The Bestest Concert Ever!

Ok, so some would disagree with me about the Tori Amos concert being the bestest concert ever. I, however, could argue the point. But if you're not a Tori fanatic, you probably wouldn't enjoy the concert very much. That goes with any artist though, really, if you think about it.

I went to Salt Lake City to see Tori live at the Abravanel Hall (just kiddy-corner from the SLC Temple, I had no idea it existed). I took a fellow Tori freak, Heather, to the concert with me. We left in the morning, drove down to Layton where we killed time at the Layton Hills mall. I got some items at a bargain at Anchor Blue because they were going out of business.

A highlight of our mall trip was when we got sidetracked by a salesman. He had a thick Hebrew accent so we couldn't understand him very well. I was actually laughing and couldn't stop because he was talking as if we understood him. He was selling this cool Dead Sea stuff that exfoliates your skin. It was really impressive, but I hated the feeling that I was being played. He actually started writing up a receipt and I couldn't recall ever telling him that I was going to buy some. So, somehow we managed to escape, but we left with a great story to tell.

After the mall we went to Olive Garden for some delightful Italian cuisine. Once we were stuffed, we realized we still had a couple hours to kill, so we decided to scope out the Abravanel Hall. I knew it was near Temple Square so I figured we'd be able to find something to do in the meantime.

So as we were driving to downtown Salt Lake, we decided we'd go to IKEA, but neither of us knew where it was. I knew it was right off the freeway so I just kept driving in hopes that we'd see it. Heather's GPS couldn't find it, for some reason, until about a minute before we saw it on the right hand side. Really can't miss that big bright blue and yellow building.

IKEA made me absolutely dizzy there were so many colors and sensations. I really liked it, but for some reason my head was spinning as we walked around.

We left IKEA and headed back to SLC.

We arrived with perfect timing at the concert. Our seats were a mere 13 rows back from the stage and in the center. Couldn't ask for better seats. The opening act was a group from England called One eskimO. They were really good, but the lead singer did this almost comical bobbing dance move the whole time that was hard to watch.

At 8:30, approximately, Tori Amos came on stage. The whole audience jumped to their feet when she came out. She was wearing this grey smock dress thingie with red leggings and a red belt and these incredibly high heels.

She did not stop for more than a few seconds between each song which was amazing. She kept the energy up throughout the whole concert. I recognized every single song except for two of them.

Highlights: The crazy old man in the front row dancing like a freak which distracted me from Miss Amos' performance. The encore when she sang "Big Wheel" and got us all clapping. When she sang "Strong Black Vine", really got into it, and you could tell. Her performance of "China" was fantastic.

Heather and I were both sad when it ended. By the time we got out of the hall and bought t-shirt souvenirs, it was about 11pm. I had Heather home by 2:45 am and I was home at 3:00 am. It was well worth it though, and I would love to see Tori in concert again.

I'm such a freak.