1999 Solo Tour
Boston, MA FNX AIDS Benefit
December 3, 1999

Updated March 10, 2000

Check Out The Reviews And Set Lists Page

Starting at roughly 6:17PM ET on Friday, December 3, 1999, Tori did a live performance and Q & A session to benefit the Massachusetts chapter of the AIDS Action Committee for the FNX Radio Network in Boston, MA. The performance took place at The Modern, located at 36 Lansdowne Street in Boston. Tickets to this event were not sold to the public. They were given away on the radio and the FNX Radio Network auctioned off the remaining tickets on World AIDS day, which was December 1, 1999. (Some of the tickets for that auction went for THOUSANDS of dollars!) The FNX Radio network aired this live on their stations in Boston (101.7 FM), the Back Bay (101.3 FM), Portland to Portsmouth (92.1) and Manchester/ Metrowest (92.1 FM). It was also broadcast live over the internet and the sound quality, at leasy where I was listening from, was excellent! Tori performed 6 songs and answered a few questions between each song.

The show was re-broadcast on Sunday night, December 5 at 11:00PM EST on the FNX Radio Network. George Joy tells me that the December 3, 1999 edition of the Boston Herald included the following blurb about this show:

WFNX-FM (101.7) raised $32,225 for the AIDS Action Committee this week by auctioning off 14 pairs of tickets to tonight's exclusive TORI AMOS concert for 120 folks at the Modern. The top price for a pair of the precious ducats was $2,800. AMOS was so pleased she told FNX management she wants to meet all the auction winners after her show.

See a polaroid of Tori with Lisa Street from the meet & greet at the Boston Aids Benefit.

See a polaroid of Tori with Marla Antigone from the meet & greet at the Boston Aids Benefit.

About an hour before she did the AIDS benefit, Tori did an interview for Boston radio station WFNX with a DJ named Cruz around 5:00PM ET. You can now read a transcript of that interview in my TV/Radio Archive. I sincerely thank Tracy Streimish for sending this to me.

Set List

Purple People
Concertina
Cooling
Jackie's Strength
1000 Oceans
Merman

Reviews

From Jessica Oakan

March 10, 2000 - I was listening to my tape of the Boston FNX broadcast last night, and thought I'd share my favorite quotes:

"I think that the shadow is a very important part to look at. When I meet people who are too smiley, I get very nervous. I think there's great wisdom in the darkness. After all, Jesus really wouldn't have spent 40 days in the desert if he hadn't a little dark side. That's basic logic. Because if it's not that, then I don't want to think about the heapers he would have had trying to talk to Lucifer - that's not very respectful. And I think we have to kind of think of it. - Anger, I don't think is anything but a teacher and an important one and I think it's appropriate sometimes. You know there's a thing where I get a lot of letters from people that were incested from the time they were 3 to maybe 13. And when people say live and let go, I don't think that is really the compassionate heart, I think that's a confused, immature soul talking. And I think to really work through things you have to make the wound your wise wound and look at it from all sides. Have pizza with Lucifer - it's a good thing to do. Have pizza with the Virgin Mary because she can piss me off! The Mother Mary though, that's a different thing. I do think for me - this is long winded - but for me, marrying the two Marys has been part of my healing. The Magdelene was stripped of her spirituality and the Mother Mary was stripped of her sexuality in the myth. And that's something they conveniently did and divided all of us, I think - divided our own femininity.

(I think Pizza with Lucifer would be a great album title)

Tori: Piz-zah!

(Or a good song anyway.)

(I wanted to ask and I know it was one of the songs you wanted to do tonight. I hope I didn't get it out of order. I wanted to ask about Jackie's Strength. How did that song come about? Is that song as personal to you as it sounds? I mean, is she really a source of inspiration to you, Jackie Onassis?)

Tori:
"My mother is and my mother loved Jackie - it's just one of those things. I think that they were born in the same year or something, so she really identified with her and that little hat - my mother had one of those. Going to church as a minister's wife, she would have her Jackie O look and I thought that was really cool. I had a cool mom. And when I was getting married, I remember my mother saying to me that when she heard that the president was shot she had to put me down because her heart stopped. And she thought about "Oh my God. Who's going to make Jackie a cup of tea today?" And I think she wanted to be there as so many women wanted to be there for Jackie."

