Tori performed in Minneapolis, MN on Saturday, November 30, 2002 at the Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota. The show began at 8:00PM and Howie Day was the opening act.

Set List

Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Take To The Sky
Pancake
Cornflake Girl
Honey
Juarez
Crucify
Wednesday

Band leaves

China
Famous Blue Raincoat
Josephine

Band returns

Your Cloud
Girl
Sweet Sangria
Lust
Hotel
I Can't See New York
Spring Haze

1st Encore
Taxi Ride
Etienne

2nd Encore
Strange
Tear In Your Hand

Reviews

For more reviews, please check out the Dent's Tour Reviews Forum. Please post your own review if you were there! The latest reviews are at the bottom of the page.

From Mikewhy:

While this show did not have any debut songs for the tour, I still found it to be highly enjoyable. In addition to the set list, the quality of a show depends on the nature of the music, and many of the songs tonight had a very enjoyable quality that is hard for me to put into words. I was up close (4th row) and was able to just sit back and let the music wash over me. It was really nice.

Tori's show consisted of 23 songs and began at 9:14 and ended at 11:18PM. I heard that Neil Gaiman's family was in the audience for the show, but I have no idea if Neil was. (He has been in Europe for promotion lately and we did not know if he would be in town for the show.) Tori seemed to acknowledge Neil tonight by performing Tear In Your Hand at the end of the show.

First things first. I give the audience of the year award to the crowd in Minneapolis. The reason they have earned this honor is the fact that they did NOT clap along when Tori performed Take To The Sky. This alone made the show for me. Thank you! ;) I think this is the first time that has happened.

Secondly, Tori once again graced the audience with the wonderful spontaneous improvs that she is famous for and she seems to customize for each city. Tonight she did the first one after Pancake. She mentioned how cold it was in Minneapolis by saying, "You really wake up coming up here.." and than sang something like, "That's the reason for good lovin... Why he's around at all... But I don't need a reason at all..."

The second improv was at the start of her Roadside Cafe part of the show, where she (like in previous shows) sang about her sign that descends and lights up with the words "Roadside Cafe" on it. She first said to the audience that "The guys go off now, but they'll be back again." Then she starts singing, "Now you and me and my little sign... I find her all the time backstage... No lights on.. She looks down.. My sign's been everywhere... seeing these songs..."

The final one was before Your Cloud. The low bass of the music seemed to make her monitor resonate and shake and she sang to her sound guys to turn the low part down to stop that from happening. Her lyrics were something like, "My Bosendorfer is resonating...driving me insane... Let's shift things... Turn it down a couple of dBs... My Bosendorfer is my friend, but she's pretty big..."

A few more tidbits. Before Strange, Tori introduced the band. This is the first time Tori did that toward the end of the show. During Hotel I noticed that the shadows of Jon Evans playing bass and Matt Chamberlain playing drums were shown very large on the screen behind the stage. Tori flashed some huge smiles during Etienne. Tori's wave goodbye during the "time to wave goodbye" part of Tear In Your Hand was cute, and I noticed some people in the audience waving back!

I enjoyed this show, and once again had a great time in Minneapolis. Amanda met her old friend Lenore and bought her a ticket for this show, allowing her to see Tori for the first time. Hopefully she had as a good a time as we did!

From Amanda Morris:

I went into Northrop Auditorium full of nostalgia. My very first Tori conert ever was in Northrop Auditorium in 1996, and I was so happy and excited to be able to go back there and see another show, especially from the same row I had been in in 1996 (4th row). Even after the long drive orginating from Louisville, KY, I was extra excited to be back there after 6 years. What made things even more intersting for me was that I also brought along my friend from high school, Lenore, who had only heard a few notes of Tori's music.

Although there were no debuts for this show, I still loved hearing songs that I had heard before. Her body movements and smiles and glances out to the audience are always unique at each show. I also love noticing those variations, even subtle variation, in her voice when she sings the same song two or three night in a row. One of the things I have always loved and still love about Tori's concerts is the way she can make the same song be even a little different with her fluctuations and exagerations in her vocals and her body movements and even her differences in her smiling from night to night.

One of the most suprising and shocking parts of this show was that no one clapped during Take To The Sky. That all by itself made the song extra enjoyable for me. From fourth row I could see Tori's dancing for Pancake as she stood at the Wurlitzer with one foot propped up on the bench. At the benzodiazapene part, she put her hands on her stomach and actually rubbed her stomach for a second or two. Maybe I just had not noticed at previous shows, or maybe it was my fourth row center seats, but Tori seemed extra animated in her body movements for some songs. I particularly noticed it during Pancake and Crucify, both songs I had seen quite a few times before. That by itself was most enjoyable. During Crucify, I noticed there were times that Tori would just let the band be her total instrumentation and she would put her arms out by her for a while as she belted out her voice to us.

