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Reviews
The most recently added reviews are first.
From Christopher Land
This was an incredible show from start to finish. I saw one other show on the tour and that was Birmingham. Anyways, Father Lucifer was amazing. I thought that particular live version was my favorite live version I have ever heard. I started to leave after the second encore. Then I heard the crowd erupt. Third encore!!!!! It was winter and it was awesome . This was by far one of my favorite concerts I have ever been to.
From Danica Knox
October 15, 1998 - This was a far shot for me to do, but I couldn't pass up seeing Tori in
New Orleans for several reasons. 1) It gave me a chance and a weekend
to hang out with my best friend Kimber for the weekend and take her to
see another Tori show. 2) It was on a weekend, so feasible and easy to
swing. 3) It was New Orleans, one of the most magical cities I've ever
been to. The drive was long and pretty boring, 7 hours to Kimber's then
another 2 hours to New Orleans from her college. 20 hours of driving for
me in 3 days. I was pooped but this show was *so* completely worth it.
Kimber and I got to the area by 10.30 am for the meet and greet awaital
and everything. This is one of my favorite parts of the day because I
LOVE the people that I have met at the meet and greet gatherings over
the last few months. When I don't see them I miss them, and when I get
to talk to them, I'm extremely excited. I love the bond that we carry
and the friendships we have. So for me going to the meet and greet is
not all about just Tori. It's about friends being brought together
through a common bond...and *that* is our dear redhead.
So anyhow, time comes and goes and we all cram up next to the
barricades. We wait longer...Tori shows up. She starts at the other
end opposite of where I am standing, behind Matt Page and Michael on the
2nd row of people at the very very end. Michael was to say goodbye to
Tori today for it was his final show, and I was a bit sad for him. Tori
talked, signed, posed for pics with people. She got in front of us and
hugged Matt and Michael one on each arm and talked to them about shows.
Tori asked Michael "see you next week then?" and Michael shook his head
and said "nope". Tori gets a sad look on her face and says, "so this is
it?" and then leans in to hug Michael for a long time. She signs some
more things, and is looking around at the people, and sees me (gulp).
She smiles really big and says "hi! how are you!?" She recognizes me
from previous times, blah blah blah.....and I tell her that I'm doing
well and I hope that she is also. We said a few words and then I asked
if I could take a pic of her head on and she said "of course" and
grinned really big, then posed for a pic for me....which is just
incredibly cute. She then says bye to everyone and trots off for
soundcheck.
Kimber and I leave to get something to eat, and I'm on a natural Tori
high :)
The show. Ok, in agreement here with Mike about the best show I've
seen being Knoxville, first and forth most I have to say that the New
Orleans show pulls in a close second rating before I go on. New
Orleans always gives me this totally different feel to myself. This was
the 5th time that I have been in that city in the last 4 years. I
absolutely adore it, and I could see by the end of the show that Tori
did also.
The show, as always opened up with Precious Things which is always
incredible. They had an echo on her voice that I hadn't heard them use
before. It gave the song a nice effect.......it was just rockin.
When She's Your Cocaine started next, I just knew this was going to be a
kick ass kinda show. I'd never heard of Cocaine being played so early
in the show before! I love this song live so much and hadn't heard it
in awhile so it was great to have it. During the bridge of the song
where Tori goes "if you want me to boy I could lie to you, you don't
need one of these to let me inside of you" right after Tori and the
band completely break off into another tune, which Kimber later points
out to me is Black Sabbath's "Sweet Leaf" for about 14 seconds of total
complete *rock* and then straight back into "and is it true...". It was
nuts, and incredible. And the end Tori did her heavy breathing with
some extra kick to it, and then smacked the microphone so hard it swung
back like 3 feet.
"Hi Everybody how's it going? We really love coming here." Tori says
and then introduces the band. "Um, some people think I wrote this about
my father, and I've written alot of things about my father...but um..I
was on an eye-oh-wah-ska {Note: I don't know how to spell this word but
that's how it sounds} journey...I know that town knows alot about that
kind of thing. And um I really learned something. I learned that
Lucifer is really someone who wears skirts, white..and drives an ice
cream truck." Then she goes into Father Lucifer. Ahhhhhhh I love this
with the band so much! It was only the 2nd time for me to hear this
particular song live, and I was hanging on every single note of the
song. After 'Nothings gunna stop me from floating' where Tori would
normally do 'every day is my wedding day...' she does the backing
vocals of the song instead. It is so beautiful!
