to meet the seemingly millions of friends we'd
bought tickets for. we just hung out in front of the theater for the next
few hours, talking tori, and getting more excited for the concert. i had
to quick call my mom and get her to bring me cash, because all i had was
my checkbook with which to buy merchandise., and they told me they didn't
accept checks.

the afternoon seemed to go really quickly. no sooner than i had gotten
my money and bought all of the tshirts (except the baby tee, its ugly) was
it time to go sit down and watch willy porter. he made up a great tune
about prozac and sheep. heh. soon tori was on, and I could hardly contain
my excitement. my friend spotted three vacant seats in the front row,
which a few of us sat in until the fourth song, when their rightful owners
arribed and we reclaimed our original seats in the 23rd row.
i don't remember all of the set list, and i'm sure its been previously
posted. some of the highlites for me were: Happy Phantom (that is
the song that first got me into tori!), Talula (i LOVE the tornado mix!),
Me and a Gun (it was emotional for me, even tho its isn't a song i usually
identify with at all personally), and Mr. Zebra, during the 1st encore.
I'd been really looking forward to hearing Hey Jupiter live, and since i'd
been reading the setlists everyone has posted, i was sure she would play
it. as the concert progressed, even as it became more and more evident
that she wouldn't play china, i was still really excited to hear Hey
Jupiter. but... wouldn't you know... she ended up playing Jeff's song
that HE requested, as well as the song aaron requested... but not mine.
she closed the show with... Purple Rain on the harmonium. Even tho i was
amazed and touched by my first tori concert, i was a little bummed that i
didn't get to hear china or hey jupiter!

aaron and i, along with a few other friends, joined the mob of people
waiting for Tori by the stage door. we got the lecture (from Steve this
time) about not asking for autographs, and not taking flash pictures. out
she came, chatted with those close enough to her, and was wisked
away in her limo after a few minutes because too many idiots were taking
flash pictures.

not long after that concert, i realized that in a few days i'd be
traveling on a choir tour to southern california , then staying after with
my relatives for a week, and tori would be out there too. i immediately
got tickets to the santa barbara show. the airline i was flying back on,
because of some group rate i got, would only let me stay in L.A. until the
26th, so i was sad that i wouldn't be able to go to the Greek shows. when
i found out, however, that an online friend of mine had an extra ticket to
the 28th show, i thought i'd just call TWA, to see if they'd let me stay
longer if i begged them enough. as it turned out, all i had to do was pay
a $50 fee and i could stay until as late as july 4th! right away i
contacted Erin (delirrium,dolllike) and said i would love to take her
ticket.

how happy i was that during my vacation i'd also get to see Tori concerts!
soon after that it was time to go to santa barbara. my cousin (not a
HUGE torifan but better than going alone i figured) and i drove to the
county bowl, arriving at about two thirty. i sat down alone ( my cousin
went to sleep in a tree) by her tour buses, awaiting the arrival of her
limo, and wondering if i was even in the right place. i wandered past a
seemingly zoned out security guard from the county bowl and followed a
brief, scenic path up a hill to the stage. i watched the cew set up for a
while, but people started looking at me funny, as if they wondered who i
was and what i was doing there. i decided her limo would probably stop
down in the parking lot, so i walked back down there, only to be told by
the (apparantly recenly awoken) security guard that i wasn't to have been
up there without a pass. perhaps i should have STAYEd up there. ah well.
so, i sat down, and buy 3:30 or so, a tall, red haired young man had
wandered in by himself and sat down in the shade not too far from me.
after a while, rather than stare at him much longer and wonder who he was,
if he was a bigger torifan than me and why he was here so early, etc,
i walked over to talk to him and another girl who had joined him. they
turned out to be jason and ursula, who had just met and were eager to talk
to me about tori, the internet (specifically RMTA, they both read it), and
other things that came up in the conversation until steve, one of tori's
guys, got off one of the buses and warned us that she might not want to
stop, and that if she did, she'd (say it with me folks) only sign one
thing. we nodded.

