Post by bexface on Mar 13, 2003 18:41:36 GMT -5
(#31) I know I have stated how great the New York shows (Albany, RCMH) were. I thought it would be really hard to top those. There is only so much room in my rating scale to go up in describing these shows. I may have to rethink a new scale soon.
In a word, SUPER-WOW!! Use any other extreme you want to. This show was fabulous. Could?ve been the best show of the tour so far. And the audience was superb as well. Matt said it best: It was a European-style crowd. They waited to clap, right up until her last breath for each song drifted out. Not much hooting and hollering throughout the tunes. You could hear a pin drop in some places, particularly during the Café. She smiled and beamed a lot. I really liked her outfit. She had on a black gown with silver snowflakes on it, jeans on beneath (as usual), and these awesome very-Tori-like pink high-heeled slippers with pink straps across the front of her ankles. Pink leather that she had bought in NYC and was wearing for the first time. She put her legs way up so we could all see them. This led into a great little improv about the deadlines for the U.N. (March 17) but this girl has her own deadlines. ?Strange Little Girl,? not only the first time on this tour but the first time ever! WOW!! What a treat! That led into what I felt was the most fun she has had with ?Cornflake Girl? in a while. She plays it every night but this night she was smiling, adding extra ivory flourishes here and there, having a great time with it all. Next was ?Liquid Diamonds? that had its own extra notes throughout. She was definitely in a groove. We were held captive with those enthralling glances.
The Café was absolutely magnificent. She first started with a long (few minutes?) improv intro that chilled me. Then into ?Carbon? which I had never heard live before. The chills just continued. ?Leather? (probably because of the footwear) then another ?Here in my Head? which seems to get better and better every time I hear it. (I believe I have been lucky enough to hear all three versions, from Auburn Hills, Brussels, and now Grand Rapids). ?Caught a Lite Sneeze? kept me rocking (although I was holding back, don?t want to be called ballistic anymore! ) then into a sweeping version of ?Amber Waves? (probably having been bumped from the last RCMH set list). Not much later (after a great ?Girl?), she treated us to the fairly-regular ?Take to the Sky.? Jon thinks this was her best rendition ever and I would agree. Maybe even a little more into it than in RCMH, she kept going on and on, playing the Carole King lines to their fullest. She was having a great time and so were we.
The encores topped off an awesome setlist. First was ?Riot Proof? (like with Syracuse, in the encore) which has a new ending chorus to it. Must be heard to believe it. Then ?Rattlesnakes,? which is so pretty. Second encore I recognized ?Taxi Ride? only by the root chord. But Jon was doing something entirely new this time. Instead of a few notes here and there, he would play a series of eighth notes, pumping them out with a staccato rhythm that was real infections. Tori took her time coming back to the keyboards, swiveling her hips to the new notes. (And why does she say she can?t dance? The lady can dance folks!!) Even though he went back to the old bass line, all I could hear in my head was that staccato pulsing throughout. Great new twist! ?Putting the Damage On? also fabulous.
What can I say? I better get working hard on a new rating scale?.
Bexface rating: 10 out of 10 (can it get any better than this?)
In a word, SUPER-WOW!! Use any other extreme you want to. This show was fabulous. Could?ve been the best show of the tour so far. And the audience was superb as well. Matt said it best: It was a European-style crowd. They waited to clap, right up until her last breath for each song drifted out. Not much hooting and hollering throughout the tunes. You could hear a pin drop in some places, particularly during the Café. She smiled and beamed a lot. I really liked her outfit. She had on a black gown with silver snowflakes on it, jeans on beneath (as usual), and these awesome very-Tori-like pink high-heeled slippers with pink straps across the front of her ankles. Pink leather that she had bought in NYC and was wearing for the first time. She put her legs way up so we could all see them. This led into a great little improv about the deadlines for the U.N. (March 17) but this girl has her own deadlines. ?Strange Little Girl,? not only the first time on this tour but the first time ever! WOW!! What a treat! That led into what I felt was the most fun she has had with ?Cornflake Girl? in a while. She plays it every night but this night she was smiling, adding extra ivory flourishes here and there, having a great time with it all. Next was ?Liquid Diamonds? that had its own extra notes throughout. She was definitely in a groove. We were held captive with those enthralling glances.
The Café was absolutely magnificent. She first started with a long (few minutes?) improv intro that chilled me. Then into ?Carbon? which I had never heard live before. The chills just continued. ?Leather? (probably because of the footwear) then another ?Here in my Head? which seems to get better and better every time I hear it. (I believe I have been lucky enough to hear all three versions, from Auburn Hills, Brussels, and now Grand Rapids). ?Caught a Lite Sneeze? kept me rocking (although I was holding back, don?t want to be called ballistic anymore! ) then into a sweeping version of ?Amber Waves? (probably having been bumped from the last RCMH set list). Not much later (after a great ?Girl?), she treated us to the fairly-regular ?Take to the Sky.? Jon thinks this was her best rendition ever and I would agree. Maybe even a little more into it than in RCMH, she kept going on and on, playing the Carole King lines to their fullest. She was having a great time and so were we.
The encores topped off an awesome setlist. First was ?Riot Proof? (like with Syracuse, in the encore) which has a new ending chorus to it. Must be heard to believe it. Then ?Rattlesnakes,? which is so pretty. Second encore I recognized ?Taxi Ride? only by the root chord. But Jon was doing something entirely new this time. Instead of a few notes here and there, he would play a series of eighth notes, pumping them out with a staccato rhythm that was real infections. Tori took her time coming back to the keyboards, swiveling her hips to the new notes. (And why does she say she can?t dance? The lady can dance folks!!) Even though he went back to the old bass line, all I could hear in my head was that staccato pulsing throughout. Great new twist! ?Putting the Damage On? also fabulous.
What can I say? I better get working hard on a new rating scale?.
Bexface rating: 10 out of 10 (can it get any better than this?)
