July 13, 2010
Villa Arconati
Milan, Italy
Beauty of Speed
Girl
That Guy
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Doughnut Song
Space Dog
Dragon
Northern Lad
I'm on Fire
Bouncing Off Clouds
Gold Dust
Siren
Rattlesnakes
Yes, Anastasia
Bells for Her
Take to the Sky
Encore
Personal Jesus/Body and Soul
Hey Jupiter
My presence at this show was a bizarre matter of happenstance. The way the dates slowly trickled out for this not-a-tour lead to logistical problems for a great many fans. I had never intended on crossing the Atlantic for any of them. But as luck had it, this summer my boyfriend and I finally took our month-long trip to Italy. (We have been planning on doing this trip for many years now, and this was our most opportune time.) The purposes of this trip had nothing to do with Tori Amos, and more of my desire to really dig deep and spend some time exploring this rich and amazing country. (I have always found ways in the past to skip Tori shows in Italy, knowing I would just be frustrated seeing one or two cities.) The day before, I left Mike in Rome (to fly back to Canada) and I took the train up to an obscure town in Tuscany where my dear touring partner E. lives. We drove up to Milan together.
We got there early enough for the meet and greet. We were worried that we would be late. However, the meet and greet ended up being enormously late. We were also joined by E.'s fantastic Italian friends, who were just awesome. We spent the afternoon hanging out with a bunch of Tori fans from all over the place who all hid in the shade from the absolutely hot/humid sunny day (molto caldo). We joked that there were so many countries represented at this meet and greet, that we should have had a world cup of rock paper scissors to kill time. Tori finally came out and I must say, she looked fantastic. She looked much more natural and happy than the last tour. And I think she has put on a little bit of weight, which looks absolutely fantastic and 100% better. We were very far back in the crowd at the meet and greet when Mindi started warning everyone that there was no time. But of course Tori stayed to talk to every single person. I spoke to her very briefly. She recognized me, and I told her I had already been in Italy for a month. Then we exchanged words extolling the virtues of Italian wine. I would have loved to have asked her a couple of questions, but I was accutely aware of the time limit and how many people were left, so I was courteous and made sure our exchange was very quick.
We killed some time before the show having a beer with some AWESOME fans (special hello to Jeanette, Hamilton, and Eugene) picked up our tickets at the box, and headed in. The venue is beautiful: it is very old, and when we took a walk around the building earlier, there were some really jacked up (with age) looking parts of the building. Gorgeous and old, totally European. what a treat to get to see Tori somewhere like this! The only problem was that the concert was outdoors. This lead to two things: 1) There were enough mosquitoes buzzing around that they could foreseeably drain human beings of their blood. 2) Gross disgusting portapotties that were gnarly gross before the show even started. Balls.
We sat down and then promptly left because I don't really like to watch the opener. I opted instead to hang with some friends outside the venue. The downside of this was that I literally got eaten alive. The mosquitos actually bit me through my stretch denim leggings. I had dozens of mosquito bites everywhere: arms, legs, back, front, inside my spleen. For realsies. And I had used repellent, but perhaps Canadians are particularly delicious. But no mind: small price to pay to spend some precious time with my favourite people.
The show itself was absolutely AMAZING. This was, hands-down, one of the best shows I have ever seen. There are few shows where I am actually hanging on for almost every single song. (Largely due to my not liking some of Tori's songs that she loves to play constantly, but you can't win them all.) The energy of this show was electric: you could almost touch it. What was it? I have no idea. But I do know that numerous times throughout the show, people leapt to their feet. I have always said that I prefer a band show, and this will forever ring true. But if her solo shows were more like this, I would like them just a little bit more. As this show progressed, it seemed like the energy kept building and building. The setlist was pretty unbelievable, and only got better.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Space Dog: Although the first few songs were great renditions (her voice was in top form) I feel like this was the point where the show started to soar. I am not the hugest fan of this song (although I know it is a fan favourite) it was so good and so energetic that I was thrilled to hear it. I loved that the entire venue started to clap Matt's drumming for the "sooo sure" part.
Dragon: OMG. I wanted to hear this song so bad last tour, and it never came. So great to hear. Not a high energy song by any stretch, but this song is just such a gem that I was thrilled to hear it. I loooove Doll Posse, so hell yeah.
Northern Lad: Tori told a story about how musicians in the 90s were not supposed to shag their crew. And that she really broke that rule for the first time in Tuscany. She hit all of the high notes and I really cannot emphasize enough how "on" her voice was. She sounded so good - much like she did in 2001.
I'm On Fire: I kind of thought with the opening notes that this was going to be Never Seen Blue, since the intro to both songs sounds almost exactly alike. But hurrah! It wasn't. I love her cover of this song. It's so full of passion and really beautiful. The audience softly singing along just added to the moment.
Bouncing Off Clouds: Yes! Although it's hard to really bounce to a solo version of this song, there may have been just a tiny bit of subtle choreographed bouncing.
Gold Dust: My favourite Tori song ever. When I die, I want this song played at my funeral. So excited to hear it that there was an exchange of high-fives.
Siren: Obvs. a highlight, no need for explanation.
Yes, Anastasia: Hands down the best live song that I have ever heard. This is probably my #2 favourite Tori ballad of all time, and top ten songs for sure. The climax of the song "we'll see how brave you are" was spot-on. This was not the neutered version of 2005. You could tell that this night, Tori was confident in her voice and she went for it. By the end of the song, we all leapt out of our seats. We could not control ourselves anymore.
Bells for Her: I don't like this song really. At this point I feel like she almost played this to get us to breathe and calm down for a minute.
Take to the Sky: There was much clapping and of course dancing to the "I feel the earth move" improv at the end. Not as good with the band, but it sure does in a pinch.
Personal Jesus/Body and Soul: And this was really the climax of the show. We all rushed to the stage, but the venue had negligently set up the barricades. There was a big gap between the floor we were standing on, and the steel barricades. It was dark by the stage when the rush happened, and several people (including myself) fell into this gap. E., unfortunately, smashed her foot into the barricade. (I was okay, wearing the most inappropriate for hot weather footware, a pair of steel-toed doc martens.) E. turns to me immediately and is like, "I broke my toe!" and I start freaking out and ask, "What do we do!?!" But we were at the front of the barricades and surrounded by people and there was no way to get her out (now unable to walk of course). Running on adrenaline, she was still able to enjoy this song. Now as for the song: it was badass and such a surprise! I guess when I saw it on the setlist the other day, I thought it was like a one-time special thing. This song was really where the show climaxed. It was great. (I can only imagine how good it would be with the band.)
We then patiently waited for everyone to leave. Thankfully, E. speaks fluent Italian and was able to communicate to the venue people her need for medical assistance. They drove her away in an ambulance. E.'s friends and I caravanned to the hospital, where it took us about half an hour to locate the ER. She was almost done by the time we arrived. Then, we drove an hour to Alessandra's house where we slept for a mere three-four hours. What happened with the foot drama? Tune in for the next entry to find out.
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