Tori Amos concert!
When the tickets were released in July I bought two for Matt and myself though I didn't even know if I was still going to be in Chicago for her December 10th concert. I planned on gifting them to someone else if that happened, or putting them up for sale.
Two weeks ago I emailed the other research assistant for my study to ask if we could switch weekend days for the past weekend. I usually work Saturdays and sessions end at 1pm. Tori usually has a Meet & Greet from 2pm to 5pm prior to her concerts. I wanted to sleep in and have time to get ready to wait outside. The other R.A. said okay, but then let me know she couldn't because her schedule changed. I think because of finals.
So I go to the lab Saturday morning and upon looking up Undented's Twitter found out that there wouldn't be a M&G. :-( But I went straight to downtown Chicago nonetheless by myself. The train stop was right outside the Chicago Theatre and I saw a line of people waiting outside. They said they also heard there was no M&G but they were hopeful. Well, sheep that I am, I waited, too.
The high of the day was -3 Celsius/26.5 Fahrenheit. The high. The low was -11 Celsius/12.2 Fahrenheit.
We weren't moving so my feet were cold in my thin work boots. My legs were cold in my work slacks, even with tights underneath. My feet became so numb my knees buckled a few times. We did have fun, though, watching 3 separate wedding parties arrive and use the Chicago Theatre as background. The 2nd party actually went in the street and so traffic had to divert around them. The bridesmaids were in down jackets, thankfully.Then someone, someone, had the insensitive idea of asking the bridesmaids to take off their jackets so the wedding party picture could be taken. The poor bridesmaids were in strapless, knee-height, satin (looks like) dresses! In below freezing weather. The groomsmen took their jackets off and draped them over the bridesmaids. That was considerate and sweet. The groomsmen wore suspenders so that was adorable. :D The 3rd wedding party came in a limousine. At first we thought it was related to that first party
Around 4:20pm most of the line dispersed when we found out Tori Amos did arrive but came in another entrance. We were told (I heard this from someone else who claimed to be at the front of the line) that Tori Amos was feeling a bit sick so didn't want to wait outside in the cold and feel worse. I waited for Matt in the lobby of the Randolph/Wabash Self Park facility. A lot of people just came back from a performance from another Theatre so the lobby was overwhelming busy. When he did arrive he stayed by the car and I went to the floor and warmed up in the car. I also changed to jeans from my work slacks and to my awesome winter boots from my work boots.
We had a quick dinner at the Halsted St. Diner then went to Macy's. Bridgett and Michael met us there and we got a little lost trying to find men's leather gloves. 3rd floor - not in outerwear, redirected to the 2nd floor and got told it was on the first floor. I got Matt a Christmas gift of some rather nice leather gloves. He has a pair for his sweaty outdoor work like shoveling snow so these will be his driving gloves. I think he could have needed them that day in the morning when he drove me to the lab! After we spent some time in the Chicago Theatre lobby, we went to our separate seats.
I got a text from my former international advisor from Beloit College. This int'l advisor is a big fan of Tori Amos as well, and drove us to my first Tori Amos concert in 2007, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tori's US tour this year was rather brief; she held no concerts in Milwaukee or Detroit like in the past. We hung out briefly while Matt and I kept her company in the souvenir line. I gave her money to buy a T-shirt for me. She wanted the scarf. We went back to our seats for the opening act, the Norweigan artist Thomas Dybdahl. He was okay but I didn't like him as much as Tori Amos's previous two opening acts.
I bought my boyfriend and I seats in a Mezzanine box. It was pretty spiffy. Lots of leg space, which is nice for his 6’5” frame. There are 6 or so people per box. Before the opening act a server (?) came in and asked if we wanted drinks. I didn’t know they did that. I already had my cranberry vodka elsewise I would’ve asked for something, ‘spensive as the drinks are. Matt and I were in box D, seats 1 and 2 so we were against the railing which was rather sweet. Something I hate about being on the floor is that near the end of concerts most people stand up and being the shortie I am, I cannot see over people's ends and that ruins my pleasure of the music. Also, in the boxes, there were a few annoying neighbors but definitely nothing as annoying as past Chicago Theatre times.