Sugar came next. *This* is my live song. I love this song more than
anything with the band, and I am in tears each time I hear it live.
It's just the single most incredible thing I think I've ever heard.
Tori could probably come in and play Sugar live with the band 16 times
in a row and I'd be happy.
The music for Cruel rolled in, which is another fantastic song live.
Complete with drool and everything. Fabulous.
Liquid Diamonds was great and emotional.
"So the guys go away for a little bit and we do a couple of
things...just us. So this is a bsides....and alot of people asked me
for this today, so here you go" Here. In My Head. This is one of my
all time favorite Tori songs. I was in tears as usual when I hear this
song...so heart wrenching.
After Here. Tori goes straight into Not the Red Baron which shocked the
hell out of me. It was incredibly beautiful.
It seemed Tori was into the bside mode in New Orleans. The boys come
back and the next one they did was Honey...*sigh*
The next song was a pleasant suprise. Little Earthquakes. I was
especially happy that Tori did this one because I think that's it's
Kimber's very fav Tori song, and I wanted her to hear it so bad! Being
at a Tori show is like getting a grab bag....you never know what you are
going to get in it. It's the suprise element about Tori's shows that I
adore.
Tori starts to sing..."And I can see you...coming over the hill.
Something...that reminds me of you. And I can see.....something that's
not very well...something we wished for long ago. And I can tell that
you are gone now...and I can tell...that you're right here. And I can
tell that you'll all go..but I met you...and I'll meet you...in a
Hotel." Great improv before Hotel. This song is so crazy live. It's
like there are a million things going on all at once. When I first
heard this song on FtCH I wondered how they would pull this off live,
with as much action as there is in the song, but they do an incredible
job with it live.
The climax of the show...The Waitress. This song is just so powerful
live, and it seems to get longer and longer each time I hear it.
Tori brings the boys out and they hug and wave to everyone, then leave
the stage. Coming back the first encore song was Cornflake Girl. Tori
came out dancing to the music, hopping over her piano benchseat.
Matt moved over to the Swirl drum kit, and I knew there was going to be
some bootie shaking going on. Raspberry Swirl.... energetic and dancy.
During the end part of the song, Tori held her hand up in the air,
signifying the boys to do one more round so she could end the song...but
they kept going {maybe they didn't see her and} and there was a small
flub up, but Tori kept going improving for about 30 seconds, and then
held her hand back up in the air *very* strongly wanting them to end the
song, and this time it worked. hehe.
They left the stage and came back for the 2nd encore. The band played
the music for iieee longer than usual......Tori pranced out wearing red
devil horns!! She was so cute in those as she sang iieee beautifully.
this song worked really well as an encore and coming later in the show.
Before the next song Tori said "God, I wish we could take you with us".
She really seemed to enjoy the crowd and aura in New Orleans.
Pandora's Aquarium followed iieee. I was *ecstatic* to hear this song
live. I had been complaining that all the shows I went to never had
Pandora's, but Tori would play it the night before or the night after I
saw a show. So this was my first Pandora's live and it was so awesome
with the disco balls dancing their light around the arena. It really
did look like an underwater scene. After Pandora's ended and Tori waved
goodbye, I grabbed Kimber and we started to walk out to beat the crowd.
As we almost hit the closest door we heard the crowd go nuts with noise,
so we ran back in and Tori was doing a THIRD ENCORE! I couldn't believe
it! She must've REALLY loved the crowd. So the last song we got was a
very emotional Winter, then Tori left the stage, and we got a near
perfect show.
From Kevin Crays
October 15, 1998 - It's already been mentioned that Tori talked of the origin of Father Lucifer in N.O.....well here's the exact quote
"Um, Some people think I wrote this about my father and I've written a lot of
things about my father, but um, I was on an Iowaska journey. Because I know
this town knows a lot about this kinda thing (some screams from Audience).