In general, I sure do wish Tori would talk to us more during the shows. Her way of talking to us though seems to be more through her improvs. She did three improvs for the Minneapolis show. The first improv she did was after Pancake. She commented first that "you really wake up coming up here" putting her hands on opposing elbows in the classic 'brrrrrrr' position. Then she played the piano and sang something like, "That's the reason for good lovin, reason for good lovin, why he's around at all, reason for good lovin, but I don't need a reason at all." I found that improv quite cute.

The next imrpov was after Wednesday once the band left. She said, "The guys go off now, but they'll be back again" Then playing the piano, she sang about her Roadside Cafe sign something like, "Now it's you and me, you and me and my little sign. I find her all the time backstage, no lights on, she looks down, my sign's been everywhere...seeing these songs..."

The final improv of the night was after Josephine. I had noticed that during Josephine, Tori's piano sounded like it was vibrating throughout the venue in a weird sounding way. I noticed Tori looking toward some sound people at the side of the stage and pointing down a couple times. She continued her piano playing and went into an improv that went something like, "my Bosendorfer is resonating, driving me insane, shift things...turn it down a couple (?)...my Bosendorfer is my friend, but she's pretty big..." Towards the end of the improv, her piano seemed to be in good condition again.

I really liked the final encore of the night. They seemed to be 'good-bye' songs to us. First, she played Strange, which I always love, ending with the usual, sweet soft, "so now I must be leaving" Then she played Tear In Your Hand, ending with the "time to wave good-bye now" and at that point, Tori put her hand up in the air and gave us a wave. It brought a feeling of sweetness being in that special theatre for me, about to leave it again, not knowing if or when I will return to it.

From Shira:

I was also at the show and I absolutely loved the little improv where Tori wanted the bass adjusted on her Bosendorfer. In the Star Tribune review, they printed lyrics for it, and I'm not sure if they are exactly right, but they seemed close. The review is at startribune.com, but I don't know how long it'll be there.

Here are the lyrics reported on by the Star Tribune:

"My Bosendorfer is resonating
and it's driving me insane.
So maybe we should shift things.
Can you do something with this bottom?
Turn it down a couple of dBs (decibels).
This Bosendorfer is my friend
but she's pretty big."

From Kim Westervelt:

First of all, allow me to apologize for Amber and I not being at Stub n Herb's or at Sally's last night (actually we were there @ 7pm). The reason for this is because we (this meaning Amber and me, Mary aka Moonruby, Phil, Faye, and their friends Alisha and April) were lucky enough, having parked in the garage attached to the Northrop, to sneak up to the balcony and listen to the soundcheck. We sat in the darkened hallway and listened to Jon and Matt and some guy singing "eeee yaaaaa" into the mic to check the levels. Finally Tori came out and started ASF. I had brought binoculars, and as I was leaning over to catch a glimpse of Tori, a couple of ushers had snuck up behind me. Luckily they didnt throw us out, and everyone else came up to look and try to see Tori. Shortly thereafter the security guard that followed in did throw us out, and we had to listen to Tori rehearse Etienne *twice* in the inside hallway. At that point, Amber, Mary and I left to walk to Sally's and Stub n Herbs to see if anyone was still there. Phil, Faye and friends had stayed behind, and were lucky enough to hear Tori finish the soundcheck with Your Cloud, Taxi Ride and apparently some really cool long improv. So, that's why we werent at Sally's at 5pm.

We didnt make it to the M&G either. We got a late start, and found out as we were driving in the Gopher game traffic, that Tori had came and went in like 5 mins. So I suppose we wouldn't have gotten a chance to see her anyway.

But, having done what we did last night allowed us the 20 second privledge to be in the right place at the right time, right before Howie Day went on. As we were returning from our cold walk from Sally's back to the Northrop, we had to head back to the car to drop off our bags and coats. We went down all the ramps, and as we were walking Amber noticed a guy that looked like Mark Hawley, holding a toddler, walking into the mens room. Amber looked at me and Mary and said "I swear that was Mark holding Tash...seriously." Mary and I didnt believe her, as he had been walking through the incoming crowd, and we figured that for sure he would have been noticed. So we waited by the entrance to the parking garage. Sure enough, he came out a few mins later, and we walked up to him. I said "Mark?" and he said "yeah" and we looked into the most gorgeous little baby eyes we had ever seen. She was a cute little angel, looked like Tori with wavy long blond hair, rosey cheeks and long legs. Mary said "is this your baby" and Mark nodded as he walked quickly to wisk her away. As he took her down the backstage hallway, Tash looked at us and said "buh bye!" The three of us just stood there and were dumbfounded. Thanks to Amber's quick thinking, and our pure luck being there at the right time, it was just amazing. Tori really does have the cutest little girl!!!

OK, now onto the concert. Howie Day: simply amazing. All the little tricks he does with his pedals...wow. I applaud the Minneapolis crowd for actually being there for his set and being so well behaved. You could tell he was impressed with us and very happy to have such an attentive audience. Hooray for the crowd!

