From: owner-precious-things-digest To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V1 #96 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Monday, 3 June 1996 Volume 01 : Number 096 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Tori in Toronto thanx! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steve Ito Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 03:43:15 -0400 Subject: Tori in Toronto I've been meaning to post about Tori's shows in Toronto on 5/27 and 5/28 but I haven't had a chance. I wish I had time to do a proper review but I'm afraid this is going to be just a sort of glorified setlist. Monday, May 27th, 7pm Massey Hall, Toronto ON I met Tori before the show. I told her how 2 years ago I'd followed her around Canada (actually only Southern Ontario) requesting "Lovesong" by the Cure. Unfortunately she didn't remember this at all. I suppose I should have mentioned that she said it was the first time she'd ever done it live in concert. Anyway, she signed my poster, wrote "Lovesong" under my name, and promised she'd play it. I was told afterwards that she scribbled it on her hand! Willy Porter was amazing! He did one song in collaboration with the audience. He asked for a kind of food, a type of transportation, and some other random things. My friend Sheldon's suggestion was waterskis as a mode of transportation, and Willy seemed about ready to use it when someone came up with a better idea: a camel. Undeterred, Sheldon shouted out "a camel on waterskis" which seemed to amuse Willy (and the audience) so he decided to use it. Willy had to incorporate Tofu, a camel on waterskis, a mermaid, and a couple of other things into a song, and he did it BRILLIANTLY. I was really impressed. Tori came out to the "Son of a Preacher Man" and played the following songs: Beauty Queen/Horses Leather Blood Roses Little Amsterdam Cornflake Girl Doughnut Song Pretty Good Year Take To The Sky Famous Blue Raincoat (L. Cohen) Precious Things Not The Red Baron Caught A Lite Sneeze Talula Me And A Gun - ----------------- Somewhere Over the Rainbow Putting the Damage On - ----------------- Tear In Your Hand Silent All These Years Hey Jupiter My friend Jen remarked that Tori didn't seem to be very animated, but I had completely the opposite impression. I thought that Tori looked like she was having a lot of fun. Another friend managed to snag the setlist for the show (dated incorrectly as 5/28/96) and it turns out Tori was planning to do "Flying Dutchman" instead of TTTS. I *love* TTTS, but I love "Flying Dutchman" too so I was a bit disappointed. I love Famous Blue Raincoat, I think Tori really does a fantastic job of covering this song. I'm with woj in not being a big fan of the extended Grrrrrllll... in PT. Seems we're in the minority though, the Grrrlll part seems to be quite popular with audiences, judging from the applause she gets. I think Caton is a FANTASTIC addition. I was skeptical at the beginning of the tour, but now I'm completely won over. In fact, I wish they had made his guitar louder in the mix. Most of the time I could barely hear him, and quite often I couldn't hear him at all despite listening carefully for the guitar. The part in CALS where Tori holds a long note and swivels in her seat and switches microphones sent shivers up and down my spine. - ----------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, May 28th, 7pm Massey Hall, Toronto ON Willy Porter didn't come on at all, much to my disappointment. I was really looking forward to seeing him again. Tori made up for Willy's absence though. I was expecting a toned-down early show and a revved-up later show with a lot of rarities, but it turned out that both shows featured some terrific rare songs. The following setlist was posted on rmta. Don't know how accurate it is, but it doesn't clash with my (albeit poor) memory. Beauty Queen/Horses Icicle (w/ Onward Christian Soldiers in intro) Caught A Light Sneeze Cornflake Girl Little Earthquakes Space Dog A Case Of You (J. Mitchell) Marianne Precious Things Not the Red Baron Happy Phantom Bells For Her Talula Me And A Gun - -------------- Twinkle Winter - -------------- Father Lucifer Daniel (Elton John) Black Swan She also did a bit of "Ring My Bell" before rolling her eyes and going on with the next song. I've been waiting a long time to hear LE live. I've seen 9 Tori shows now (6 on her UTP tour, 3 this tour) and this was the only time I've seen her do LE. And I *love* this song live. I was ho-hum about Space Dog (I've seen her do it a