8/22/03 PNC Bank Arts Center

[undeniabledilemma]

Written for my livejournal, mostly in the car coming home tonight so it's a bit spastic lol.


So Tori just totally rocked. It was so different than March. Not only the songs themselves, but the atmosphere of the whole concert, the tone. The tone was more happy, celebratory, totally rocking out. Last March was just plain sad. It was so fucking hot but I was so happy and giddy so it didn't really matter.

We drove down to NJ and spent about 6 years in a rest area looking at maps trying to find people's houses. My parents have a lot of friends down there so that's what they did while I was shibbying with Tori. We seriously spent forever in the rest area. I just wanted to see Tori damnit. But it worked out fine. We actually were really early so we went to the hotel to check in first. And then to Tori!!

I had really good seats. They were sooo much better than I expected. We weren't in the orchestra but in the next section back but the orchestra section was so small that I ended up being closer than I was in March. I was about 10 yards or so to the right of dead center and probably about 44 yards back from the stage. And no those aren't just random numbers lol. 44 yards is the length of the penalty box on a soccer field and O has been making us sprint that every day (my best time so far is 6.6 seconds) so I've become really familiar with that length. And 10 yards is the length of the center circle so I have a good idea how far that is too.

Above the stage was this huge tv screen that showed what was happening on stage so even if you weren't close you could still see perfectly.

Anyway... Ben Folds played for an hour. He was hilarious. omg lolol. The audience participation thing was kick ass because everyone who was singing in our audience had really a good voice... It sounded really beautiful. At the end he got up to take a bow and jumped on top of his piano.

Then there was a 10 year wait in the humidity and I had to pee so bad but I was so afraid I'd miss something so I didn't get up lol. Then yay, Tori!!


Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Sugar
In The Springtime Of His Voodoo
God
Bells For Her
Cornflake Girl
Rattlesnakes
Wednesday


Baker Baker
On Saturday Afternoons in 1963
Jackie's Strength


Your Cloud
Professional Widow
Mary
Sweet Sangria
Take To The Sky
I Can't See New York
Precious Things


Tombigbee
Amber Waves


Landslide (solo)
Tear In Your Hand
Past The Mission

(continued in next post)

[undeniabledilemma]

Sugar rocked. I wasn't expecting that at all, but it was one of those songs that I had always wanted to hear live and I freaked out as soon as I heard the piano. Right in the beginning of the show!! The "you're just a pussy" echoed twice and then people started clapping and I was so happy...

Somewhere else in the beginning of the show she did this improv, that "bring it on" one and when she got to the part about her husband wanting to have sex with her in the morning I was watching the big tv screen and she smiled this huge smile and laughed for a second and I just burst out laughing.

The girls on my left were dancing in their seats during In the Springtime of His Voodoo and eventually our whole row and a bunch of the people in the row in front of us were swaying back and forth and grooving, especially toward the end. It was so much fun lol.

I didn't recognize God at first. Stupid me. In the beginning of the song I hit my ankle against the seat in front of me and it hurt so bad that I wasn't really paying attention to the first verse, but then I started getting back into the song. I love that song.

Bells For Her was amazing. Such a sad song and really very close to what's happened between Jenn and me so I was a little teary eyed. I definately really liked that one. Cornflake Girl I'd heard before a lot so I watched the tv screen instead of the stage and it was like watching a tv show or something so that just added a whole new element to the show. It was great. You could switch back between watching the screen and the stage.

I didn't recognize Rattlesnakes at first either. It sounded different, but then she started humming and I thought Rattlesnakes but I wasn't completely sure until after she started singing. For some reason, I get this image of Tori surrounded by blue lights whenever I think about it so I think the lights were blue during this one. Then came Wednesday and that's just such a fun song to hear live. Everyone gets into it.

Improv about going back in time... leading into Baker Baker, which was beautiful. That was one of the songs I really had wanted to hear last March so hearing it now was really amazing. The guy in front of me recognized On Saturday Afternoons in 1963 and alerted our whole little section as to what it was lol. I'd never heard that one before and it was really beautiful. I gotta go find the lyrics. But it was the girl that was sitting next to that guy that made the connection with On Saturday Afternoons in 1963 after the song was over. Tori was born in 1963. The guy then said something like "that's why she's playing it!" and everyone around us laughed. Then came Jackie's Strength. It was beautiful but I didn't cry, even though I was thinking about Keri. I didn't cry the whole show actually.

I loveee hearing Your Cloud live. Everyone was quiet afterward and then came PROFESSIONAL WIDOW and I almost had a heart attack. Professional Widow!!!!!!! Totally and completely rocked. Utterly amazing. Everyone was grooving in their seats and the guy in front of me was stamping and headbanging. I lovedddd it. Mary rocked like that too. Everyone was so fired up and really into the song.

(continued in next post)

[undeniabledilemma]

I'd heard Sweet Sangria twice before also so I watched the screen most of the time but ended up really getting into the song. I've decided I really like that one lol. Take to the Sky was just like Professional Widow and Mary with the audience really getting into it. A whole bunch of people in the orchestra got out of their seats and started dancing. Some people in our section were snapping and not clapping in the beginning and then eventually put their hands over their heads and started snapping and dancing and got a row of like 5 or 6 people to snap with them. Unfortunately, some of them continued that into I Can't See New York and that got a little annoying... but the eventually realized that the time to snap was over and stopped. Precious Things was awesome. Something I wanted to hear and knew I was probably going to so I was really excited about it.

Before the first encore the whole crew came out on stage with a birthday cake!! They lit it and that nifty tv screen got a few good closeups of the cake. The Ben Folds came out and started playing on the piano and then the whole place was singing happy birthday to Tori. She came out and blew out the candles and everyone was shouting "happy birthday, Tori" and "I love you, Tori". I thought for sure someone was going to try and get up onstage to try and give her something and I was all set to see how fast they'd be whisked away but it didn't happy. That's actually a good thing though lol.

During Tombigbee most of our row was up and grooving around but by Amber Waves people started to sit again. It seemed like everyone was really into Amber Waves and Tori was really into it so I was hoping for a third song in that encore, but it didn't happen.

Landslide was sooo gorgeous. During the "I'm getting older too" she smiled and everyone started cheering lol. Then Matt and Jon came back out for Tear in Your Hand and Past the Mission. I'd heard both of those live before so at the beginning of each I was a little disappointed that I wasn't hearing something that I'd never heard before but I love both of those songs so it didn't really matter. A lot of people left in between encores so we were going to move down into the orchestra section but then we decided not to just because it would have been a pain to get out of our own row and we were fine where we were.

Then Tori left and the lights came on and I had to hobble up zillions of stairs and walk through mud

All in all, I think this show was better than March. March's show was amazing but I think I liked last night's show a little more. It was different, like I said. I cried a lot last March, but I didn't cry at all this time. I don't know if it was the heat or my ankle, but I just wasn't in a crying mood. Not even during Jackie's Strength or Baker Baker. I was happy I didn't cry though... I had the best time. I was totally into the whole show and loved every second. The beginning piano part of Professional Widow stayed with me the whole night so in the car on the way back to the hotel I was still grooving to it in my head.

The atmosphere of last night's show was a lot different than March's. Everyone around me and almost everyone there was just really into the music. I don't know how to explain it. Maybe it was just because I lucked out and happened to be sitting by some kick ass people. I don't know. It was a happy show and I was on cloud nine the rest of the night.

I ended up buying the Ben Folds cd and another t shirt. It's black and says "piano love" on the front and on the back are songs that are played during the Roadside Cafe in a wierd geometric crop circle like design. I wore it today