And um, I've really learned something. I learned that Lucipher's really
somebody who wears white, and is a woman who drives an ice cream truck."
I thought this story was a bit strange, but a search for Iowaska on Yahoo lead
me back to the Dent and an interview with Tori in Q....apparently this is some
sort of hallucinogenic drug.....so now the story doesn't seem quite so wierd
So everyone doesn't have to go find/read it, here's the quote:
"Yeah, there was a period in the late '80s where I was working with different
shaman," she says. "Myself and a friend Beene would take Iowaska - but it wouldn't
be in the liquid form, it would be a freeze-dried pill - and mushrooms. Some of
those trips were eighteen hours long and I'll never forget, once I ended up
sitting by the bush trying to ask the flowers why they didn't like me . It's
like, Why can't I be your friend? I was crawling out of my skin at that time.
In my twenties I was really...I was just losing my mind."
From Jason Ring
October 15, 1998 - Jason attended the show and placed a review of it on his Tori web site called Drops Of Ivory .
From Rachael Lydia Cannon (posted to the Precious-Things mailing list)
October 14, 1998 - so i got to go to the N.O. show on saturday, and i have to say it was one of the most perfect days i have had. . .
showed up at the venue @ 11:00 and was #12 in line, so @ the meet & greet
(at 4:45), i was able to get my Under the Pink record cover signed (looks
marvelous), and i also asked Tori (who was adorable in blue jean overalls
and a T-shirt w/ sunglasses on her head) what the chances were that she
could play "Winter" @ the show. She wrote it on her hand and said "well, i
think maybe. i'll write it down so i'll rememer to think about it, and
we'll see!"
@ the show, which was of course AMAZING, she didn't play it during her 2
solo pieces (Here. in my head and Not the red baron), so i figured she
wasn't going to. . . but THEN, after her two encores they didn't cut the
lights back on, and Tori came running on to the stage smiling, sat down at
the piano, and began playing "Winter". It was the most beautiful and
perfect that i have ever heard it. i just stood there and cried. That song
means more to me than any other, and it was the perfect end to my perfect
day!
From Matt Greenawalt
October 12, 1998 - My concert experience began with an extremely fortunate random Tori sighting. As we were driving through the city guess who happened to cross the street in front of us as we were at a red light? TORI!!! It took every ounce of
restraint not to jump out of the car and tackle her with hugs-O-love, but she
looked a little sick and her bodyguard would definitely have been able to take
me out. Anyway, she was wearing a white T-shirt under some blue overalls. It
was amazing to see her so REAL--like a goddess just randomly walked in front
of me.
The concert was a mix of beautiful surrealism with just plain annoyances. As
other's have commented, there were many forms of smoke in the air--not a
pleasantry to my pregnant wife. There also seemed to be an abundance of
Cornflake girls all around that just didn't seem to get it. But the music was
heavenly. She continually reinvented song after song, pushing words in
different directions and piercing my heart. As my wife and I held hands
throughout the whole concert, without a word between us we shared one of the
most intimate moments of our lives--looking in each others eyes as Tori sang
"when you gonna love you as much as I do." And later that night as my wife
rubbed her pregnant tummy she said she had a sense that Tori was pregnant
again. She said when you're pregnant you can tell when other girls are too .
. so who knows??
From kim jester
October 12, 1998 - i'm finally getting a chance to write my review of the show last
night. the show was great. the show started at 8:05 when Rod Sexton (from
Canada) played. he is a very depressed guy. he played for about
25 minutes. next, there was a break of over an hour, but we were
entertained by a couple having sex in the row in front of us. By the
way (reference to an earlier comment), a UNO lady was walking
around the arena telling people that "Tori greatly appreciates if
people don't smoke in the seats".
Tori comes on around 9:30, opening with "precious things". She didn't
play any of my absolute favorites (almost any tori song is a favorite),
but there are a few songs i like more now that i've seen them live
("not the red baron", "she's you're cocaine", "hotel"). I loved
"honey". it was the first song after private time, and they played
it with an upright bass and bongos. Tori introduced "hotel" with an
accapella piece that sounded like a revamped "song for eric", but
i couldn't remember enough of it when i got home to check (i live just
under 2.5 hours away). if it was, she definitely changed some words
becauses the last line was about a hotel. according to the set list
she played 16 songs, which turned into 17.