(1000 Oceans)
"When this little song came, I was sleeping and at 5:30 in the morning this voice was humming this to me. Maybe I have to give it publishing - I do not know. The thing is, I toodled over to the piano and tried to put it down and I couldn't get the words. And when she came to visit me, the thing that really got me was the amount of love that she had for this person she was singing about. And that really, to see that depth of love sometimes in a song because, I tell you they're hussies! So not all of them have that kind of love. But she's some different creature!"

December 10, 1999 - This appeared at the SonicNet web site on December 7, 1999.

Tori Amos Plays Small Room To
Raise Big Money

Show for 28 highest-bidding fans benefited AIDS Action Committee.

Correspondent Sheril Stanford reports:

BOSTON -- Tori Amos wants to eat pizza with Lucifer. One of her goals in life is to be a good drinking buddy, and she hopes "her girls" -- her reference for her songs -- are good drinking buddies for her fans. Her food du jour is Scandinavian ice berries, available at a London restaurant she declined to identify.

Amos disclosed these tidbits, along with words of wisdom about abuse, anger and forgiveness, Friday, during an intimate 50-minute performance for a tiny audience of about 120 people -- including 28 acolytes, who paid as much as $2,800 for the opportunity to see the piano-playing singer up close and personal.

The concert at the Modern -- formerly Mama Kin -- was sponsored by WFNX-FM and raised more than $35,000 for the AIDS Action
Committee, according to the station. Two days earlier, on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day, listeners bid for tickets during an on-air auction.

"There are so many creative people we've
lost," Amos said of her fund-raising activities for AIDS organizations. "This disease has taken so many sunbeams."

The singer, her vivid red hair painting a sharp contrast to her purple crushed-velvet outfit, sat at a Bosendorfer grand piano on a tiny, stark stage, with the audience but a foot or two away. Legs spread wide, balanced precariously on the edge of her seat, Amos opened with "Concertina," a sensual piece that prompted audible sighs from some of the acolytes.

Before the performance, winning bidders received autographed photos of Amos and were brought backstage to meet the artist. Amos also posed for a Polaroid with each of the winning bidders. "When [Amos] heard how much money was raised, she insisted on the photos," WFNX marketing director Nadia Behring said.

Paul Reed of Lynnfield, who bid $2,800 for tickets for himself and his wife, Maria, said he considered himself a winner, but said, "The real winners are the ones who get the money."

WFNX program director Laurie Gail said the amount raised was a record for the radio station, which has a long-standing tradition of fund raising for AIDS charities. The station broadcast Amos' performance live on the air and on its website. The show was followed by a silent auction of autographed memorabilia from acts such as the Foo Fighters and the Offspring.

Amos, who released the double album to venus and back -- with one studio disc and one live disc -- in September, also answered audience members' questions, her responses framed in beguilingly poetic language and laced with humor.

Introducing the song "Merman," Amos said she played the song frequently on her recent tour in honor of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten and killed in October 1998. She also characterized the song as a loving tribute to her husband.

During much of the song, Amos' eyes were closed, and she gave the distinct impression that she was, as she frequently claims, channeling the music. When her eyes were open, Amos looked directly into the audience, conveying an intimate strength and purpose.

Before playing "Jackie's Strength" Amos said her mother was a great admirer of Jackie Kennedy. Her mother was holding the infant Tori when she heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot; she was so distraught by the news that she had to put her baby down. Amos performed the song with her eyes closed, her expression of rapture matching that of the devoted fans at her feet.

December 10, 1999 - This appeared in the December 9-16, 1999 edition of the Boston Phoenix newspaper, a weekly newspaper in the Boston, MA area. It also appeared on their web site. Thanks to Marla Antigone for alerting me to it.

Tori Amos: Modern Pop

Tori Amos is one of modern rock's hipper personalities. She's a singer/songwriter unafraid to experiment with sound; a trippy, self-absorbed lyricist who wants to reach people; a woman unafraid to wonder aloud at how to balance her interests in being both "a spiritual being and a hot pussy," as she put it in Spin magazine this year.

She's also a talented performer with a smoothly soaring, arching voice she twists into little baroque spires during the course of her songs. For all of this, auction bidders paid a minimum of $1300 a ticket to see her perform last Friday night at the Modern, the tony Lansdowne Street club that replaced the former rock den Mama Kin. Joining them was a handful of contest winners, press representatives, and personalities from WFNX, the Phoenix Media Communications Group-owned radio station that sponsored the event. In total, roughly a hundred people were there for an hour of Amos performing songs and answering questions, to benefit the AIDS Action Committee and other AIDS-related charities. And the show was broadcast live.

