I won’t bore you and go into detail about the whole event, especially since my day started at 6am. Yes, folks, the concert was at 8 in the evening and I was up at 6 in the morning. Go figure. I packed my goodies (water, sunblock, extra shoes, cookies, forgot the damn Lunchables) and arrived at my friend Nicole’s house a little after 9am. She’s the one who sold me her extra ticket, and luckily for me she actually goes to UCLA so getting to Royce Hall caused me no stress whatsoever.

I’d never been to a meet & greet and apparently neither had Nicole even though she’d been to several Tori shows before. The people I’d met at the Tower Records signing were among the nicest people I’d ever met, yet I had my concerns about the obnoxious “regulars” I’d heard all about, and I was afraid I’d be shunned for being a “newbie”. Much to my surprise, and pleasure, Nicole and I walked up to a dozen young women lounging in the grass like a bunch of hippies and were greeted with a welcoming warmth. We planted ourselves in the grass next to them, were branded with a Sharpie (#s 14 and 15), and were told that the security guys wanted the group to sit in the grass until it was nearly time for the meet & greet.

I’d originally thought we’d be packed in a line fighting for spaces, but the next five hours were spent chatting with the girls about Miss T and making new friends, getting a tour of the campus thanks to Nicole, eating lunch in a university café, and smoking by the coffin aka see-saw (a wooden structure apparently covering a default sprinkler that acted as a great bench but swayed like a see-saw whenever someone got up – I don’t smoke, but I was getting tired of lounging on the grass like a hippie). Other Ears With Feet trickled in over the course of the day, and all seemed more than willing to abide by the number system. According to the accounts of the M & G’s from other cities, the number system hadn’t gone well, but we were all determined to enforce the rules. Despite the hint of a possible throw-down and the one know-it-all-gay-guy-who-loved-all-the-attention, everyone was incredibly friendly and open to chatting. I met Joa from Phoenix, Katie from Jersey, Tammy from Northridge, and Rachel whom I’d met up with at the Tower signing. Somehow, many of us had managed to wear green that day, whether it be a jacket or a shirt. It was a very green day.

I’ve never spent so much time talking about Tori to people who actually gave a shit in my entire life and I loved every minute of it. The entire day I kept telling people that the one song that I wanted to hear that night was “Silent All These Years”. “I know it’s cliché and people have probably heard it a million times and I don’t care if I never hear it live again, but “Silent All These Years” is the first Tori song I ever heard and the single most important song in my life and I would love more than anything to hear it at my first ever Tori concert.” They all laughed, enjoying my enthusiasm, but seemed doubtful that I’d get my wish, especially since she’d only played the song a couple of times on the whole tour. Needless to say, I was going to try and request it anyway.

At about 2:30 or so the group started lining up in the respective order. It was amazing -- we were so determined to show the rest of the world that Los Angeles knows how to throw a proper meet & greet that the line was almost single-file when we first got things together. We waited patiently for an hour and a half (Miss T had arrived and was rushed inside temporarily during this) all the while Mr. Know-it-all kept complaining: “I’ve never waited this long get into the barricades before!” Yeah, that’s because we’re trying to be civilized here, you idiot. Just sit still like the rest of us. It was great seeing the “regulars” (who are notorious for sneaking up to the front of the line) show up with minutes to spare, only to get shooed to the back thanks to our security friends.

Tori and me!

“Sure! Squeeze on over here.” I fumbled my way up to the front and had to lean back awkwardly because the person behind me didn’t care to move. Nicole took the picture (my face looks huge due to the angle and she looks adorable, of course), I thanked Tori, and she moved on to the next person. While she was busy signing something and I was getting great photos from my new spot in the front (I would have let other people come up front if I could have moved an inch), some people were making random song requests. Without thinking, I blurted out, “How about ‘Silent All These Years’ for the virgin?” According to Katie, Mr. Know-It-All groaned. But Tori nodded. “She might make it on tonight.” I was a little disappointed when she didn’t write it on her hand and wrote someone else’s request instead, but I was still happy that she acknowledged my request.

A group up us went to Westwood Village for dinner and chatted excitedly about our experiences. I was still rooting for my “Silent” girl and I let everyone know it. 

So when it came time for the show to start and Tori appeared under the curtain, wearing a green dress, no less, pounded a beautiful rendition of “Original Sinsuality” and promptly flowed into those infamous first notes, you should have seen my face. I turned to Nicole, in complete shock. She was playing my song! There was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to record my dream coming true, so I held up my digital camera and recorded a 1 minute video of the performance before security spotted me and I had to hide my camera. But it didn’t matter, because for the rest of the song I sat there, in complete bliss, my heart pounding, feeling the physical weight of the single most important song in my life. And it was beautiful. Take that, you Mr. Know-Not-What-You’re-Missing fucker! It would have been even better if she had played “Silent All These Years” at the end of the show, but after hearing it she could have played anything and I would still have been in heaven. Not to say that the rest of the show wasn’t absolutely beautiful.

