Here's my review of the Santa Rosa concert on 9/8/94
 
                                                -Greg


	Well, these concert reviews were somewhat delayed because I've been
very busy.  But I thought they might be of interest to the group, so I'll
still post them.  

	On Thursday, September 8 I saw Tori at the Luther Burbank Center
in Santa Rosa California.  I left work at 5:30pm, picked up some road-trip
food (potstickers, bbq-pork buns, eggrolls, yum!) and headed to my friend's
house.  We headed out of Palo Alto at 6pm and drove two hours North to
Santa Rosa.  The sun was setting as we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and
into the rolling hills North of San Francisco.  It was a nice drive and the
time flew by as we listened to some live Maria Mckee tapes.  We arrived in
Santa Rosa at 7:50pm, having travelled 100 miles.  We pulled into the parking
lot and I realized the building was a church!  Hmm, I wondered if we had come
to the right place.  Perhaps a mixup in directions?  Then I saw a woman walk
by wearing (I'm not kidding) 5-inch-high white platform shoes.  Okay, this
was definitely the Tori concert.  :)

	The building was the standard modern Protestant Church plan.  I say
that because there are half dozen churches in San Jose that look exactly
the same.  A semi-circular building, stage up front, padded pews all around
a large balcony curving around the width of the hall.  The place was also
VERY small, giving a nice intimate atmosphere.  We took our seats in the
third row as Bill Miller came on stage.  Acoustically the room was very
"dead", with all the carpeting and padded benches, but Bill still sounded
quite good and the crowd loved him.  

	Tori came on stage at 9pm and she played

	Thank You  - Wow, the Led Zeppelin song.  This was the first time I'd
		seen her do this live, I don't think she does it much anymore.
		She didn't go into "Whole Lotta Love" though.
	Crucify  - Ah, she sounded good and I was quite happy that I came to
		see her in this small theater/church.
	Icicle  - Tori didn't tell the usual story before this song.  She did
		mention that she liked playing in a church.  :)  The usher
		was an elderly woman who sat in a chair up front during the
		concert.  I thought she was gonna have a heart-attack during
		this song!  They had probably told her it was some nice piano-
		playing minister's daughter...  :)
	Precious Things  - Every time I hear this song I like the piano part
		more and more.
	The Waitress  - Still not a favorite of mine.  The elderly usher
		woman looked quite alarmed at the lyrics.  
	God  - Despite the annoying lights, this is still a lot of fun
		to watch because Tori has so much fun doing it.
	Silent All These Years  - Ah, I could never get tired of this song.
	Leather  -  Or of this one either.  Not her best performance of it
		though.  I think the room may have been a little too 
		acoustically "dead" and that always affects a performer.
		Probably great for taping though, because there was no
		reverb at all.
	Bells For Her  - Tori took off off her high heels for this song
		and its still a favorite.  She was wearing cut-off jeans
		and a VERY low cut white body suit.  Oh my!
	Me And A Gun  - Just before this song Tori takes a moment to prepare
		herself.  During that quiet time people yelled out
		"Flying Dutchman" and "Winter".  I really wish they'd pick
		some other time to start yelling.  
	Pretty Good Year  - A favorite.  "Greg he writes letters..."  :)

For her first encore Tori played:

	Cornflake Girl  - not a surprise, Tori had been playing this as
		the first encore at all the shows I'd seen.  But she has
		so much fun and just rips on the piano that its always great
		to see. 
	American Pie/Smells Like Teen Spirit  - Murmers of recognition
		for the Don Mclean song; big cheers of recognition for
		the Nirvana tune.

For her second encore Tori then did:
	A Case Of You  - this is really a beautiful song, I'm always glad
		to hear it.
	Here. In My Head  - Wow, this is somethign of a rarity!  Ooh, I
		really like this song.  The melody is so simple, yet
		somewhat haunting and often sticks in my head.  I was so
		happy to hear her do this.

The crowd was very enthusiastic and (except for that one yelling incident)
very polite.  Tori came back and did
	
	Winter  - one of my favorite Tori songs.  (sigh)  

The lights came up and we exited the theater.  A bunch of peole waited on the
East side near the stage exit.  After a while some security guys came by and
told us that Tori had already left and we should too.  Hmm, sounded like they
were trying to get rid of us.  Then again, we didn't see the limo anymore.
A guy came out of the door and so I asked him, "Say, did you just meet Tori
in there?", I asked.  He responded affirmatively so I asked, "Is she still in
there?"  "Uh, well, I don't know", was his reply.  But he had hesitated before
answering and so I knew she was still there.  Then I stopped a crew member and
asked if Tori was still inside.  "Uh, no, she's left already", was his reply
but he wasn't very convincing and so I knew he was just repeating what he'd
been told to say.  So we walked around the front of the building and saw the
limo there with a few fans waiting by it.  Hmm, I didn't think Tori would come
out the front of the building, it was too long a walk to the car.  We decided
to wait by the limo and if it moved then we could follow it.  Good plan
because it soon drove off and so we ran after it along with maybe 10 other
people.  Boy, did I feel silly.  :)  It stopped on the West side, opposite
from where we had previously been waiting.  Then Tori and Joel (her security
guy) came out.  Tori approached the crowd and then she saw us.  "Hey, I know
you!", she said to us.  Wow, Tori knows us!!!  She gave hugs and we told her
how we'd been worried because she seemed so sad at the San Jose show.  Tori 
confirmed that she'd been sad that day but was feeling better now.  She said
she has up days and down days.  We asked her to play "Sister Janet" at the
Berkeley show and she said okay but give a reminder note to Joel before the
show.  She then greeted the other fans, gave hugs, and then got in the limo.
Tori waited in the limo while Joel put stuff in the trunk, so I peeked inside.  
She was just sitting there looking down at her hands and it was a very
touching scene.  She saw me and smiled and waved and of course I smiled and
waved back.  She is just so cute!  We then left and went home.  Wow, what an
evening!

NEXT: Back on the road to the Sacramento show.