The Fab Four, the quartet, were pretty awesome. Tori Amos opened with Shattering Sea. Her setlist from Undented:
Shattering Sea
Landslide [Fleetwood Mac] (solo)
Suede
Bachelorette (solo)
Snow Cherries From France
Nautical Twilight
China (solo)
Here, In My Head (solo)
Lust (solo)
Fearlessness
Cloud On My Tongue
Star Whisperer
Tango (quartet)
Love Song [The Cure] (solo)
The Beekeeper (solo)
1,000 Oceans (solo)
Your Ghost
Siren
Leather
Cruel
Encore
A Multitude of Shades (quartet)
Winter
Father Lucifer
Spring Haze
Big Wheel
On the Undented link there's also some videos of her performance from Chicago. I liked Suede and China from the first half but the second half I found more dynamic and familiar. I was teared up from her cover of The Cure's "Love Song." Ever since I heard a recording of her performing it several years ago in Dallas I've been in love with it. Cruel was also fantastic. And Siren. I thought some songs would be lacking without drums or something, but the cello did fantastically as the backbone. Her own performance lasted two hours which was great since her previous performance lasted 1.5 hours. I love that she ended with Big Wheel. She ended that way two years ago, too. :)
Matt rushed us out of the theatre because he thought getting out of the parking lot would be horrible. The lobby was very crowded. We had to wait for the 2nd time the elevator came down. But parking lot itself was actually quite empty. He felt a bit bad about rushing us all for nothing and that he remembered that I had wanted to spend some time hanging out at a bar afterwards and just hanging out. Oh, well.
Sunday I slept most of the day away. That was kind of nice. :D Sunday night I got a little obsessive and made 3 playlists on my iTunes, one for Milwaukee 2007's setlist, Chicago 2009's setlist and Saturday night's setlist. :D
Two weeks ago I emailed the other research assistant for my study to ask if we could switch weekend days for the past weekend. I usually work Saturdays and sessions end at 1pm. Tori usually has a Meet & Greet from 2pm to 5pm prior to her concerts. I wanted to sleep in and have time to get ready to wait outside. The other R.A. said okay, but then let me know she couldn't because her schedule changed. I think because of finals.
So I go to the lab Saturday morning and upon looking up Undented's Twitter found out that there wouldn't be a M&G. :-( But I went straight to downtown Chicago nonetheless by myself. The train stop was right outside the Chicago Theatre and I saw a line of people waiting outside. They said they also heard there was no M&G but they were hopeful. Well, sheep that I am, I waited, too.
The high of the day was -3 Celsius/26.5 Fahrenheit. The high. The low was -11 Celsius/12.2 Fahrenheit.
We weren't moving so my feet were cold in my thin work boots. My legs were cold in my work slacks, even with tights underneath. My feet became so numb my knees buckled a few times. We did have fun, though, watching 3 separate wedding parties arrive and use the Chicago Theatre as background. The 2nd party actually went in the street and so traffic had to divert around them. The bridesmaids were in down jackets, thankfully.Then someone, someone, had the insensitive idea of asking the bridesmaids to take off their jackets so the wedding party picture could be taken. The poor bridesmaids were in strapless, knee-height, satin (looks like) dresses! In below freezing weather. The groomsmen took their jackets off and draped them over the bridesmaids. That was considerate and sweet. The groomsmen wore suspenders so that was adorable. :D The 3rd wedding party came in a limousine. At first we thought it was related to that first party
Around 4:20pm most of the line dispersed when we found out Tori Amos did arrive but came in another entrance. We were told (I heard this from someone else who claimed to be at the front of the line) that Tori Amos was feeling a bit sick so didn't want to wait outside in the cold and feel worse. I waited for Matt in the lobby of the Randolph/Wabash Self Park facility. A lot of people just came back from a performance from another Theatre so the lobby was overwhelming busy. When he did arrive he stayed by the car and I went to the floor and warmed up in the car. I also changed to jeans from my work slacks and to my awesome winter boots from my work boots.