After Howie Day, Amber went to check out merchandise and I stood up to look into the crowd to see if anyone would want to come over and check out the scrapbook. Amber and I did get to take a few pics of it before the show started, but we were really concerned with being able to hand it to Joel to give to Tori (which we did after the concert). While I was standing, Dani Tyacke came over to me *sorry I didnt recognize you at first dear...you look so different from your pic!!* and we chatted while she looked at the book. Then May, dear sweet Canadian May came over to me, gave me a hug and handed me a box of chocolates *you naughty girl...those are sooo good!!* I showed her the scrapbook, and she added her and her sister's last names to the book. Again, we apologize for not being at the M&G, as we really wanted to show everyone the book, it turned out sooo nice and hopefully Tori did get to see it. Then Jodes (Jody) came over and said hello before Tori came on. It was great to see everyone that night, and I hope that we can put a little party together soon (perhaps as soon as hubby and I move into our new house in Uptown in January) for everyone to meet. I would really loove that! Amber and I were also keeping our eyes out for other fellow TC Toriphiles, as well as Mikewhy & Amanda and Dor, but alas, sneaking in to the soundcheck prevented us from doing so. For those of you who we missed...we love you and hope to see you again soon!

As for Tori's concert, well if you were there, you know how well behaved (for the most part) the crowd was. I agree with Mikewhy's review on the dent that not having to hear the clapping during "Take to the Sky" was fantastic. I was also surprised that there was NO SECURITY. They just took your ticket and stamped your hand. That was it!!!! So, *hehe* Amber and I were able to get two cameras into the venue. Dont worry...we didnt use our flash hardly at all, and we got some really great shots. Big hugs to Amber's friend for lending us his digital camera! As soon as Amber gets back from the Milwaukee show, we will try to get those shots back ASAP!

The highlight of the show for me was hearing Honey, Tear in Your Hand (yes I waved goodbye when Tori did..lol) and Strange. Strange has really grown on me and I think it fits our state of MN quite well. Her little improvs were enjoyable as well, and I was very happy to see that most everyone behaved themselves (no drunk people, no singing, etc..).

All in all, it was a pretty nice day.... :-)

From Karen Hutchinson:

Just my little tidbits from the Minneapolis concert...She sang beautifully and everything was great, but unfortunately, us unlucky people in the back (crappy) seats got nothing but BOOMBOOMBOOM from the bass. I wanted to shoot the bass player (kidding of course-he's great) but it was really hard to hear the piano and Tori's voice. I drove down from Canada (8hours!) to see her for the first time and was so ecstatic just to be there that I was able to make the most of it. The fans were for the most part really great but so many people were late...It really was rude and I felt awful for Howie Day because he was trying to put on a good show but I couldnt even see him over people's heads half of the time. I also happened to be sitting next to the biggest moron in Minneapolis who screamed before songs were even over and sang along (if you can call that singing) and tried to dance. She was obviously wasted on something. Luckily I was able to move away a couple of seats so even she couldn't ruin my experience.

I got a little treat and a story to tell though. I went up to my crappy balcony seats on the elevator and walked into the theatre while Tori was working on the set list. The ticket girl in the elevator tore my ticket and told me to enjoy the show and there was no security in the hall so I just walked in and sat down. I knew I shouldn't have been there because there was Tori wearing jeans and a blue hooded sweater talking to Jon Evans and holding what I assume was the set list. She had just finished practising "Girl". I was very quiet so as not to disturb her. I watched them for a couple of minutes until a guy with grey hair on the stage saw me and must have radioed the security guy, I don't know if he had been in the bathroom or out having a cigarette or picking his nose or what, but man he was pissed!! He said " Get the fuck out of here...What the hell do you think youre doing!!"...I just said "shhhhh" and left quietly. I was happy I got my little quiet moment with Tori. I really felt like yelling something to her because she would have looked right at me and maybe waved or something but I thought it would startle her and maybe freak her out a bit so I refrained. Last thing I wanted was her to think I'm a jerk and maybe get myself kicked out of the building. So that's my tiny little ToriStory.

One more thing, when she was singing the sign improv, she laughed at herself a little when she was singing "she's kinda big.....yeah she's really really big". She had been motioning to the sound guys and pointing at the low end of her piano for a bit before she started singing it to them. She also sang "I don't care if you turn it down".

From Joff Schmidt:

I was at the show in Minneapolis on Saturday (drove down from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada to see it with some friends). Thought your review of the show was excellent, and I appreciated having the set list (especially since I'd never heard "Etienne", and didn't know what it was when she played it).

I also loved Tori's improvised bits - they gave the show a lot of character. I think what she said before "Your Cloud" was "I don't mind if you turn it down a couple of db", as in decibels, which probably would have reduced the rattle she was hearing. That was absolutely hilarious!

From Rachel:

This was my fourth concert of Tori's I have seen. It was wondeful, though not as much emotion as the last, but a bit more playful. Thank you so much for your kind comments about Minneapolis fans. I was so surprised when she began playing Take to the Sky! My friends and I had close balcony seats and ran as soon as it was over to find her bus. We waited for about 20 or so minutes to be told that it was too cold for a meet and greet tonight. :( I don't blame her, but I was disapointed. Anyway, wonderful concert and it definitely won't be the last as I am still hoping to hear Hey Jupiter!

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune