5 1/2 Weeks Tour
Bakersfield, CA
September 20, 1999
Updated November 10, 1999
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5 1/2 Weeks Tour |
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Check Out The Reviews And Set Lists Page Tori performed in Bakersfield, CA on September 20, 1999 at Centennial Garden during the Tori & Alanis Morissette 5 1/2 Weeks Tour.  Set ListGod Encore: |
ReviewsFrom Richard HandalSeptember 21, 1999 - Richard called me on the phone after the show. He said this was a powerful show, but a "sneaking up behind you" kind of powerful. Tori was really focused tonight and walking a razor's edge. The venue was indoors, which was a bit of a surprise. The version of Smells Like Teen Spirit was the best Richard has ever heard. There was a rich and steady piano intro and Tori really seemed to be playing the piano and vocal parts off of one another. The crowd really seemed to be into this show, for they gave her a standing ovation after Silent All These Years, and strongly chanted her name after Waitress. The show lasted from 7:50 until 9:09.
All Reviews Below Were Originally Posted On The Dent ForumSpecial thanks to Laurie Daniels for her invaluable assitance in getting the reviews transferred to the Dent! From upsidedown boy:
ok here goes the review of the day. The meet and greet was a bit frustrating. I arrifrustrating. I arrived at the venue around 11 a.m. At about 2:30 someone notified us that the area in which we were standing ( the front of the arena) was incorrect, and that the M&G was going to be held at another back side door. Soooooooo everyone that had been waiting for hours, lost their spot in line and wound up at the end. Everyone went running down the street to the back door. We waited for approximately an hour or so and then tori came out. Someone asked for " MY Siren" yet I think Tori misunderstood for I think she wrote "Silent" on her hand. That would explain "secret time". A note to those who will be at future M&G's... please after you have taken the hundred pics of tori ...please move back so others can move forward to get a chance to have something signed or whatever. I just feel it simply is not fair. At any rate,, on with the review of the show. Crucify- a slower version.. did not care for it as much Juarez- very nice Cornflake Girl- crowd pleaser Blood Roses- intersting version of this track Bliss- haunting and exciting at the same time. Tori rocked on this track.. the blue lights seemed to float over the crowd!! SECRET TIME Smells Like Teen Spirit- I simply cried.. this was a powerful version. I had never heard Tori play it with such power! Silent All These Years- another crowd pleaser Sugar- nice version, however I like the solo piano version as well Riot Poof- did not get a real sense for the song yet. Professional Widow- new version
Waitress- similar to the plugged '98 version. Quite long Encore I drove for an hour and a half to get home. I meet some very nice EWF. See you all at the LA shows next weekend. Sorry for any spelling errors, for i am quite tired.
From RaenStorm: ok, i just got back from bakersfield, damn what a drive. anyway. the meet and greet was so messed up! we started lining up at barracades at around 1 but then at 2:40 people started running away. my friend kelly (k*) went to investigate, and found that the m&g was gonna be like 50 ft away at a different entrance. everyone bolted and the people that had been there since 3 in the morning ended up in the very back. we stood there for another hour, with the sun directly on us, people were about to faint it was so hot. i was really lucky and got to the 3rd row of people. i touched tori's hand and she asked me my name. wow, im still in shock. i gave her a note, and kelly and i gave her the wine. she passed around a water bottle, which was very cool. at one point the people that had been there since 3 started singing the big picture, joel actualyl half- smiled, and tori looked rather embarassed. the toriphile dinner was really cool: thanks RYNN for putting it all together, i hope u and Caitlin enjoyed the show. we got to hear the new album at the pizza place too. hi to all the incredibly cool EWF we met, esp. Angel, who i am forever indebted to.
on to the concert: crucify- this song has never touched me as much as it did tonite. i have a special place for this song now. juarez- this song rules live cornflake girl- i loved the dancing, it wasnt the cornflake girl dance, but still cool blood roses- i LOVE this new version, it took me awhile to recognize it but ahh! bliss- gets better and better, i love it live!
secret time:
sugar- i dig the new version! riot poof- this was the first time i heard it, but its sure to be a favorite on the new album professional widow- another really cool version, i like the raadio announcer dealio at the beginning waitress- i didnt mind it as much as i thought i would precious things- rocked my world, a guy moved ahead of me and i had a head to toe view of her. she was wearing jeans, a couple meshy tops, black, burgundy, and another black one, i think. her hair was down, and teased alot. she had black strappy platforms on. i love all the dancing, esp when she leans back on the piano. as you can probably tell i am still elatedd, i cant sleep. today was the best day of my life. my first time meeting her, and the closest i have ever been at a show!