Amos, who is doing a brief series of such concerts across the country to raise money for AIDS-related causes, has rarely performed solo in recent years. But she proved an entrancing presence from the moment she sidled behind her grand piano and began "Concertina," from her new two-CD To Venus and Back (Atlantic). She spun its lyrics into climbing, soprano filigrees, her voice gliding over the nimbly roiling and loop-like melody she tumbled from the keyboard.

Amos was a bit more reserved than the bench-straddling pounder she's become with her band, looking and acting demure in a purple dress that offset her red tresses, which were trimmed to the neckline. But all of the six songs from various points in her '90s career that she performed blended her usual mix of sugar and strychnine. Especially the bittersweet "1000 Oceans," which floated its images of loss, regret, love, and hope on the rising and breaking tide of her dreamlike, delay-enhanced singing.

-- Ted Drozdowski

December 5, 1999 - This appeared in the December 4, 1999 edition of the Boston Globe:

MUSIC REVIEW

Tori Amos is compelling in small setting
By Joan Anderman, Globe Correspondent, 12/04/99

It was the briefest of sets, at 50 minutes, and the best of causes: the fight against AIDS. Tori Amos, who normally plays to crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, performed last night for an audience of 120 at a WFNX-sponsored concert to benefit the AIDS Action Committee. It was the first live music show at the Modern, a sleek new club in the former Mama Kin space. Amos's performance - which raised more than $32,000 in an on-air auction for 14 pairs of tickets - was also broadcast live on the radio, and worldwide over the Internet.

Gathered around cocktail tables and clutching their autographed posters and Polaroids, the rapt group of well-heeled Tori-philes (some spent upward of $2,000 for a pair of tickets) was treated to a remarkably intimate performance from one of the most intimate artists in pop music. Six songs were interspersed with questions from audience members and 'FNX DJs Cruz and Julie Kramer. Amos answered each slowly and quietly, in language as thoughtful, dreamy, and sometimes perplexing as her song lyrics.

She spoke of her songs as living female entities that hum to her in dreams, and responded to a question about forgiveness in the wake of abuse (Amos's harrowing ''Me and a Gun'' tells of her own rape) with a lengthy, stream-of-consciousness commentary on Jesus, Lucifer, and the biblical roots of divided femininity. To the uninitiated, this ethereal redhead in a purple dress who wants to have pizza with the Virgin Mary might have seemed a far cry left of center. But it was manna in the desert to Amos's fans, who hung on her elliptical words as they hang on her haunting, cryptic songs.

Amos performed alone at the piano, a return to the solo format after two stops in Boston this year with a full band. It is, without question, where she belongs. Compelling as the orchestrated arrangements are on 1998's ''From the Choirgirl Hotel'' and the recent ''To Venus and Back,'' the spare, unfettered setting is where Amos is free to do what she does best: launch sensitive, complicated songs like little flaming arrows into the hearts of sensitive, complicated people who seem to eagerly absorb Amos's outpourings as their own.

''I guess the goal is to be a good drinking buddy, to have a good chat,'' Amos said of the relationship that forms between her songs and her fans. That leaves Amos the role of medium, one she inhabits with intensity and sensuality. Crouched on the edge of her seat - literally and figuratively - Amos didn't merely play the songs. She did, as ever, her level best to animate the music, to give the songs life beyond notes and words.

On the tiny stage, just large enough for a girl and her Bosendorfer grand piano, Amos punctuated sweet, dark ''Purple People'' midway with a single, cryptic tap under the keyboard. (I don't, frankly, know what it meant, but it seemed extremely meaningful.) ''Concertina'' and ''Cooling'' followed, and so did a subtle pageant of entwined legs, heady grins, narrow gazes, body raised to meet the peaks of feeling, then lowered as if in retreat. Amos's signature emotional currency flowed softly and delicately last night, absent her double-fisted piano attacks or roiling moods. It was gauged perfectly for the tiny club.

Lovely, meandering ''Jackie's Strength'' was the highlight of the evening. When asked if Jackie Kennedy was an inspiration for her, Amos explained that it was her mother who was her inspiration, and her mother loved Jackie dearly. ''She had that pillbox hat,'' Amos said. ''She was a minister's wife. She told me that she was carrying me when she heard the news, and she put me down and wept, wondering who would make Jackie a cup of tea.'' The song found its musical center in a beautiful, complex cycle of chords. But the strength Amos sang of - a state of grace born of survival - was one that passed from female icon to young mother, then to daughter, and finally to a young woman who wept openly throughout Amos's show.