The set list has "not the red baron" and "here in my head" flipped,
and only 2 encores consisting of "cornflake girl" and "raspberry swirl"
then "mohammed my friend" (which wasn't played, i i e e e was) and
winter (which ended up in the 3rd encore).
as i said the show was great, so go see her if you haven't!!!!!
i still didn't get to meet her. ah well, next time.
From Michael Cannon
October 12, 1998 - I haven't had much more than a moment to reflect on the pure magik of the UNO show since leaving New Orleans. It has begun to overwhelm me in
waves!
Last night was simply the most vibrant opening I've witnessed from the
Plugged Tour.. and the sparkling finish of a third encore knocked me off
my feet back into my chair. TEARS! I enjoyed Cocaine coming so early
in the night, followed by a pulsing reincarnation of Father Lucifer.
The mood for our secret time was set up well with Liquid Diamonds, and
to hear Here, In My Head and Baron together was beautiful!
For all of those who were there to share this night with me, thank you
for making it so wonderful.
From Amanda Keller
October 11, 1998 - I have to start by saying that the DEVLINS did NOT open for Tori. Some guy with a guitar named Ron Sexsmith (?) did...he played for about 20 minutes, and was very unimpressive. Oh well. He got done a little before 8:30, and we
figured that Tori would be on soon after. WRONG. We waited for a full hour
after that before she came out. But as usual it was well worth the wait. She
was wearing a purplish colored bodysuit with long arms and legs, and she had a
very pretty white apron thing on, that is longer than her usual ones...almost
like a dress. And she had like 4 inch heeled shoes on. =) Her hair was down
and she looked so pretty.
Of course she opened with:
Precious Things - great as always, and she was especially passionate.
She's Your Cocaine - one of my favorite songs from FtCGH, and I was so excited
that she did this one.
Then she asked everyone how they were doing, and said, "a lot of people think
I wrote this song about my father. I have written many songs about my
father." And then she went into something about Lucifer being a woman in
white in an icecream truck...I think she said the same thing on the Rosanne
show. Anyhow...it was cute, and she played Father Lucifer.
Sugar (yay!)
Cruel (between verses, Tori is eating something out of a large mug...?)
Liquid Diamonds (powerful)
Then she said, "the boys are gonna go away for a while and it will be just you
and me!" That was so sweet. And she says "this next one is a B-side and a lot
of people have been asking me for this one today" and she played Here. in my
head. =))) It was great!
Then she played Not the Red Baron.
Then the boys came back and they did Honey! wow!
Little Earthquakes
Hotel (with a acapella intro)
The Waitress
Then she did not 2, but 3 encores!!!
1st encore --very high energy!
-Cornflake Girl
-Raspberry Swirl
2nd encore --Tori comes out wearing red devil ears!
--iieee
(takes the ears off, and says, "god, I wish we could take you with us."
--pandora's aquarium (kind of sad)
ofcourse I thought this was going to be the final song...then everyone keeps
cheering and Tori comes out again! by herself!
3rd encore
--Winter (very beautiful...)
There were a couple of things that were not so great about this show, compared
to Birmingham. One : they allowed smoking in the seating area! (gag) My
eyes were bloodshot by the end. Two: The acoustics were bad...sometimes the
band drowned out Tori's vocals. But all in all it was a powerful show with an
awesome setlist.
From Nicole M McCann
October 11, 1998 - Hi, Mike! I just got back from the New Orleans Tori concert. It was great! Although, I seemed much more enthusiastic than most other people
there. I think that it's because tonight was my first Tori concert ever!
Unfortunately, I was not able to get a ride [to the meet & greet] until about 2:00 P.M. ,
so I was #74--one of the last people. Tori showed up later than she was
supposed to (She showed up some time between 4:15 and 5:00...I don't know
for sure because I didn't have a watch on), which ended up throwing
everything else off. Oh, well... Luckily, for me, I kind of inched my way
up a tiny bit (I feel so sorry for everyone that I crowded. It's just
that I desperately wanted for her to sign my CD.) and eventually I was in
the third row of people behind the barricades. I stood on the tips of my
toes and stretched my arm farther than I ever thought possible...until
Tori finally saved me by snatching the disk from out of my hand to sign
and return to me : )
So, I had a few hours to kill, and then it was back to the arena...to
wait for the enchanting goddess. I have to say...I felt sorry for her
opening act. He wasn't getting much applause or attention--especially
not, since he sang off key at one point.