ok, i'll shut up now, From lisa071573: I had a miserable outing going to Bakersfield...I drove from Sacramento and it took me about 4 hours...I really hope that no one else had the same problem that I did - I actually followed the directions on the centennial gardens' website which resulted in me getting very lost and missing the first two Tori songs - when I walked in the front door and heard Crucify (not even "god" mind you....) I screamed...I was very pissed!! Lesson learned at this concert: always double-check the directions...if you saw me, I was the girl walking around during Crucify yelling fuck! fuck! Not only that but the staff was a bunch of morons...it took me three or four people till I finally made my way down to the floor. The staff guy there was like "um..." when I asked him where my seat was. I said "nevermind!" and walked past him - ( I encourage everyone to write a very strongly worded letter to those assholes...it really sucked cause if you followed the directions on the website - it told you to get off the exit, turn righ, then left on Chester - by coincidence, there's a Chester Lane in the WRONG direction from Centennial gardens - Bakersfield sucked!). Of course, the hour of Tori I saw made it worth it...and I still have 3 more shows... But Tori looked great in jeans and the see-through black shirt over her tank top and was having lots of fun - smiling at Jon and dancing around. Caton was drinking his wine again Juarez was terrific and Cornflake girl was too...everything was terrific! I just love Tori...Blood roses was fun and long - with a little bit of "hurt" in the middle. Bliss kicked ass - love that one! Smells like teen spirit was gorgeous - with her voice rising at the end - there was also a little bit in the middle, something like "I wonder if you're out there..." SATY was beautiful , I was practically in tears. by about this time I was thinking, well of course it's Tori and it's worth any hell I went through to get here...Sugar rocked and Riot Poof - I adore this one!!! I think it's definitely my favorite venus (different from the studio version too...I love the wooooo ooooo's) and the classic...professional widow - so happy this girl is back! and waitress and precious... The acoustics in the venue sounded better than Concord, IMHO...but I had a much more pleasant experience in Concord. Didn't get the setlist - one of the stagehands gave it to the prettier girl next to me... holding my breath for vegas
From JAIMERZ: Just wanted to say that this was my first Tori show and I was VERY impressed!!!! I was a little pissed cuz I had to work in the morning so I didn't make the meet n greet =( but other than that the show was FANTASTIC! I was a little dissapointed with my seats at first (3rd row VERY far to the right) BUT that all changed once the charging of the stage took place cuz I ended up still to the side but right in front. I was pretty much directly in front of Caton who I had eye contact with on several occasions. He also came out on the floor during Alanis' set and was RIGHT behind me!!! I wanted to go say something to him SO bad but the guy I was with had this MAJOR jealousy thing goin on. =( Anyway, just wanted to say hi to all the nice people I met, I didn't experience ANY real hostility, which was great! Everyone was SO nice, even the drunk Alanis fans around me,(after Tori was done I returned to my seats). Just in case any of you saw or talked to me(Stupid me didnt get any names), I was the REALLY tall sandy blonde w ith the "Inspired By Tori" tank top on. Well, enough rambling just wanted to say Hi to everyone and thanks for making my first Tori show a kick ass experience. Even though my tickets cost me $200 they were worth EVERY PENNY!!!!
From suzanne-yada:
well a lot of people told the set list already... i can't believe she played smells like teen spirit!!!!! this was my second tori show, and i must say i was a little disappointed in the light choreography... plugged 98 was so much bigger, better, in your face, like alanis' was last night.