From Jon Vena

December 5, 1999 - My name is Jon Vena, and I'm the promotions manager for the FNX Radio Network / 101.7 FM in Boston. I just wanted to thank you for posting your viewers' thoughts on your site. As a Tori fan, I cannot tell you how honored and touched I am for the opportunity we had tonight. With the silent auction at the show, FNX and Tori managed to raise almost $35,000 for the AIDS Action Committee. And let me tell you... Tori did indeed meet with every single person who won tickets via bidding -- and even took a personal Polaroid photograph with them. This was truly a special event, and I'd like to thank you for getting the word out to all of your OWN fans. It means a hell of a whole lot to know that we held this event for such a special and worthwhile cause!

From Marla (Antigone)

December 5, 1999 - Overall, I think the night was very very strange. I felt that WFNX had misrepresented what they were offering, although at the same time I'm not sure they realized that they were doing it and I definitely don't think it was a trick or a deliberate thing. The advertisements and the DJs all spoke of a "private concert" a "full set" an "intimate set." Instead we got a very very nice and warm and wonderful radio station show - just a few songs, no requests allowed, and a Q&A between each song. Also, not only were the winners of the contest and the auction there, but many other people as well, although they stood in the back. Maybe I'm just grumpy because my friend and I wound up sitting to the right of the piano, so Tori's lovely face was blocked by microphones. But I think what was so special was that it was held in an actual venue, not in a radio station studio, and the atmosphere was very concertlike.

OK, so my friend Lisa and I got to The Modern really early, and we watched the meet and greet from afar, which looked really REALLY small and intimate. We stayed back because we knew we were getting a private meet and greet since Lisa had won the auction. (Only auction winners got a private m&g.) After Tori went in, we got on line and waited and waited. Finally they signed people in, verifying credit card numbers and giving us laminates (now I can wear that and my Dent laminate to shows!) and then we waited some more. I met a lot of really really wonderful people on the line - although I didn't meet fellow Denter Holly until we were inside (hi Holly!).

So the auction winners were let in first. We were told to check our coats, get some champagne, and wait to be let 'upstairs.' The room is long and narrow, and it had lots of little tables set up sort of like a typical loungey nightclub. There was a definte line between the auction/contest winners' tables and the standing room in the back for the others. So it really DID feel like only 50 people were at the show. A baby Bosey (I was told later that the Bosey was rented, and not one of Tori's.)was sitting on the stage, so I admired it for a bit and skipped the champagne, which flowed freely before and after the show. I mean, trays and trays and TRAYS of it. Wow.

Then they led us upstairs and everyone got to go in pairs into Tori's dressing room. I won't really go into detail in there because Tori knows my friend quite well so it was a very emotional experience, but I got a picture that I will scan in later (I'm finally happy with a picture I have with Tori, AND she agreed to wear my tiara. She told Joel she wanted to have Mr. Puppethead wear it too, but Joel said Mr. P. was at the hotel. Oh well.) and she signed my Cornflake Girl ltd. single with "From 1994 to Dec. 3, 1999. Full Circle." because I told her how I had brought that same CD to a show in 1994 but wasn't able to get it signed.

Tori was wearing a gorgeous form fitting purple dress. Yes, form fitting, so lets put those rumors (you know the ones) to rest. She looked really beautiful.

So then we went downstairs and discovered, as I said, that our seats were in a corner, behind some microphones. (Everyone had assigned seats.) I wish someone had thought to make sure everyone could see - the people next to us had a similar problem. But still, I was there.

People have gone over the setlist and the comments, so I won't go into detail about that. She did stomp her feet to the beat during Concertina (in these very cute boots), she had glistening tears in her eyes during 1000 Oceans, she put her knee out when she sang "to the knee" in Merman, she straightened her legs and smiled during "breakfast every hour it could save the world" during Purple People. All of the songs were gorgeous, but there was a HORRIBLE buzzing in the room during the entire performance. My sound engineer boyfriend who was listening at home said he wanted to run down there and fix it. Marcel was there I believe, but Mark was not. That was unfortunate.