Finally, Tori's band starts to play this incredible intro to "Precious
Things" !!! Then Tori came out. She looked radiantly beautiful (as
usual). She had changed out of her overalls and into a sparkly white
evening gown! I was halfway in a trancelike state, so I don't remember
all of the songs. I know she played "She's Your Cocaine" after that. Then
she gave a brief story on the writing of "Father Lucifer", just before
she performed it. That's one thing I noticed; She did not talk much. And,
throughout parts of her concert, she was eating soup! It looked
sooooooooo adorable!!! However, I was sort of concerned that she might be
sick. Okay, after "Father Lucifer", I don't remember the order of the
rest of the songs, but I do think they went as follows: "Sugar" ,
"Cruel"," Liquid Diamonds", "Here. In My Head" , "Not the Red Baron",
"Honey" , "Little Earthquakes" , "Hotel" , "The Waitress", "Cornflake
Girl", " Raspberry Swirl", "iieee", " Pandora's Aquarium", and from what
I've heard, there was a third encore, where she played "Winter".
[sigh...] I wish I could have heard it, but I left to go to the backstage
entrance. I love that song.
During "Raspberry Swirl", I think, it looked liked this guy tried to pull
Tori off stage. However, after the show, I heard him apologizing to Tori,
telling her that he WASN'T trying to pull her off stage, but that
security was pulling HIM away. Tori just said something like "It's okay,
hon...Don't worry about it." I thought he was very nice to go apologize.
That was one really neat thing; I met so many nice people. And, after the
show, I got to talk to Tori for a little bit!!!
I wanted to thank you once again for keeping up such a great web site,
because without it I probably never could have gotten tickets-much less
talk to Tori! I love the Dent!
From Chris Brewin
October 11, 1998 - It's 4:32 a.m. and I just got back from the greatest night of my life, thus far. I was one of the lucky people to get tickets from the Best
Buy/RAINN charity online auction. How I got there is a pretty
interesting story but I'll spare you those details. I got 2 front row
tickets, which were okay, that I shared with my friend Rachel. Who by
the way didn't know I was giving them to her until 5 min. before the
show, she thanked me by promissing me her 1st born. The seats were to
the right of the stage so we could barely see Tori's face, but Caton was
right in front of us, and really hamming it up. Rach said he was "such a
pimp". The show was spectacular! Even though she played just about all
of my least favorite songs (RED BARON, PANDORA'S AQUARIUM,HOTEL)she
played all my faves from FTCGH, except Playboy Mommy -- which both Rach
& I sorely wanted to hear. Like the rest of the peaople have said she
played 3 encores, just goes to show she loves N.O. THE most!! ;-) She
did say she wished she could take us with her. PRESCIOUS THINGS was by
far the best thing about the show, w/ RASBERRY SWIRL a close 2nd. As far
as the band goes: The band was tight! 'Nuff said!
After the show I hooked up with my friend Nicole, whom I gave the
backstage pass to. We almost didn't make it back there b/c I had to go
to the bathroom and we were late getting to the backstage entrance. We
were told this by a slightly rude blonde woman w/ a british accent. She
said the other 2 winners were already back with Tori and scolded us for
being tardy. I said "Hey lady...when Nature calls I have to listen." She
ignored me and lead us to a corridor were 10 or so other people w/
passes were waiting as well. Once the rude british chic (here on out
I'll refer to her as RBC) let us in Tori was already talking to the
other 2 guy's that won the RAINN auction, and there was a woman in a
black shirt in the room as well. I was totally freaking out. We were
rushed into getting our stuff signed (& boy did I bring a crap load of
stuff!) I handed Nicole the 2 CD covers she brought ( LEQ for her &
Great Expectations for her friend Karen). Tori signed them & talked to
Nic a bit. I wasn't paying attention to what they were saying because I
was busy trying to get my stuff together, but I did hear Nic ask her if
she was playing anywhere else tonite and Tori said no "we do 6 shows a
week" and said how tonite was her 106th [or was it 160th?] show of the
tour. I 1st handed her the tour program Rachel gave me for her to sign.