We had a quick dinner at the Halsted St. Diner then went to Macy's. Bridgett and Michael met us there and we got a little lost trying to find men's leather gloves. 3rd floor - not in outerwear, redirected to the 2nd floor and got told it was on the first floor. I got Matt a Christmas gift of some rather nice leather gloves. He has a pair for his sweaty outdoor work like shoveling snow so these will be his driving gloves. I think he could have needed them that day in the morning when he drove me to the lab! After we spent some time in the Chicago Theatre lobby, we went to our separate seats.
I got a text from my former international advisor from Beloit College. This int'l advisor is a big fan of Tori Amos as well, and drove us to my first Tori Amos concert in 2007, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tori's US tour this year was rather brief; she held no concerts in Milwaukee or Detroit like in the past. We hung out briefly while Matt and I kept her company in the souvenir line. I gave her money to buy a T-shirt for me. She wanted the scarf. We went back to our seats for the opening act, the Norweigan artist Thomas Dybdahl. He was okay but I didn't like him as much as Tori Amos's previous two opening acts.
I bought my boyfriend and I seats in a Mezzanine box. It was pretty spiffy. Lots of leg space, which is nice for his 6’5” frame. There are 6 or so people per box. Before the opening act a server (?) came in and asked if we wanted drinks. I didn’t know they did that. I already had my cranberry vodka elsewise I would’ve asked for something, ‘spensive as the drinks are. Matt and I were in box D, seats 1 and 2 so we were against the railing which was rather sweet. Something I hate about being on the floor is that near the end of concerts most people stand up and being the shortie I am, I cannot see over people's ends and that ruins my pleasure of the music. Also, in the boxes, there were a few annoying neighbors but definitely nothing as annoying as past Chicago Theatre times.
The Fab Four, the quartet, were pretty awesome. Tori Amos opened with Shattering Sea. Her setlist from Undented:
Shattering Sea
Landslide [Fleetwood Mac] (solo)
Suede
Bachelorette (solo)
Snow Cherries From France
Nautical Twilight
China (solo)
Here, In My Head (solo)
Lust (solo)
Fearlessness
Cloud On My Tongue
Star Whisperer
Tango (quartet)
Love Song [The Cure] (solo)
The Beekeeper (solo)
1,000 Oceans (solo)
Your Ghost
Siren
Leather
Cruel
Encore
A Multitude of Shades (quartet)
Winter
Father Lucifer
Spring Haze
Big Wheel
On the Undented link there's also some videos of her performance from Chicago. I liked Suede and China from the first half but the second half I found more dynamic and familiar. I was teared up from her cover of The Cure's "Love Song." Ever since I heard a recording of her performing it several years ago in Dallas I've been in love with it. Cruel was also fantastic. And Siren. I thought some songs would be lacking without drums or something, but the cello did fantastically as the backbone. Her own performance lasted two hours which was great since her previous performance lasted 1.5 hours. I love that she ended with Big Wheel. She ended that way two years ago, too. :)
Matt rushed us out of the theatre because he thought getting out of the parking lot would be horrible. The lobby was very crowded. We had to wait for the 2nd time the elevator came down. But parking lot itself was actually quite empty. He felt a bit bad about rushing us all for nothing and that he remembered that I had wanted to spend some time hanging out at a bar afterwards and just hanging out. Oh, well.
Sunday I slept most of the day away. That was kind of nice. :D Sunday night I got a little obsessive and made 3 playlists on my iTunes, one for Milwaukee 2007's setlist, Chicago 2009's setlist and Saturday night's setlist. :D