But it was over much too quickly, and Tori left very abruptly after Merman. She actually thought she had to leave BEFORE Merman, but the DJ assured her she could stay. The host DJ by the way was VERY into the show - he would stand and close his eyes, listening intently to the songs. It was great to see. The staff at the Modern was made up of a lot of fans too, and that was wonderful as well.

After the show I stayed with a lot of people and we talked and drank lots of champagne and met a lot of the DJs in the room. One told me Tori left immediately after the performance. The rest of the night was a fun time reminiscing, chatting about London and publishing, and eating.

So I am VERY glad I was there (after typing this I realize just HOW glad I was) but I really was hoping for an actual concert - even if the rarities didn't come out (I had asked for Mother for a very special reason, but as soon as the show started I knew shy girls like Mother would never come out there), it would have been nice to have more songs, and less talking, although when she said "Pizza with Lucifer" it was really amazing, and I really wish she'd said what restaurant offers those Ice Berries with Chocolate Sauce because I want some!

Sorry to be so long winded. Take care!

From Lisa Street

December 5, 1999 - okay, so yes i bid on a pair of passes for this show. yes it was a lot of money, but it was a great cause, i knew somehow i had to be there, i had some savings just sitting there, and it was all worth it. when i got back from connecticut thursday night (after being up front and hearing my dear 'Mary') there was a message on my machine from someone at fnx, but he didn't say why he was calling. i called first thing in the morning, but could only get voice mail. then marla (antigone to many), who i was taking to the show, called to tell me that we were to arrive early because we were going to be able to meet tori before the show - only those who bid not people who won passes. i was already floating at the idea of the show, but this, WOW. i already had a note and a cute bunny finger puppet and bookmark (it said on the bookmark that she (the bunny) had never had to drink chamomile tea... and she liked to hang out in the garden... and would love to tell you an adventure story. on my way out i stopped and picked up a bunch of flowers and was on to the Modern.

because of the excitement we were way early. they had us line up and then pair by pair they verified our credit card numbers, gave us our special laminates, and our table assignment (which was nice, cuz then there was no arguing over who deserved to sit where and all that junk). we were led inside and told to mingle for awhile - they were passing out glasses of champagne as well. the room itself is long and skinny with a bar running down the left side, a long slightly raised booth and tables along the right and some round tables in the middle, and the stage is at the end. our table was the very first section of the booth to the right of the stage. not the best view of tori, but right up front and very dreamy.

then they had everyone who'd bid on tickets line up and go upstairs to wait in the hallway (thankfully right by the bathrooms). the northeast rep for atlantic records then came around and told us that we would go into the dressing room two at a time, they'd take a polaroid, give us a lithorgaph tori would sign, or we could get something of our own signed. everyone was so nice, so the waiting went by pretty fast and it helped relieve a bit of the nervousness.

it was finally our turn! we stepped inside and tori said ohhhh, i said 'hi tori' and she gave me a huge hug, i mean totally huge bear hug, amazing. and i handed her the flowers and told her the bunny was to keep her company while she read. then she said 'is this your friend?' and i introduced Marla. then tori told me that she'd gotten my letter from last night (Wallingford) and was so glad that i was doing so well and that she had played Mary for me. i said thank you, but that i wasn't totally honest in that note and i had another one for her to read and that i hoped she wouldn't be dissappointed in me [the information in the note was very personal and i haven't told anyone but her - so i have to leave those details out, please understand], then she held my hand, looked directly in my eyes and said (which i can't remember verbatim because i was so shocked) how she 'could never be disappointed in me and that the darkness has wings, then something about the heart and how she knows i'd never judge her and she'd never judge me and embracing the darkness....' *sigh* i had some tears brewing and she says 'let's take the pictures now' i said 'great, wait until i start crying' she smiled and we stood next to each other and they snapped the photo (i'll scan it very soon i promise). then she turned to marla and marla asked if she would where her tiara (it's an ongoing thing that i'll let her explain), but if she didn't want to mess up her hair it was okay. but tori put it on and it looked so cute and they got their adorable picture. then tori took it off and said 'we need to get mr. puppethead to wear this in a picture' and i asked joel if mr. puppethead was here, and he said he was back at the hotel. then tori proceeded to do the autograph. first she took my developing polaroid and seemed to take forever and i was looking and couldn't believe what she wrote. it says, "Lisa, to Black Dove from Black Swan, tori." i can't even describe how that still makes me quiver. then i had brought my orange book (since it had never really excited me i thought it'd be good to get signed then i might actually look at it now and then). when she was done and busy signing marla's stuff i read it, "Lisa, with no judgement we hold space for our sisters, by the fire the healing sage, the 4 directions we honor the black - madonna and her teachings of the sacredness of the shaddow (heart) Tori." then i told her she looked beautiful tonight, she made a cute little 'oh' noise, smiled, and said 'so do you.' then we said goodbye, left, marla and i hugged and i went to the bathroom to cry.