few times) until Caton's part came along, and I sat up and took notice. I really liked his addition to this song. I *love* "A Case of You." I still give the nod to Joni's original version, but I think Tori's version is also great and love hearing it. What a great song. HP is a fun song both on CD and live. I think I preferred "Bells for Her" on the modified piano she brought along on the UtP tour. I was glad to hear "Father Lucifer". It's one of my faves on BfP. I liked Tori's cover of "Daniel" but I must admit I still prefer Elton John's original version. I was pleasantly surprised to hear "Black Swan". I like this song a lot, and I don't think Tori does this often. My friend brought a camera along loaded with some very fast film, so he wouldn't need a flash. It turns out our second row dead centre seats were probably the best seats in the house for taking photographs, with the possible exception of the first row in the balcony (if you had a telephoto lens). I haven't seen the results yet, I'm very curious to see how they turn out. - ----------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesday, May 28th, 10pm Massey Hall, Toronto, ON Again, no Willy Porter. Very disappointing. Again though, Tori made up for it with a stellar performance. She played an incredible 5 (!) cover songs, and 2 Tori-penned B-sides. I wonder if the 5 cover songs is a record? Beauty Queen/Horses Angie (Jagger/Richards) Blood Roses Little Amsterdam Bad Company (Bad Company) In the Springtime of His Voodoo Cornflake Girl Lovesong (The Cure) Doughnut Song Precious Things Not the Red Baron Crucify Summer Afternoons in 1963 (Rickie Lee Jones) Talula Me and a Gun - ---------------- Baker Baker When Sunny Gets Blue (Not sure who did this originally) - ----------------- Honey Frog on My Toe (1st Performance!!!) Hey Jupiter I think "Angie" is OK, but I really wish she'd done "Landslide" instead. I think she does a kickass version, even better than the original. "Blood Roses" and "In the Springtime of His Voodoo" are among my fave tracks on BfP, and I loved the equally well live. "Lovesong" on the harpsichord was OK, but I preferred the piano version from 2 years ago. I admit that part of the thrill that time was that Tori was reading from the lyric sheets I had printed out for her. Now she knows it by heart. I must say though, in this version, Tori has made it more her own, which I always approve of when performers cover other artists' songs. Tori did "Not the Red Baron" in every show that I saw, which I'm not crazy about because it's one of my least favourite songs on the album. I didn't recognize "Summer Afternoons in 1963", but my friend did, from Under the Covers. I must admit I seldom listen to those tapes. "Honey" was a treat to hear live (no pun intended). When Tori said she was about to do a song she hadn't done before on this tour, I sat up and took notice. When she started playing "Frog on My Toe", I was ecstatic. This felt so original, so fresh (especially when Tori had to fuss with some lyric sheets on her piano)! - ----------------------------------- All in all, it was a fantastic "Tori Trinity" of concerts. The only songs I really missed were "Flying Dutchman", "Upside Down", "Sweet Dreams", "A Song for Eric" (but I didn't have any illusions about my chances of hearing this song anyway, meth n' woj's fortune notwithstanding), and "Landslide". Oh well, can't get 'em all. Oh, and these shows were much improved by the excellent seats we had for each of them... second row centre, front row centre, and second row centre, respectively. Dream seats to be sure! But even then they weren't the best seats I've ever had. Steve - ----------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Ito, | "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who Psychology Dept. | says differently is selling something." University of Toronto | -- The Dread Pirate Roberts Toronto, ON, Can. | ------------------------------ From: "Sister Ray -- pogue mahone!" Date: Sun, 2 Jun 1996 21:15:39 CET Subject: thanx! ::: Hi! I just wanna thank all the people who wrote reviews, thanx! - -Sis. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me." - Nathaniel Lee *********************************************************************** email: sister@mediaport.org Sister Ray Headqtrs. or email: sister.ray@pi.net url website: http://mediaport.org/~sisterra *********************************************************************** ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V1 #96 ************************************