Tori DID decided to stop. "hi guys!" she exclaimed as
she walked out of her own marroon and silver bus. she was wearing brown
clogs and achain on her ankle, jeans (i think) and a blue and white
striped shirt rolled at the sleeves and tied together at the bottom over a
tight black leotardish thing. her hair was tied back but strands of it
were hanging in her face. she looked beautiful. i asked her to sign the
picture of me, her, and my friend aaron that was taken in mpls. she did,
and asked about him, not remembereing what his name was. "aaron", i told
her, and she quickly replied "aaron! oh yes! how is aaron?" i told her
that he was just fine, and we both had enjoyed the mpls show a great deal.
i asked her if she would play china and she said "yeah, sure, i can do
that" and wrote it on her hand. ursula asked if she would play honey, and
she also wrote that on her hand. jason had her sign his ticket and asked
if she'd play flying dutchman. she said she'd try, but she didn't know if
she could because she already had china and honey to play. we chatted
with her for a while, teasing her about how good we thought she had it on
that big, air conditioned bus, with her OWN chef. smiling, she defended
herself, saying "well, he's not wolfgang puck..." and adding that he IS
cooking for 50 other people, not just herself. i took a picture for ursula
of her and tori, then asked tori if i could take a picture of her. she
held out her arm and told me to be in the picture and give the camera to
ursula. she took the picture and we thanked tori. as she stepped back on
her bus, i yelled "see you in L.A.!" ursula left to go pick up a friend,
and jason and i sad in the parking lot for the next hour or two. when it
was time to go up to the theater, jason and i went to our own seats (his
were much MUCH better) and i put on the UK talula single on my discman. i
was really excited for the concert, despite our ROW X seats. after all...
she was going to play china! for me! here is the complete setlist, plus
what she said when she talked:

Beauty Queen/Horses
Crucify

"I've had so much fun today. I just love this place. My nose is red...
everything is red but my ass and i just love it."

Blood Roses
Little Amsterdam
"so, this is caton. we were in Y Kant TOri Read together." (crowd screams)
"yeah, i know.. where were YOU in 1988!" (more screams) "yeah, i know,
caton's gonna play this song now... bye bye... see you later"

Cornflake Girl (with her CfG dance preceding)
instead of "this is kinda gross and i go at sleepy time" she sings "i
alsready sung this verse cause i forgot my words oh well"
then she tells a story about how they were in Ireland and all the gear was
packed up and the crew wanted to go out drinking but she wanted to record
this next song:

Donut Song
Little Earthquakes
"sometimes i like margaritas" she said, going into her story about how
she'd had too many margaritas and found her way to a piano. "1800, the
good stuff!" she exclaimed, and started playing
Frog on my Toe
"wherever she is, may she hear this"

Silent All These Years
Precious Things
Not the Red Baron
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Talula
Me and a Gun

the first encore began with her telling the story about how her mom said
"marianne killed herself" and tori replying "fuck you"
marianne
a case of you
Pretty Good Year

second encore: she says: "this is my favorite song on Under the Pink but
it never made it on Under the Pink because i'm such an idiot."
Honey
PURPLE RAIN.

at the end of the show, i was crushed. not only had she not played china,
OR Hey Jupiter, she HAD played Honey, for ursula. i was convinced , as
irrational as this may sound, that tori disliked me. i trudged down to
the car, talked to jason about it in the car as we drove him to his hotel,
and felt that he somewhat sympathized, since she didn't play flying
dutchman.

during my stay so far in california, I'd been working on another drawing
for tori. it was very colorful, sort of maze-like, with shapes put
together so that in between them there was a continuous white line. in
the drawing itself, i had hidden the names of all of her songs. (from LE,
UtP, and BfP). This is essentially what i did between the Santa Barbara
show and the First LA show. I wanted to go see that San Diego show, but
didn't have a ride. : <

The morning of the 28th saw me driving in my cousin's '78 suburban to
Bellflower, CA, a town i'd never been to before to meet Erin, Nick, and
Jen, three people i'd never met before. I knew i'd be spending the next
two or three days with them, si i was a little nervous. i hoped they liked
me! i hoped i liked them! the second i stepped into Erin's room, however,
i was completely at ease. this girl is just like me! i thought, as i
stared at her walls, covered in tori posters. As the day went on, i liked
these new friends more and more. as we made lunch before we left, we
talked about how the three of them had met online but now see each other
often in person. At quarter to ten, we piled into Nick's car, already
laughing and talking as if they'd known me for longer than just an hour.
At was great. Driving up to the Greek Theater, I realized I was at the
beginning of what was going to be a fabulous three days. we parked,
unloaded the car, and set up camp on the grass in front of her tour buses.
After doing a quick inspection of the premesis, we declared with
sufficient pride that, at 10:30, we were the first ones there. we set out
a blanket, sat down, and broke out the bubble stuff. While we were
frolicking with bubbles and generic pixie stix that nick had brought, we
met a security guard working for the Greek who i'll call Mort, (name
changed to protect the not-so-innocent) who came to be our sort of
informant. in addition to being a nice, interesting guy, he gave us a few
inside hints as to where and when and in what type of vehicle Tori would
arrive.