we proceeded back downstairs where i got a glass of red wine, because that just seemed like the thing to do for this occassion and we waited for the show. tori was definately at her best (though the set did appear a bit dictated by the fact it was being broadcast) and Cruz (the Dj who did most of the talking) was sitting on the edge of the stage during songs and seemed very into the show which is always nice. after cooling i had the idea to get up on my nees which gave me the ability to see all of tori's face versus just her eyes or mouth (due to obstruction from microphones). Jackie's Strength brought me to tears. and after 1,000 oceans tori wiped her eyes. it was so hard too, because of my location tori never looked in our direction, if her head was turned so that she'd be looking across the piano her eyes were closed. then she began Merman. i was mesmorized and then burst into tears because at the moment near the end when she sang "simply wonderful" she looked directly at me! (i've been at shows before where i'd think she was looking at me, but i could never be positive and you never know, you know, but this was different, i knew). then it was over, she stood up, waved out to the crowd, then turned towards Marla and i and gave a little wave in our direction. as soon as she left i went over to Cruz and asked him if i could have the set list from the stage. this set list was hand written, a torn page from a small notebook! he reached over and grabbed it for me (she played it exactly and under merman it said Mathew Sheppard in parentheses. we stayed around for a long time talking with people and drinking more champagne. one of the other dj's told us in chatting that tori had left right after her set (the dj was kinda upset because she had wanted to talk to her and find out the name of the restaurant in London because she'd just been over there).

it was so worth it, so very very worth it. and now i wish i could change my online name from Marygirl to Black Dove, but i know it's used by others, and that's okay because i'm sure there are many black doves out there in the world.

i'm so glad i have people to share this with that can completely understand how i'm feeling.

tori hugs to all,
Lisa
marygirl, a black dove

From Holliieee

December 5, 1999 - i was there...
simply gorgeous...and simply too short. six songs...and some tori stories, in the form of a q&a session.

first, the set list (she followed her list, and didn't take requests...) purple people
concertina
cooling
jackie's strength
1,000 oceans
mermam

i sat about 3 feet from the stage, and no more than seven feet from tori. i was her "eye contact" person for a good part of the show. of course, i was teary throughout. it was truly gorgeous. it was such a good group of really loyal and dedicated fans...everybody who was there was a loyal fan, and thankful that their money was going to a worthy cause.

the meet and greet...before the show, those of us who won auctioned tickets got to meet with tori in private...just the ticket winner, the guest, and tori. i was speechless. she kissed my cheek and held my hand...particle by particle was how she signed my lithograph (oh yes, we got a lithograph signed by her too). oh, and we each got a polaroid taken of us with her.

complementary champagne too :-)

though i couldn't believe how short the show was. and no encores either. she was in a wonderful mood, looked stunning in a long purple, velvet dress, and seemed quite affected by the words she sang tonight.

met some wonderful ewf too! including antigone! the modern let us hang around for a while afterwards to chit chat with one another...met the fnx dj's too!

as far as what's next for tori...she doesn't know...i'm sooooo happy that i got the chance to meet her (at long last) and in such an intimate setting...but honestly, i hope she takes a breather for a bit...relax...eat well...enjoy your married life...and a few pizzas with lucifer.

exquisite.

From Kris

December 5, 1999 - Hey everyone!

Well, I live in Austin, TX, but I was so excited to be able to hear Tori live at the WFNX web site via radio cybercast. It was really a good show. It lasted about 55 or so minutes, didn't start at exactly 6pm Eastern as scheduled. Tori played 6 songs. Here's the set list and some memorable quotes/stories from the show:

"So there's a buzz in my head, should we just pretend like it's not happening? Is that what we should do, Marcel? Okay."

Purple People

"She comes and visits me a lot right now"

Concertina

"Mike, you can call me Tori, i'm not a school teacher. actually i'd like to be a librarian only with a high heel."

