*excerpted from journal*

The show opened with Santa, which was fine by me;  I was very eager to hear Raspberry Swirl.  Tori strutted and sassed about the stage as Santa, beginning with Body and Soul and continuing with She’s Your Cocaine (YUM), Hoochie Woman (YAY!  Tori dished out Mojitos and rubbed alcohol on her body as well as flicking it at the front row) and Raspberry Swirl (OMFGYAY!).  We got up to dance for Swirl.  In my excitement for Swirl, it didn’t quite click with me that it was awfully early in Santa’s set for Swirl… And then, Tori left the stage as the band continued to jam the ending.  “That was the shortest Santa set ever!” Ashley commented.  Suze looked back to us and mouthed, “Where did she go?!”  I shrugged.  Ashley mused aloud about there being two dolls, and to our complete surprise, that’s exactly what happened!  Tori returned as Isabel to the sounds of the intro to Yo George, and did a mini-Isabel set of Yo George, Mountain, Tombigbee and Scarlet’s Walk.  I was disappointed to not hear Almost Rosey, but the two doll combo alone was worth it.

Costume change #2.  Tori returned and launched into Big Wheel as per the norm, only to introduce the band and launch into Cornflake Girl.  WTF?  Where’s the second song that comes before CFG? Doughnut Song arrived, and I was thrilled to finally hear it this tour;  it was as gorgeous as I hoped for, although I’m sad she cut the “Something’s just keeping you numb”.  And then…. solo time?  Already?  This show was making me dizzy with confusion.  The solo section fell completely flat for me – Twinkle, which admittedly was better live this tour than in previous ones, and was preceded by a beautiful improv about ‘remembering’ someone from before, and Leather (ugh).  Your Cloud was lovely, but too mellow on the heels of a lacklustre solo section, but Virginia revived me.  Code Red started amazing… and then suddenly Tori stopped and threw two girls out of the show from the front row, angrily ranting about how those seats were “her seats” and “sitting in front is a privilege’.  Crazy!  The song restarted even more furiously.  Tori’s been throwing security guards out of shows as well this tour – fiesty moody Tori is BACK!

The encores were solid – Precious Things which is always a treat; Bliss, which rocked out with its bad self; Space Dog, which felt weird in the encores but was still fun to dance to; and the predictable Hey Jupiter, which was still worth it if only for the way Tori belted out the “I know he isn’t you” at the end.   Overall, a satisfying show, but the middle kinda dropped off.  The setlist had Past The Mission in the encore instead of Bliss and Take Me With You as the sole solo song (which would have been infinitely better!).  The presence of Past The Mission was amusing;  if only she’d played it!

Tomorrow, it’s the Santa Barbara show.  I suddenly have a strange feeling it’s going to become a Pip/Clyde split, which makes me sad because I want a full Pip set in Anaheim damn it!  We’re planning to hit the meet and greet tomorrow, and since Suze and Lesley are also without tickets for the show, we’re going to try and get four together.  Ideally, it being my brother’s birthday, we’ll luck into an upgrade from Smitty (who gets mauled by a circle of vultures these days!  Holy shit!), but I’m just happy to be here and going.  I also want to get a full chat in with Ms Alexa.

But now, it’s way past bedtime!!  I’ll upload pictures tomorrow morning while getting ready.

SETLIST:  SAN DIEGO 12/12/07

SANTA
Body and Soul
She’s Your Cocaine
Hoochie Woman
Raspberry Swirl

Swirl>Yo George Jam

ISABEL
Yo George
Mountain
Tombigbee
Scarlet’s Walk

TORI
Big Wheel
Cornflake Girl
Doughnut Song

Improv
Twinkle
Leather

Your Cloud
Virginia
Code Red

Precious Things
Bliss

Space Dog
Hey Jupiter