As the day progressed, more torifans joined our circle on the
blanket. First, I believe, were the Adams. (both of them was named Adam.)
One of them, who'd seen Tori in Santa Barbara, was a big Torifan like us,
and reads rmt-a (hi adam!) Then arrived two women, I don't remember their
names, who didn't have tickets to any concerts, but had just come to meet
tori. they were big fans, but didn't have money for tickets. basically,
we all just hung out and talked until tori's limo pulled up. Of course, 15
minutes before, Steve showed up, brought the ten or fifteen of us into a
line, and told us the procedure. I was... i think third in line. when
tori stepped out of the limo she was wearing a black long sleeved shirt,
black skirt, and dark red scarf thing around her neck. she looked
amazing... she had on little yellow high heels. when i got to her, she
exclaimed "I know you!" i gave her my ORIGINAL YKTR booklet to sign, which
she did, then i gave her my drawing. she was amazed. she really liked it!
i told her that all of the songs were hidden in it, and she asked "really?
all of them?" i told her yes, all of them except YKTR. Then she said
"even b-sides?" I nodded. "some of them." she kept grinning and told me,
jokingly, that she was gonna show my drawing to caton and if he didn't
find all of the titles, he was fired. i laughed. then she said something
that made me really happy. "oh! i'm sorry, i know i didn't play your song
in santa barbara... what was it, china?" i nodded in disbelief that she'd
remembered. she told me that she'd make sure to play it in the near
future. i said thank you, and walked away grinning from ear to ear. i
stood close to the line, taking pictures of everyone as they met tori.
when all of my friends had made it through the line, after we'd finished
sharing stories and sqealing about how wonderful it had been to meet her,
i ran up the hill to call a friend back home and tell him about it.

while at the payphone, i overheard a guy telling someone else that he had a few
good seats left over for that night's concerts. i chatted with him for a
moment, and after summoning nick, jen and erin, snatched the tickets up
for $15 a piece and our tickets. instead of sitting in the south terrace,
we found ourselves holding tickets for section A, row G, center! we were
quite content, and proceded to sit down in front of the main doors to see
if we could perhaps get a bit of tori's sound check on tape (yay erin!).
we listened for a while, with the tape rolling, and couldn't quite make
out what we were hearing. then, almost simultaneously we all
realized tori was singing bjork's Hyperballad! wow. it was really cool,
even tho we could just barely hear it. after the sound check we sat down
on the grass, and soon met Jessen, whom some of you might have heard of on
the radio. He's the tattoo guy.. he's got 5 Tori tattoos, as well as a
picture of her airbrushed on the hood of his car. what an interesting,
animated, funny young man he is! its always interesting to chat with
fellow semi-obsessed torifans. well. after not too long, we went into the
theater, and claimed our good seats. Willy Porter played until 8:35,
amusing the not-too-sparse crowd with an improv song about a woman named
laura who went to venus on a mule because she was leaving her boyfriend
because he had a penis. it was quite funny. soon enough, the lights were
dimmed, and Son of a Preacher Man was blasting. tori walked out, sat down,
and did a little piano improv, before starting into this setlist:

Beauty Queen/ Horses

(someone threw something little at Tori, or perhaps it was a bug that flew
in her face, right as she was singing "but will you find me if.." and she
added "i guess you did!" after something flew at her.)

Silent All These Years
(she says "I lived on the other side of this hill in this little apartment
and wrote Little Earthquakes. So its kinda funny, being on the other side
of the hill, isn't it girls. I don't mind so much being on the other side
of the hill.")

Blood Roses
Little Amsterdam
(she introduces us to Caton and says that they debuted at a place called
Sash during the YKTR days.)