"I wish she had been on Pele, cause I think it would have been kinda cool for a volcano to say 'This is cooling faster than I can.'"

Cooling

(story of the song Jackie's Strength)

Jackie's Strength

(cute story about her love for Scandinavian Iceberries with warm hot white chocolate sauce - "I had two plates!")

1000 Oceans

(talked about 9 hour Spin photo shoot. This lady asked if the zipper outfit symbolized anything and Tori was like "you're thinking too hard" or something and laughed...then she said that the outfit just fit because of her eating so many Scandinavian Iceberries.)

"For a special merman creature in my life that I happened to have married.?"

Merman

And that's all! great show!!! Would have loved to hear Juarez or Josephine, but all is well!!! :)

From lordmorphy

December 5, 1999 - I was listening on the radio. I live not too far from the venue but my reception to FNX is terrible. Fortunately I work in the tallest building in New England and reception was decent from the 60th floor observatory.

The set list was lovely and Tori's comments cute and poignant but really short. The people who bid, did so for a great cause but $200 per song is a bit high for me.

After the broadcast I went by the Modern to see if there would be any kind of Meet & Greet. No EWF waiting outside. Just an FNX van, some security guys and a few cops around a cordoned off area. Through the window it looked like there was a party going on inside. I know Tori mentioned that she'd meet with bidders after the show. So I imagine that's what was going on. A few people did emerge from the show with big smiles and carrying Tori posters.

So anyone attending please let us know what went on in there. That means you Antigone....

One final quick comment. She mentioned one of her favorite new foods as being "Scandanavian Ice Berries with White Chocolate Sauce". This sounds oddly like that apocryphal song no one has heard "Snow Cherries from France". A coincidence? European Berries with frozen water...

-Dave

From Mikewhy

December 3, 1999 - I was able to hear the concert and question & answers session with the audience over the internet, and it was a most enjoyable time! It lasted 50 minutes and included 6 songs that Tori performed solo at the piano. The sound quality over the net was quite good (though there were some irritating pops and clicks at times.) Tori would perform a song, and then would answer a few questions, and so on for the entire broadcast. Below I list between each song sung a brief summary of what Tori said. If anyone can provide a detailed transcript, please email me! The main announcer during the event mentioned that he interviewed Tori over the air on WFNX a few hours earlier, so if anyone has more details on that, email me as well.

Tori plays Purple People

Someone asked Tori if she was ever going to release her earlier material, though it was not clear to me which earlier material the questioner (named Harry) was referring to. Tori mentioned something about the songs belonging to her engineers and that he would have to ask them. Then Tori was asked what it was like to play with a band. I don't remember all of what Tori said, but she said she was on her way to be the keyboard player for Billy Idol when she found out she had a record deal. Since this led to Y Kant Tori Read, Tori commented that maybe she should have just went on and became Billy's keyboard player! When asked about the future and if she would continue to play with a band, Tori said she honestly had no idea what the future would bring.

Tori plays Concertina

The next person to ask a question was named Mike and called her Ms. Amos. Tori told him he could call her Tori and that she was not a school teacher! He asked her how long she has been working with the AIDS Foundation and she said this was the first time she did anything for that organization. She then talked about how the disease has touched many of her friends and that we have lost so many creative people and that it has left a gap where those people were. "This disease has taken so many sunbeams..."

The announcer then asked Tori what it was about her music that cause her fans to pledge thousands to be there that evening. He then said that some of her fans were out of control. Tori quickly countered by saying that only 5% of them were in that category, and that the other 95% were good drinking buddies, which is a goal she has as well. She then said her songs were her friends and that they were hussies and that the audience often has a different relationship with them then she herself does. She then introduced the next song, Cooling, saying she wish it had been on Pele because she liked the idea of a volcano saying, "This is cooling, as fast as I can..."

Tori performs Cooling

Christine mentioned that some of her songs dealt with abuse and asked Tori if she has gone on to forgiveness. Tori replies, "Some days." She then mentions that she thinks the shadow is an important side to look at and that she was nervous around people who are too smiley. She said that anger was a teacher and is appropriate sometimes. She then mentioned that she gets lots of letters from people who have been victims of sexual abuse. She said sometimes you have to have Pizza with Lucifer. Tori also said that she made the uniting of the two Marys, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, part of her own healing process.

The announcer then asked Tori about the song Jackie's Strength and Tori said that it was her mom who loved Jackie and who had to put Tori down as a child when she heard that JFK was shot.