I told her it was her birthday & could she please sign it. She said
"Rachel with a 'ch'?" and I said yes & she signed it: Rachel Happy B-Day
Tori Amos [Once I showed this to Rachel she went from promising me her
first born to telling me she'd have to marry me. She better watch out
'cause I just might take her up on that ;-) ]. I then got her to sign
all 4 of her CD booklets for me (LEQ on the cover, BFP on the interior,
UTP on the back cover, & FTCGH on the interior -- she signed this on the
leg & said "we'll give her a tattoo"). I then took out Lady Cottington's
Pressed Fairy Book & stupidly asked her if she'd ever seen it before.
She jokingly replied, to paraphrase, "Oh I don't know, I think we've
seen this before", she looks and smiles at the 2 women friends of hers
in the room, "I think we have about 2 of them floating around here." I
look at the RBC and say "Redundant question, huh?". She shoots me a
forced smile. I turn to Tori and say, "My friend Jared wanted me to ask
you if you know Brian Froud?" (He's the artist of the Pressed Fairies.)
She said, "Yes I know Brian. He lives in the woods in this tiny little
house with his tiny little wife. And all he does is draw pictures of
faeries all day and take walks in the woods." By the time that was said
the woman in black was ready with my camera to take pic's. With the last
click of the camera the RBC is telling us it's time to go. I ask Tori
for a goodbye hug and she say's, and I'll never forget this, "Yes Chris
you can have a hug and you can have my babies and you can have my...
(neither I nor Nic can remember what the 2nd thing was,odd isn't it) but
you can't have my husband!" I give her a stunned look and put my arms
in a bank robbery hold up position & say you don't have to worry about
that. And with that we left. There were about 6-10 other people in the
corridor waiting to see her. She also offered Nic water as we left, Nic
declined.
All 4 of us were hyped to the extreme. I wasn't out of the room 2 min.
before I started kicking myself for not asking her all the ques. I had
prepared: 'Will you be putting out a live album soon?', 'Any plans for
another tape of music video's like you did with LEQ?', 'How often do you
chat with Neil & why did you want him to make you a tree?', 'Why didn't
you play PLAYBOY MOMMY?' Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! I wigged out completely and
forgot all those questions. Oh well, I still had a blast. it was definately worth the $$$ and it went to a most worthy cause. I highly recomend it to any Tori fan...just do it!
From Richard Handal
October 11, 1998 - This show had 3 encores, which is rare. Tori was on stage for one hour and 47 minutes. Her show began at 9:29 and ended at11:16. The main set ended at 10:41. Ron Sexsmith was the opening act and his set ended at 8:27PM.
October 11, 1998 - i just got home from the new orleans concert! that was the best experience of my life so far. tori and her band rock out so much! i didnt expect them to play so hard and loud. here is the set list or as much as i can remember of it (i totally forgot the order): precious things, she your cocaine, sugar, cruel, here. in my head (solo), not the red baron (solo), honey, little earthquakes, liquid diamonds, hotel, the waitress, and pandora's aquairum. 1st encore: cornflake girl and raspberry swirl. 2nd encore: iieee. 3rd (yes, THIRD): winter (solo). i believe that is it. during cruel it looked like she was eating something. soup maybe? tori was spectacular; her voice and piano playing were perfect. father lucifer and raspberry swirl were my faves for tonight. the drums are great too w/ the songs. before the 1st encore tori put a pair of devil horn things on. she is so cute :] i didnt have that great of a seat so i couldnt make out what she was wearing. it looked like a white shiny dress w/ a pair of pants underneath (?). when the crowd wouldnt stop clapping and yelling after the 2nd encore tori said "i wish i could take you guys w/ us" or something along those lines. [note to tori: i am willing and waiting :)] lots of ppl got up and started dancing and it was just a very awesome show. too bad she didnt play more bfp and utp. i cant wait until the next tour!! i will sell a kidney to anyone w/ a bootleg of the show :]
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