Cornflake Girl (they both really got into this one... moreso than i'd ever
seen. they both looked like they were just having a blast!)
(tori stops and says "this is the weirdest thing, i've got a critter on my
f#" and goes off on something about what if the big critters came.. goes
off talking six foot women with big boobies and ends with telling us that
the harpsi has fleas...i don't remember all of what she said here, can
anyone add anything?)

Doughnut Song
Space Dog
(tells us the story about going to church with her dad, being forced to
sing christmas hymns as if she was a child again, and she sang the lyrics
to muhammad my friend to Away in the Manger)

Muhammad My Friend
Winter
Precious Things
CaLS
Talula
Me and a Gun

First encore:
Let it Be
Marianne

Second encore:
Pretty Good Year
(she then says that she's gonna play this next song, and as people shout
out suggestions for songs, she announces that they're all out having
margaritas)
Blackswan

What an amazing concert this was! A pretty much respectful and non
annoying audience, except for some idiot who screamed as she sang "yes i
wore a slinky red thing" during MaaG. I was really happy that she played
Winter, because i hadn't yet heard that live. She performed a particularly
emotional version of Precious Things, in fact, she got more into it than
i'd ever seen her, especially at the end. Let it Be was GREAT (did ANYONE
tape this?????), and Black Swan was quite touching, because she appeared
to be quite emotional, especially as she saing "did eric call by the way?"
wow. amazing concert.

Erin, Jen, Nick and I wandered out blissfully, stopping on our way out of
the theater to talk to Cindy (i think... or did wej ust talk to you during
the concert, cindy? i dont remember), Danielle, and a guy named Benj, who
we'd all met in person before the show, who WON THAT BLASTED CONTEST THAT
EVERYONE WANTED TO WIN! (except doll, she's always glad when she doesn't
win, she claims she wouldn't have wanted to win anyway. shyeah. right.)

we went back to erin's house, and spent the next few hours being very
hyper, and happy, and knowing that we really should get to sleep.
heh. erin blows steve case.who knew.

the next day, we were just fine with not getting there until noon or
sowhen we arrived, we waved to dear Mort, set our blanket down in the same
place, and just hung out for a while. soon we met a new friend (its
always so much fun to meet new friends when you know they're torifans!)
named Jason from San Diego. he was wearing an r.m.t.a shirt, and we called
him over to join our circle. he hadn't met tori before.. and was a little
nervous. but very nice, and fun to talk to. later, (or was it earlier? i
don't remember) the adams showed up, and it was just like the day
before... and when jessen (the tattoo guy)and andrew (his friend) arrived,
we were all just chillin'... talking tori like no one's ever talked tori
before. danielle (who was flirting WAY too much with Joel) and her friend
Amber (who was wearing WAY too much makeup, but was still a nice girl) sat
down with us. soon arrived cindy, with a horrendous story to report about
how hard it was to get there today. car trouble like crazy, i guess. so we
were all there! it was so much fun... just hangin' out...waiting for Tori.
before she came , Steve Caton stepped out of a stylin' black car and posed
for a few pictures. after getting a picture of me and tori's groovin'
guitarist (i really like him!), i asked him if he would please sign YKTR
(does this raise/lower the value any? not that i'm ever gonna sell it...)
and he did.

and then Tori came! we were in a line.... there were, total,
about thirty fans. we stood for quite some time before the limo actually
pulled up. but once she got out.. she was wearing a one piece reddish
orangish thing with a shirt tied around her waist, and gold sparkly jelly
shoes. her hair was down, and her sunglasses were propped up on her head
(for part of the time.) when i got to her, she looked up and me and
smiled broadly, recognizing me right away. "your thing!" she announced. i
was like "huh...?" she goes "your thing! that thing! your drawing! its
back there... everyone's trying to figure it out..." i was very very
happy! she'd remembered me! she went on to talk about how she was going to
make sure and play "my" song... and made sure that i would be at both of
the following concerts. i had her sign my picture of me, aaron, and her in
MPLS, for AARON this time. i gave her a letter that i had written that
covered some really personal things. i thanked her profusely and walked
away, to stand aside and snap more pictures of her and friends. erin was
right before me in line, and had asked her to play Cloud on my Tongue.
everyone hoped that she would, since its such a lovely song. but i had a
hard time really hoping she played anyone else's song but my own. Jessen
requested Yes Anastasia, and I believe Adam wanted to hear Tear in Your
Hand.