From plastiksavior: Well, I got back from Bakersfield at nearly 4 am and I really wanted to post then so I didn't forget anything, but I wrote one line...with my face and I think it said Tori was.foaidjfpdnhngsdigfsdifophnanvnfiop, I'm not sure if I got that exactly right, but it was definitly close. Well my girlfriend, (I'll call her Leann) and I went to the Concord show, which I wasn't overly impressed with, but thats a different story that I probably won't tell, (cuz it makes me look like a dumbass.) and then we (she) drove all night to get to Bakersfield. We got there at 4am and rented a room for 8 hours. Well at 12 when we had to check out of our room and we realized that we had 7 hours to entertain ourselves in Bakersfield. We considered killing ourselves, sorry to all the locals but your town has a funk, I mean it smells BAD!!! We went to the Meet and Greet instead, both of us had never been to one, and were lucky enough to be the first people standing by the wrong place to realize where she was coming out. We walked over, (unlike the rampant people behind us who seemed to all arrive at one time, a sweaty panting mess.) Sorry, but I think someone should instate a no running clause for M&G's. I mean that really doesn't seem like a natural state for EWF. Anyways Leann and I ended up being in the third row, we discussed leaving at about 3:50, because we figured that we could do everyone a favor by leaving, because obviously she would come out right as we were walking away...Right?? I mean it wasn't really that bad except the heat everyone was nice. We talked to a lot of cool people. There was and these aren't the people's real names, but we did talk to: The girl with the Fairy Wings, The girl with the short red hair who was passing around her water bottle, (Thank you very very very lots.) The girl who wanted to request Hey Jupiter but had to leave and then came back, and then the couple from San Jose, (thanx for the tea.) Then Tori came out and I sware I frigid breeze followed her, I mean it was miraculous. All of a sudden I was comfortable, even though it felt as if all 40-50 people behind me were trying to get to Tori through me. Anyways she reached out to me and said, "How are you doing Honey," or sweetie or something really nice. Then I sort of frantically rambled if she could apologize to Caton for me because I made an ass out of myself in front of him at the Portland show last year, and she said she hadn't heard anything about it, and I was almost crying and she told me tell Joel cuz he and Steve are close and I was so embarrassed, but now I got it off my chest so I can listen to Waitress again which is a bad song to not be able to listen to considering she plays it every concert. Tori left after 5-10 mins and everyone seemed disappointed, but I didn't care cuz I went around the whole day feeling I don't know, it was like I was high except I can remember every moment of it so it was much better.
Well here's my concert review. GoD: Really liked the intro where she sang while she was off stage. Crucify: Heard it so many times before I was starting to think that this was going to be an unenergized concert like Concord. Juarez: Liked it a lot better than the album version I had on MP3. Haven't heard the disk yet cuz my g/f took it away for couple days. PS. Saw a truck on the way home that said Juarez and Son. That made me happy. Cornflake Girl: I'm a little biased, but I'm sick of UtP right now. It was still good. Liked the little growl Blood Roses: I thought that this was going to be the best song of the night. It was super intense/violent in a lets be friends sort of way. Bliss: Best I've heard it. Smells like Teen Spirit: WOW. I'm so glad she played this. Until she played this I didn't have a song to replace Pro. Widow as number one song I wanted to hear live, and now I need a new one again. SATY: Great, but it didn't seem as special because they play that song on the radio in Bakersfield a lot. Everyone knew it. Sugar: Like the new version a lot. Riot Poof: Sounded cool?? I think? Pro. Widow: SO MUCH BETTER THAN CONCORD. She had so much more energy. She didn't give the mike as much oral sex during the gotta be big part, but aside from that it was super great. This is my favorite song.. Waitress: Could finaly appreciate it again like I did in Seattle over a year ago. Precious Things: Very violent. Kept wishing she would slip in Mr. Zebra afterwards to calm me down. Tori: PLease get a new encore for the last night w/ Alanis or the show in Idaho. Or add Mr Zebra at the end. That would be great Thanx for skimming over my essay. Sorry it was do long, but I needed it all to sum up my excitement.
From Mrs. Malkav: God - Started off with Tori singing off stage. Haunting and beautiful. Crucify - Kinda interesting. Slower. Made for interesting rhythms. Juarez - Beautiful track. Tori was half standing up during this track and you could almost feel the connection between her and Jon. Very animalistic, fevered feel to this girl. Cornflake Girl - Tori had rhythm issues with Matt and Caton and spent a few seconds communicating with them through nods and shaking of her head before she was satisfied and continued. Very layered and chaotic intro. I liked it =) Blood Roses - Wow. Lots of sex. A whole damn lot of sex. A little bit of NIN's "Hurt" in the middle. Nice. Bliss - Beautiful song. Smells Like Teen Spirit (solo) - Wow. She asked "Are you out there?" halfway through. It really felt like she was singing to him. Very sad, very beautiful version of this song. Silent All These Years (solo) - Eerie. Something else was there during this track. Sugar - Beautiful track. Riot Poof - More noisy than the album version. Matt seemed to have fun with this song. Professional Widow - Had a bizzare "radio announcer"-like intro (some guy talking about "our favourite hit song" or something like that). Waitress - She had her tea during this song. Or at least tried to. She looked so menacing. Encore: Precious Things - WOW. Seeing her go through this song really close is one damn impressive thing. There was a lot of fog and red lighting behind her, right along the walls. It created the feel that the walls were on fire and that her hair was flowing up into the ceiling. She didn't seem to be all there last night. Like she didn't really want to be onstage. She petted her Bosey after the set as she came back onstage for the encore. Despite all that, it looked like she had a good time and everyone else in the band was filled with smiles. And I'm gonna thank Joel *again* for being wonderful - even though he's never gonna read this.