“Parasol” sounds amazing live, especially the way she whips back and forth between the Bose and the organ. I swear the girl’s gonna give herself whiplash one of these days, or at least a bruised knee. The high I was experiencing continued straight through the next two songs. For one, “Doughnut Song” is a huge favorite of mine, and she played it wonderfully. During each “I guess I’m way beyond the paleeeeeee” she held the last note so long I swear she was sucking the breath right out of my lungs -– I felt like I was having to give her extra air just to get all the way through, and once she finally inhaled again I felt like I’d been kicked in the chest. At the very end, she put her right hand into an “ok” symbol, symbolizing her doughnut “hole”... adorable. The song lasted a whopping 7 whole minutes.

The next major joy of the night was the very next song: “Yes, Anastasia”, the other song I was dying to hear live (along with “Pandora’s Aquarium” but I doubted that was gonna happen). “Anastasia” has always been an intense song, but I would never have expected to literally feel the physical power of the song. Whenever she hit those low keys on the Bose the floor literally vibrated so much I was feeling it all the way up my legs. You can actually hear the vibrations in the bootleg if you listen to it with headphones. She totally re-arranged the song, but I was rather disappointed that she’d left out “The Note”. No “We’ll seeeeeeeee!” but I suppose she wore herself out with all those “paleeeeee”s. Regardless, this was my most favorite performance of the night. She hunched over the keys in a trance during the solo on the high notes, flung her hair around like a mad woman while pounding away, and even crossed her legs in a cute little pose in the middle “it’s kind of a shame ‘cause I did like that dress” part. Talk about intense.

“Jamaica Inn” was a cute one – I don’t know why so many people shun this song so easily. I’d only heard “Cool On Your Island” for the first time just a few months ago, so it was fun to hear this one live. You can clearly tell that even though Miss T had a serious hair-spray problem in her Y Kant Tori Read days, she really did know how to write a good song. Tori’s Piano Bar was an interesting one. During the meet & greet, she’d mentioned something about LA being the land of big hair (she obviously hasn’t spent much time here since the ‘80s) and Nicole was expecting some hair band tunes to show up – she couldn’t have been more right. Bon Jovi and Cyndi Lauper anyone? I didn’t actually recognize either song, except I spent the entire length of “Livin’ On A Prayer” trying to figure out why I knew the chorus. It was sexy as hell anyway. Halfway through Cyndi’s “All Through The Night”, Tori stopped abruptly and blurted, “Fucking hell! That’s a tricky one! Those lyrics!” Everyone laughed and cheered of course. “Let’s try that again,” she said, and proceeded to scream the rest of the song with an intensity that she hadn’t demonstrated since “Yes, Anastasia”. Why she didn’t do the whole song like that is beyond me, because it rocked!

Apparently Cyndi’s song seeped into Tori because she ripped her way though “Barons of Suburbia” with more hair flinging and vocal howling and growling. “Take To The Sky” was every bit of fun as I expected it to be. Gotta love a clap-along. People were a’clappin’ and Tori’s hair was a’flyin’. If I remember correctly, it was during this song that I saw something very odd out of the corner of my eye: saliva actually dripped from the microphone over the B3 Hammond and I saw it from the 11^th row. Seems the girl got a little wet singing about the “Barons”. “Cloud On My Tongue”, another favorite of mine, was very moving and emotional; I was very happy to hear this one live. “Ruby Through The Looking Glass” was the one that had everyone thinking, “Wait a minute, I know this one...” I knew it was familiar and I could have sworn it was from Scarlet’s Walk but I felt like an idiot for not being able remember the name. Once she finally sang the title line I remembered why it sounded like Scarlet but wasn’t –- it’s a Hidden Treasure! Silly me.

 

“The Beekeeper”, abet a little long at 11 minutes, is ten times better than the album version, which is saying a lot considering it’s one of my faves from The Beekeeper. I tried to enjoy it for as long as I could until the “rushers” started making their way down the aisle. Luckily, Nicole and I were two seats in from the aisle, so at the very end of the song we rushed down to the stage. We somehow managed to get directly in the center, just a few people deep. Despite the fact that the girl in front of me was taller than me and had a thing with flinging her hair in my face, I was right in Tori’s line of sight. Nicole brought her camera and was snapping away while I was being entranced by “Tear In Your Hand” and “Toast”. I don’t actually remember what either of them sounded like because I was too busy staring at the woman. It took a few moments for Tori to come back for the second encore, but when she bounced into “Sweet The Sting” she had the whole group of us dancing around. The woman juices more than an orange on a hot summer day; she was so into the song that she drooled a liter of saliva into her lap. It may sound a little gross, but being that close it was the sexiest and most intense thing I’ve ever seen. She just wouldn’t quit! And of course, with each “drip” we cheered even louder. It was “sexy sexy sexy!”

 

The closer, “Twinkle”, was absolutely beautiful. I suppose she had to cool us down before she sent us home. I don’t think I could have asked for a better ending to a beautiful show. I got everything I’d ever hoped for that day: I got to talk to Tori, got my vinyl signed, took a picture with her, and heard my song... Thank you so much, Tori. Now I can die a happy woman!

 

And now that I realize how long this post really is, I’d better quit now! I’ll see if I can get some clips from the show up soon.

>> You can see the complete collection of my photos from the Meet & Greet here

>> Meet & Greet video clip

>> “Silent All These Years” video clip 1

>> “Silent” video clip 2