After meeting Tori, still quite elated, we were intent on upgrading our
seats (which were all separate from each other) as well as just finding a
ticket for Jen. She ended up getting one free from KROQ, and the four of
us upgraded our tickets for free at the box office! yay. we were ready to
see the show. loaded down with a camera as well as a tape recorder (in
the handy dandy secret hidden pouch in my bag) I and my friends went into
the theater, and took our not great but not that bad either seats. soon
enough, the show began. willy porter had his band with him, which we
didn't mind so much but then again didn't like as much as just Willy by
himself. 8:35 rolled around and out walked none other than tori amos
singing (can you guess what, folks?) Beauty QUeen, followed by

Horses
Leather
Blood Roses
Little Amsterdam
CfG
Doughnut Song
Little Earthquakes

Tori began to tell the audience that the song she was about to play was
one she used to listen to while driving fast on the 101... and upon
hearing those words, erin and nick and I knew we were about to hear
LOVESONG! we screamed, and must have been alone in our recognization of
the story she was telling, for we heard no one else scream with us.
However, instead of busting out with "Whenever i'm alone with you..."
following a great harpsi intro, Tori strained her ears to hear a guy in
section C playing Amazing Grace on the Trumpet. she must have liked it a
lot.. because she started to play it on the piano... and finished the song
with they guy playing trumpet! it was beautiful. then, to the great joy of
erin, nick and i, she went right into the next song.
Lovesong (on harpsichord)

Precious Things
Not the Red Baron
Tear in your Hand
CaLS
MaaG

----
Famous Blue Raincoat
Cloud on my Tongue (At this point, Erin had lost it...she was happy and
sad and everything all at once probably. i was happy for her, but sad that
tori hadn't yet played china for me...)

----
Father Lucifer
Hey Jupiter (this was my fourth Tori concert and my FIRST time hearing
this song live!)

all in all, a GREAT show. unfortunately...the bootleg didn't work. :< i
was REALLY happy to hear lovesong on the harpsi. i'm not sure what else i
can say about this show but WOW! not as good as the night before, but a
great show to see. and i was very happy for Erin, who was on cloud nine
after hearing her favorite song in concert, especially since she'd asked
tori to play it for her.

that evening, i slept at my cousin's house in manhattan beach, and made it
back to the greek by one thirty the next day, bearing lunch and snacks for
the whole crowd, who were mostly all already there.

Basically, until tori arrived, we just sort of hung out like we did
before. it was really really really interesting and exciting and great and
wonderful talking with people that, even tho i hadn't known for a long
time, i felt that i really clicked with. i could talk to them all day.
in addition to our usual Greek Theater Waiting For Tori crowd, we were
joined by Sherry, who reads r.m.t.a. and who had with her a stuffed bear
(hi sherry!) and Cindi, who is a friend of Erin's. at around three, i
went to find myself a ticket (i wanted to make sure i could actually see
the concert!) and ended up buying two, scalped, with the hopes to sell the
extra later in the evening. the entire day i'd been keeping my eyes open
for my dear friend jason, whom i met at the santa barbara show. after i
picked up my ticket, he managed to find our circle and introduced us to
his friend elysia. soon it was time to meet tori! we lined up... and were
told that we could either get an autograph or a picture, which is the same
rule it had been the day before, when i'd chosen an autograph, and had the
person behind me in line snap pictures of me and tori talking. so today i
wanted a picture. (i had virtually nothing left to get signed!)

i had intended to just walk up to tori and tell her sadly that this was my last
concert and that i'd be going home the next day, give her a hug and say
thanks for everything. but as i started to announce that the last LA show
would be my last concert i'd attend this tour, she gave me a serious look
and told me that she'd gotten my letter that i'd given her yesterday. (it,
in addition to other things, told her that i was recently very upset that
i hadn't gotten into college and didn't know where i was going to live.)
she took my hand and talked to me about it for a good three minutes. it
was just...completely amazing. she told me some things i'll never forget.
she said she really wanted me to find a place to live, and not to live out
on the streets. to get out of my current situation, but to do it right. to
not go out on the streets. "you see", she told me, in her wonderful,
consoling, caring voice, "right now you're marianne". i nodded, trying to
understand, and listening intently as she continued. "you're in the frying
pan...but at least you've got a little oil!" i was dumbstruck.. i thanked
her over and over....she continued to wish me well in my future search for
a place to stay....and then she told me that she'd try to play china that
night but didn't know if it would come. then she said: "if i don't play
it, you'll know at least that i've been thinking about you and i'm
focusing all of my energy on you". i just about died. i thanked her and i
walked away and began to cry... of happiness that tori had remembered me
and given me so much genuine advice, and of sadness that it was the last
time i'd see tori in who knows how long.