Tori plays Jackie's Strength

They then talked about the fact that there is a food list where the fans document all the different foods that Tori mentions. The announcer asked Tori to mention a new food, and she said she was currently really into Scandinavian ice berries with warm white chocolate sauce. She said they were so "yummy" she couldn't stand it.

Tori then introduced 1000 Oceans by saying a voice hummed the song to her one early one morning and that she was amazed at the depth of love the person in the song has.

Tori plays 1000 Oceans

The female announcer who was helping to find people with questions then asked her about the photo shoot she did recently for Spin magazine where she poses in one picture with a tree between her legs. Tori said, "Why don't we talk about that later." and then revealed that the Spin photo shoot took 9 hours! Tori said the key to a good photo was your hair and makeup team and that computers these days were doing great things. She also said that some people meet her and say she does not look like she does in her photos.

Tori prefaced Merman by mentioned that she did that song a lot in concert in tribute to Matthew Shepherd.

Tori Plays Merman

It was an enjoyable show and I am grateful that I got to listen to it! The announcer mentioned that the AIDS benefit raised $32,000 which was great news. Thanks to all who bid!

From heles

December 3, 1999 - I've just come from listening to the wfnx thing, and I would like to share setlist+some thoughts. it might be my one and only occasion to send/post a setlist and a short review to the dent, considered how rarely and shortly tori does whimper thru my country (which lies one hour after the Greenwich median :>), so I seized it, I think.

tori 'appeared' shortly about one hour earlier the actual live broadcasting, and she was asked the 'foodlist' question (see below), and her later performance was announced and all that stuff.

then at about 6.16 pm (extimated time, I'm in the...'wrong time zone' :P), everything went magical and purple when she played:

purple people
concertina
cooling
jackie's strenght
1,000 oceans
merman

nothing too...exotic, I would say. but beautiful, nonetheless.

you would forgive me if I can't give you a much detailed report, but I've been frozen while during the most of it. it's just incredible, just so amazing. I live ten thousand miles and one single ocean far from boston area and wow, I was listening a live performance by tori on REAL time, just pretty mindless of time zones and such. she was asked and answered a lot of questions, one between each of the songs, swamping thru various subjects, including :

+ her european performance(s) (someone mentioned he got a bootleg of these...something like that...I wonder which face she decided to put up at this one...), ++ cooling not making it to pele, +++ obviously (but not so obvious) comments and grieving about aids and its victims, ++++ then the sweetest and most heart-taking thing about jackie's strenght (= story about how her mom came to her on her wedding day and told her how whe she'd heard the President was shot, she "had to put me down, cause her heart had broken down and she'd wondered oh my god who's going to make jackie a cup of tea today" and she, like many other women by that time, had wanted to be there for her (=jackie)...this really moved me out), +++++ stories of how forest can hum in her ears but she can't quite catch the words, then when she (=the song) came she was astonished at the "amount of love she (=the song [my comment: but maybe herself too?]) had for that person" and she(=tori) goes into 1,000 oceans, ++++++ finally a pleasant dodging and diving around the photoshots in the spin article (tree pic, heh) and other photoshots she had, how she would love different bodies and different faces and different hair too, +++++++ oh and foods, foods she had never mentioned in any other interview, a (I think) Scandinavian high spirits poured on chocolate (or viceversa? or...was the chocolate there at all? um. not completely sure about that...but it sounded yummy) she'd had in that one restaurant back in london, just to go into merman (one last song which I wasn't expecting :), a song she wrote for her own special merman.

I know she mentioned religion and Jesus and Lucifer and Virgin Mary opposed to Mother Mary, and Mary Magdalen, but don't quite remember exactly what she did say. maybe later I could check if I did really manage to tape something off it, and try a transcript, but maybe someone more... _English speaking_ (which I am not, and excuse my English, btw :) than me would do that and do it better than me . :)

From Snokone73

December 3, 1999 - *I listned on the net*
All I will say is that i definately wish that I could have been there for this show! Concertina, Jackie's Strength, Merman, 1,000 Oceans! (And i'm sure that I am leaving something out..) I loved her "I'd like to have pizza with lucifer.. and the virgin mary." I taped it off the net, and I was wondering, was i the only one who had constant buffering going on? I envy anybody who got to see this show!

*Bex (Still on a cloud from last night..)

Snokone73@aol.com

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