*taken from initial posting on a forum*

OMFG. I’ll start with this: if I could have only done one show on this tour, this would have been perfect. Utterly perfect. I have no complaints about the set at all. Tori was ON. She was in good spirits. This has been an incredible day… I need sleep badly, but I must review!

First off, meet and greet… The nicest, best, calmest one I’ve ever attended. It rained for most of the day but the venue was cool enough to let us chill in the lobby indoors and dry. They didn’t mind me playing my iTunes on my laptop. Of the 30-35 people there by the time Tori came out, over half were first timers, which was really fun. Everyone was very gracious and happy to just be there.

Being clever, I did a recon at 1:30 around back near the buses. Inside one of them, we saw a set of hot leather sexy red boots and were like, “What doll wears those??!!” Ha! I asked venue security minding the stage door to tell Smitty where we were. Shortly after, one of our gang went to ask the box office if they knew anything and the venue manager copped a power trip and was like, “Something like that needs MY permission” and went off to find Smitty. Smitty came out about ten minutes after and said hi – super sweet to us. As he came out, we heard Tori over the walkie talkie say, “Are they standing out in the rain because they’re going to be fucking pissed!” We all laughed, and Smitty replied, “No they’re all warm and dry inside the lobby. We’re going to do it in here I think.” He then turned to us and said, “See how she looks out for you?” I’d somehow never gotten to chat with Smitty ever, so I went to say hi. Very nice. I like him.

For the meet and greet, they basically got out those metal poles with the stretchy elastic bands you can hook to the next pole and made a line queue barrier from the inner lobby doors to almost the doors to the outside and had us all step behind it. Everyone was super-jittery, me included! I always write Tori a letter
every tour – I never have the balls to say anything out loud, partially because of feeling watched by others but also because I get tongue-tied. But I decided this time, I needed to talk to her. My standard four page letter became two pages.

The meet and greet was awesome. Tori came out and was brought to the end with the small gap near the outer venue doors, and basically we all filed out one by one, got to take pictures and chat and get things signed, and were then ushered outside. Everyone got their time, and she spent over half an hour with us. Marci lent her camera to take a picture of me and Tori – finally, after all this time, a NICE picture with Tori. When my turn hit, she hugged me right away and said, “And how are you?” I told her I played hooky from work to come because she’d messed up – “my friend requested Spark for Toronto for me and you did it in Montreal!” I then pointed to Jared, and she looked, looked back at me and said, “Oh. Now that makes sense!” She wrote Spark down, asking, “But you’re here tonight, right?”

I had her sign my Tori Stories booklet next to the Spark page, and proceeded to babble like an ass. It went something like this:

“You know, I always write you these huge letters, but this time, it’s short because I actually wanted to tell you things in person. I wanted to say that I think your fans don’t appreciate you sometimes. I think sometimes we all take you for granted, and you do so much, much more than you have to, and I wanted to thank you for that. I’ve been following you around for years, and your music has been such an inspiration and influence in my life for so long, and I’m grateful for that. I remember being in Wallingford in ’01 and you did this lovely improv about Tash during Talula and I am so happy you have her, and so happy you have Mark, because you deserve that and it was special watching it all unfold. I know sometimes fans will say ‘Oh why doesn’t she do another Pele or another Earthquakes’ but you know what? Fuck that. I’m glad you always grow and let the music evolve, and I think American Doll Posse is genius, and I think you really needed to hear that in person.”

Tori got teary-eyed when I said the thing about her fans, and said “Thank you” very sweetly. When I got to the part about Tash she smiled, and she knew what I meant by Wallingford, and she got teary again at the end and said, “I am so glad you are here today.”

The show itself… was fantastic. Best Toronto show I have ever seen and I would say right now it’s in my top 3 shows ever of hers. She flubbed lyrics a lot, but she was in such a good mood, and she was very into the show. We requested Pip at the meet and greet and she said she’d see what she could do, but I was truly shocked when the band came out and it was most definitely NOT Body and Soul starting. Pip is INSANE. LOVE her. So amazing! I’d never seen Cruel live, I love Bliss, I love all Pip’s songs… YUM. The number of ‘fuck’ uses was crazy!

Big Wheel is super-fun! I love it! Especially the call and answer MILF – Don’t you forget!

Space Dog… One of my favourites. I cried. Yup. Beautiful with the ‘Hold those tears’ intro.

Spark… Once again, I was in disbelief. Suze looked over and said it, and I was like “No, I won’t believe until she sings the first line!”… And then, she did, and I cried of course, because I’m a wuss. It was PERFECT. Just as I dreamed of it being. Tori was looking my way a lot and from events later, she could see us, so um WOW. AMAZING.

Cornflake Girl – We are starting a new dance. It is called the rabbit dance. Every time T sings ‘rabbit’, you make bunny ears on your head. T saw us and kept cracking up. Ha! She flubbed a line in the first verse and the first chorus she changed the peel out the watchword to “Just throw out these words!” So cute!

Liquid Diamonds – Just when I thought I could recover… BOOM. Tears. I love this song and it was so ON… the mic switches for this and Spark were so well-timed. Gorgeous version…

Glory of the 80s – I had a shit fit of glee. Glory has always been a highlight of Venus for me and it was the only TVAB song I’d never heard live that I WANTED to hear. Such a shock and SO good. Loved her voice on it.

Winter… You know, in the past I’ve gotten bored due to overkill, but not tonight. This trumped even the Baltimore ’05 one where she kept saying ‘dad’ since he was at that show. Gorgeous, gorgeous vocals… I was a wreck. My dad’s health is failing, so Winter is hitting me in a soft spot. During the piano bridge, some ass yelled out “I love you Tori!” Then another yelled “Jesus loves you too!” and then ANOTHER guy yelled, and okay, Tori was near tears at some parts prior to this, and just as I was about to yell “shut the fuck up”, Tori simply leaned in, and quietly said, “Eat me.” Cue wild appaluse of support from audience.

Horses!!! Yes, it was with the band, and creepy-ethereal like Plugged tour. Oh WOW. SO good.

ASF – Love it. Love it. Love it. Very on, very wistful sort of feel… you really felt the emotion in the ‘didn’t think we’d end up like this’.

Code Red – Is awesome. You knew this. WOWSA. Mini-freak at end.

Stage Rush! Whee!

Precious Things – IS AMAZING. It’s fanfuckingtastic this tour.

BOC – Lesson one: It is now “Clow-hee-hows”. Lesson two: there is a hand gesture now during the chorus that the regulars have adopted. ‘Tis fun. Plus, I LOVE BOC.

Hey Jupiter – I knew the second encore was going to be short when this started. Dakota version of course. I will NEVER tire of Jupiter. People can bite me.

Seriously…. that show was so, so good. I can’t imagine how Buffalo or Detroit will EVER beat that. Thank you Tori. Just… thank you.

Setlist:  Tori Amos Toronto 10/23/07

Part I – Pip

Cruel
Bliss
Fat Slut
Smokey Joe
Teenage Hustling
The Waitress

costume change = Pro Widow Remix interlude

Part II – Tori

Big Wheel
Space Dog
Spark
Cornflake Girl
Liquid Diamonds
Glory of the 80s

T & Bö

Take Me With You
Winter

band returns

Horses
A Sorta Fairytale
Code Red

First Encore

Precious Things
Bouncing Off Clouds

Second Encore

Hey Jupiter (Dakota Version)