after we were all done meeting her, i went to try and sell my ticket.
successfully. then i head that Jason (from san diego. jason s. in the
blue tori shirt.) had just upgraded his ticket to a pit seat... i grabbed
Jason (from san diego. jason e. in a green nin shirt.) and we went to find
the guy Jason S had gotten tickets from. successfully! we got row CC in
the pit, off to the right side. and boy were we excited. we walked around
for a while, and ran into Steve Caton, who was ridin' around on his bike.
no one else seemed to recognize him. we talked to him for a while about
how much we love how he and tori perform Cornflake Girl. he told us that
they'd be singing In the Springtime of his Voodoo. We smiled, said
goodbye, and walked towards the theater. after stopping to pose for a
picture with Willy Porter (he is so cool!) we went inside and took our
seats. ate some fries. talked to everyone else that we knew that was
there that night. (cindi, nick, doll, benj who told us briefly about
brunch with tori, val who won the "pick me tori" contest, etc.) then the
concert! willy played with his band again. jessen (tattoo guy) yelled out
for him to sing the penis song again, and was denied because "well, that
is an improv song. and i just don't remember it anyore" explained Porter.
eventually, tori came on. Here's the setlist:

BQ/Horses
Take to the Sky (this one was for Valerie who had one the contest and
spent a day with tori)

Blue Moon (acapella! quite impressive.)
Caught a Lite Sneeze (at this point we were all confused..this isn't how
her normal setlist goes!)

Cornflake Girl

Butterfly! (this was amazing... i was so happy to hear it in
concert....and in the middle of the song she busted out with "bottles and
cutlery... i go through all this before you wake up...." and continued
singing the chorus to hyperballad to the tune of butterfly for a while.)

Little Earthquakes

Onward Christian Soldiers (this was interesting...it included a line that
went "hello Mr. Pope, you've got a funny hat")
Icicle

This old Man
Putting the Damage On
Precious Things
Not the Red Baron
Bells For Her (on the harpsi!)
Talula
Me and a Gun

first encore:
Twinkle
!!!!!!!!CHINA!!!!!!!!!! (at this point i was about to just collapse and
die. immediately i was sobbing. she could see me in my second row seat,
and stared at me for most of the song. it was quite possibly the most
wonderful four minutes of my life. something i'll never ever forget.
beautiful. perfect. after the song, i just stood, and applauded, and
screamed as loud as i could. tori waved at me right when she was finished.
aaa. sigh.

second encore:
In the Springtime of his Voodoo
Song for Eric (<---this was BEAUTIFUL!)
Purple Rain

wow. it was over. i was so happy, so elated... the last LA show was the
most enthralling, emotional, wonderful and perfect show that I've ever
seen. afterwards, Erin and Cindi and I and others were just .... being
very very happy and excited....esPECIALLY after she realized that her tape
recorder had worked. we all drove to subway, listening to the tape of that
night's concert on the way. at subway, we just sat, still letting the
concert sink in, and being a little sad that we'd all be parting soon.
jessen and andrew showed up, and for the next hour we just gabbed about
the concert. finally, after everyone telling each other we'd see each
other again someday, hopefully, we parted. it was over.
now, i'm back in minnesota, and i've gotten all of my pictures
developed... and i have three rolls of wonderful memories. i have one
picture of tori that i took from about three feet away. its her in
minneapolis looking really cute. i've made many many copies and i'm
prepared to send one to anyone and everyone who emails me their (snail
mail) address as they respond to this huge post. has anyone else taken
good pictures of tori? i'd love to get copies, and i'm happy to send
copies of mine.

thank you, everyone, for reading this!

sincerely,

dor (dorthis@aol.com)

Adriana Rowe's Tori Story

As posted to the RDT Mailing List on Tuesday, July 23, 1996

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