OK. I'm done now! MrsMalkav@poboxes.com
From Rynn Fox:
Lil Misss Thang-aka Tori-wore a crimson, low cut spaghetti strapped top with a tight black gauze over shirt, tight jeans and black platforms Juarez- grandiose. very desert at night sounding Cornflake Girl- this is one of 3 tori songs they play locally and most bakersfieldians don't know tori BUT they knew this song! everybody was DANCING! Blood Roses- very possessed and explicit and profane! Bliss-heavenly and soaring
secret time Silent All These Years (solo)-GORGEOUS! this is another one of 3 tori songs they play here. They knew this song! *Shocking! everybody was HOWLING! Sugar- very clear sounding! everytime I've heard her play this it's seemed like she was ptrying to get somewhere...this time she defininely got there! Riot Poof- *bounce bounce bounce*
Professional Widow- EEEK! Gorgeous! Waitress-let's suffice it to say she's finally KILLED the waitress!she flirted with Caton and wiggled her arse at him ..mind that she had to get up and away from the bose a bit to do this...
Encore: Well the Bakersfield Toriphile dinner was a SUCCESS! about 20 people showed up at Jerry's Pizza. Jerry was so happy and he turned on his disco ball and coloured lights and we got to hijack his sound system. I also got to let everybody who came a preview of the album! VERy very fun! That's enuff I think! love and light, Rynn
From Antinous: Hey y'all, long time listener, first time caller. Last night, in Bakersfield, was my third Tori show. We sat on the floor in the tenth row overall, and the view was fantastic. What was not fantastic, however, was the venue. I'm really sorry if some of y'all are a fan of the place, but it is a hockey rink being used for a concert. The building squelched all but the lowest pitches, which rang loudly off the back wall. The treble was mangled into a hissy noise that fell from the sides. In the tenth row, I had great difficulty hearing the vocals. I endured some of the worst acoustics I've ever encountered at a concert. Naturally, it's nothing that Tori can't overcome. God was smooth, strong, rhythmic, and a great opener. The offstage vocals simply added to the anticipation. During Crucify I kept waiting for her to forget the lyrics (gold star if you know the performance I'm referring to )... it was fun, though perhaps a little deliberate. I had never heard Juarez, but I can't wait to hear more; that song really rubbed me right. Cornflake Girl was nothing short of amazing. I personally needed to be reminded of how phenomenal her piano ability is. (I was rejected at age eighteen from the same conservatory at which Tori was accepted at age five.) Blood Roses was strange but exciting to me; Bliss didn't grab me at all, though. I think I'll need to hear the album version a few times before I get into it. Then there was Secret Time, and though it only included two songs, it would be difficult to imagine a more perfect two songs. Smells Like Teen Spirit was flawless, emotional, strong, and beautiful, and for the first time I realized why it was so important that she cover it, why it was such a shy, touching song. And Silent All These Years, for which I have waited years, was lovely as well. She would sing a line freely, pausing when the moment demanded, letting the lyrics sink in and the tension build, and then she would take the next line full speed, giving my ears what they needed, releasing the tension. The performance was stunning, and well worth the wait. On to Sugar, which I consider myself lucky to have seen twice now (I'm sure many of you out there who are more dedicated have seen it a dozen times now ). It was great, absolutely terrific, and I screamed myself hoarse at the end. Riot Poof lost me totally, unfortunately. Professional Widow has never been my favorite song, but her performance made it interesting and gave it life, and Waitress sounded a little more practiced and controlled than on Plugged '98. Finally, the encore, Precious Things, was UNBELIEVABLE. I wanted it to go on forever. I got chills. And afterwards, after we finished screaming and the lights came up, my friend Chris wondered out loud how Alanis would ever be able to follow that up. It was a wonderful night, well worth the drive. |
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