Tori performed in Fairfax, VA on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 at the Patriot Center. The show started at 8:00PM and Howie Day was the opening act.

Set List

Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Take To The Sky
Pancake
Cornflake Girl
Concertina
Sweet Sangria
Crucify
Wednesday
Black Dove (January)

Band leaves

Cloud On My Tongue
Gold Dust
Icicle

Band returns

Northern Lad
Sugar
Amber Waves
Don't Make Me Come To Vegas
Hotel
I Can't See New York
Spring Haze

1st (and only) Encore

Tear In Your Hand
Virginia
Hey Jupiter

Reviews

For more reviews, please check out the Dent's Tour Reviews Forum.

From Richard Handal:

Richard called me after the show with the set list. He says the show was 2 hours and 10 minutes long and consisted of 23 songs. It started at 9:13PM and ended at 11:23. There was only one encore set consisting of 3 songs. After Pancake, Tori said she remembered bars in Georgetown and a girl who wore spandex and Pat Benatar hair. Tori wondered if she "would be playing Feelings for the rest of my fucking life -- Anyway, this is home; this is home."

Many folks in the audience did not sit down after the show began as they did on previous shows during this tour. This led to some people in audience shouting at the people in the front to sit down. By the time Black Dove began, more people started sitting down. There were people up front near the stage who could not sit down because they had left their seats many rows back and wanted to remain up front. However, security must have told them to go back to their seats and they did so during the Roadside Cafe. In fact, so many people were leaving the front of the stage at the same time that Tori stopped during Icicle and said something like, "What's going on here." This led to an improv where Tori sang something like, "Things get confusing sometimes. Whose running the show... and the country..." Then Tori restarted Icicle.

This show debuted the songs Cornflake Girl, Gold Dust, and Northern Lad. Hey Jupiter was once again the Dakota version. I would always assume it is for this tour unless stated otherwise.

From JQHN:

I love this website and I loved Tori's concert last night in Fairfax Virginia.. I think it's important to add that Tori's parents were in the audience watching her show, talking to fans, and signing autographs.. It is interesting to note that Tori's parents didn't have any special seating arrangements.. they just sat off on the left hand side three or four rows up among all the Tori Fans.....

From Fleajen:

Just wanted to add that Tori's parents actually started out in the front row of Section 3, but gave their seats to a couple of girls i met at the M&G earlier that day. Nobody knew why they did this; maybe they wanted the fans to have the better seats, or they were more comfortable watching her from a distance. There's also the possibility that they didn't want do hear her say "p*ssy" or the f-word that close up! : D

Also, i thought this was an incredible show--Tori's energy was higher than i've ever seen in a concert, and i was impressed with how great the band sounded without Caton. Everybody was bewildered about not having a second encore, but people speculate that the Patriot Center has some kind of curfew for the artists who perform there. Still, it was a gorgeous concert.

From Amy Clarke:

I posted this on the concert review forum, but perhaps a small gentle reminder by you on thedent might help out with the later shows? It was terribly unfortunate...

Otherwise - a beautiful show, Gold Dust was exquisite.

As for the standing situation - ABSOLUTELY INAPPROPRIATE. I was in the second row, I worked really hard to get those tickets, and people were wandering up from the back and just standing there, blocking our view, hanging on the railing. I understand this for the first few songs - she just came out, everyone was excited, etc. I was standing too at first - if I hadn't stood up with everyone else, I couldn't have seen. But after first few songs, people started sitting down, security made a pass through and gently reminded us to sit in our seats, clear the aisle, so we did.

Then - a ton more people swelled up from behing and began to crowd the front of the aisles. We started tapping them, asking them to sit down quietly in between songs, etc. Then people started yelling at these rude and inconsiderate people to return to their seats - WHILE TORI WAS SINGING - this was not appropriate either, but I understand the frustration. Sveral times, in between songs I and the people around me tried to go up and tap these people and ask them to sit down, they were just blatantly like NO. We are just going to keep standing here and you are "fucking screwed." Their blatant hostility was wildly unexpected.

AFTER 45 minutes!!!! security finally came back through right as roadside cafe started and tried to make everyone sit down. stage left aisle cleared out (thankfully) but as security made their way over to stage right, people would just NOT sit down! They kept standing, a commotion was growing, EVERYONE was distracted. Finally Tori stopped playing icicle and was like "What's going on?" She made the anti-inflammatory comments and did her improv, then went back to playing icicle again - she kept looking at the aisle section, gesturing at the STILL STANDING PEOPLE to no avail.

I feel truly sorry for the stage right people who were all blocked by such rude, selfish, insensitive, and self-centered individuals who somehow felt MORE entitled to Tori and refused to understand that every standing person blocked the view of a vast many more who were seated behind the VERY LARGE heads.

I completely was distracted from Black Dove - which would have probably been one of my top songs, but I couldn't enjoy it.

STAY IN YOUR SEATS! One person's extra enjoyment does not get to ruin the experience for all the others. PLEASE be considerate. That is probably why Tori did not do a second encore. I wouldn't have either. We're lucky we got as long of a show as we did with so many people yelling "fucking sit down" over Tori's glorious voice and people who are supposed to be her fans being absolutely insensitive to her as a performer and the crowd around them.

From Don Twine:

I'll have to admit that this was not my most favorite show, due to the sound problems and the whole people-standing issue.  But the highlight of my evening was my brush with Tori.

The meet and greet group consisted of less than 20 people.  We waited in the lobby area for about 20 minutes.  While we waited, we could hear Tori warming up. This was very interesting to hear. Cornflake Girl seemed to be her main practice song. She played it many times, complete and in pieces. She also practiced Northern Lad and one of the new songs, which I unfortunately can't remember now.

We were then informed that Tori would play two songs exclusively for us!!  We were escorted to the front row.  My partner and I happened to be in the front of the line, so we got first pick in front.  Jon and Matt were performing a few more sound checks, and after a few more minutes, the lights went down and Tori walked out.  She was wearing a slightly different outfit than the one in the show; silky white with silver flowers.  She said that these songs were also practice for the show, and to "be kind."  She asked the guys what they should do.  "Cornflake Girl?" she said, and they all snickered, probably because of how many times they had already practiced it.  The performance was perfect.  Later, I was glad that she chose this song since the version performed during the concert got messed up due to problems with the sound system.   Tori was pleased with the performance and said "We haven't done that one yet.

We'll do that one tonight."  She then performed "Don't Make Me Come to Vegas,"which was also flawless.

A few minutes later, I met Tori.  She changed again for the meet and greet, with jeans and an orange striped sweater with a hood.  I began walking up to her and froze in my tracks, and suddenly broke into Valley Girl, saying "Oh my God!"  After thanking her for all of her wonderful music, I said I didn't know what else to say.  I introduced my partner (we are a gay male couple), and asked Tori jokingly if she would play at our wedding.  She giggled and said how wonderful  that was.  She immediately wanted to know where and when.  I know she won't be there, but it was so nice to see her so interested. She has this look when you're talking that shows that she is truly paying attention to you.  You can see it in those beautiful eyes. She did look a bit spent for the night already, but was gracious none the less. Her autograph on my partner's poster say's "Congratulations" and "giggles."  She signed my special edition CD "with love."  We took a group photo with our arms around each other.

The concert itself may have had its ups and downs, but this is a night I will NEVER forget!

From Alisha Parker:

Fairfax was a pretty good show. The highlight being when Tori played "Gold Dust" for me. (I had requested it Sunday night backstage in Atlanta.) The crowd situation and some sound problems put a bit of a damper on things, though it was no fault of Tori's. All in all, the 12 hour drive was well worth it.