They’re watching my every sound
Last year, a lot of my friends—American and otherwise—were held up at the border for hours on end when trying to drive back to the US after the Toronto and Vancouver shows. Getting to Rochester Hills would’ve been a lot quicker via Canada, but I didn’t want to chance the same thing happening to me; so, in order to break up the longer drive south of Lake Erie, we drove to Pennsylvania right after the Lewiston show, and the rest of the way the next morning, with a quick stop at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and a Detroit-style pizza joint. This show, my first in the Midwest, already marked the halfway point of my US tour…!
This was my second outdoor show after Wolf Trap, and the Meadowbrook Amphitheatre was as lovely as its name suggested. The show started before sunset, which was such an odd feeling… it had been almost a decade since I’d seen Tori play in daylight! She came on stage wearing the same teal-purple-green outfit previously worn in Brussels, and had the back of her hair styled into a cute fishtail braid… and tonight was where she decided to break the setlist format for the first time in the US. It was a Berlin–Halle situation: The song that had closed the previous show opened the next one—in this case, Big Wheel! It was the first time on the tour that I witnessed people getting to their feet as soon as the band started playing, rather than waiting for Tori to walk on stage. I have no idea what brought this on, except that maybe playing near the Motor City of Detroit inspired her to be very literal?! Kavita and Sara were on the side of the stage with their pom-poms again, Tori gets such a kick out her cheerleaders!
She visibly enjoyed having successfully thrown us such a curve-ball, yelling out “yes, yes, yes!” as she finished. She was chatty and in a great mood, saying how “it’s always good to be up with the Wolverines” (the Michigan football team), but “please don’t tell the Bobcats I said that” (the Ohio team, big rivalry, apparently—people had to fill me in later!). “But I mean it. I am sort of a lover of both of you, I’ve got to be honest, because my niece is dating one, so what am I gonna do! But I’m a Wolverine at heart“. Even though she kept the chat light and fun, it didn’t help with setlist whiplash—the opening pair was absolutely bonkers, because Ocean to Ocean kept its second slot, so she went from singing about being a MILF to lamenting that we’re destroying the planet. Bit of a jarring segue, but it was wonderful, the second show in a row where the improvised intro was a noticeably different variation than usual.
Addition of Light Divided was next, the first time on the 2023 tour that two Ocean to Ocean tracks were played back-to-back. She hasn’t been playing it as much as she did on the previous legs, and sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder, so lately I’d started enjoying it more than I had been in Europe. My last Suede of the tour followed—it was great, she had a wonderfully strong timbre in her voice, but I found myself wishing that it had been placed a little later; the sun had just set, and as atmospheric as twilight can be, this is a song that demands to be played by the dark of the moon! Then Ash counted them in, and I couldn’t place the song for longer than I care to admit—the drum beat was a little militaristic, so I briefly thought Josephine, but that didn’t feel right… even when she started on the keyboard, the drums were so overpowering that I couldn’t immediately pick out the melody.
It was the first Pancake of the year—and the last! It was double-bridged with her own Zion bridge followed by Neil Young’s Ohio, and earned her a standing ovation, just as it had when it was debuted in Glasgow… I love that I got to see the two book-end performances of it! It’s a shame that it remained a one-off this year, I really wouldn’t have minded seeing it pop up more often, but I’m very glad to have been there for its sole 2023 performance, sitting a few seats over from the person who had been requesting it for weeks. The final song of the first part was Bells For Her, which was exquisite—I’m not often in the mood for this one live, she draws it out so much, but tonight it worked—each note was a thread to meanings old and new, weaving together.
The solo section held a surprise for both audience and crew: “So, sometimes, the set changes, and that’s what’s about to happen. My crew has no idea this is happening… I’d like to report that by the next show I’ll know if I’m being divorced. So, this is a request, and I didn’t put it in the set, and she’s just been banging down my door—I had her at the bottom of the pile as I walked out the dressing room. I’m gonna do the other one too, so we’re gonna have two… here you go”, into a devastatingly pretty Baker Baker, her voice breaking on “my heart’s been hard to find“. We later found out that it wasn’t just a bonus song though, she did scrap something—and as lovely as Baker Baker was, the swap did sting a little, because the song we missed out on was Way Down, which I hadn’t heard live since my very first show back in 2011!
The second solo song was easily the highlight of the night: Marianne! It was only my second time seeing it performed solo—the first had actually been the last time she performed it, in Oxon Hill on the Native Invader tour. The fact that the album take was improvised never ceases to blow my mind, it’s like the Muses took possession of her in the studio, and I really think that it showcases Tori’s talents as a musician more so than most other songs—it’s like she’s casting a spell. The incantation worked live too—I barely noticed until she made eye contact and snapped me out of it, but I was leaning forward, mouthing along with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye… Tori was mostly lost in her own world throughout the performance, eyes closed, but she happened to glance at me right as I was wiping away an over-spilling tear, and gave me a little smile. The sadness, the emotion, the arrangement… it’s simply perfect.
To think that, per setlist, she would’ve graced us with a Boys For Pele triplet…! By now, it was full dark out, and even without Way Down, she’d taken our hand and descended into the Underworld with us; Marianne gave way to a stunning, soaring Hey Jupiter—my heart! We emerged back with the upbeat Beauty of Speed, the last one I got to see on this tour… and then a very welcome surprise: Riot Poof! It’s a top ten song for me, but now that Pride Month was over, I didn’t think that she’d pull it out again on this leg. They didn’t tinker with the arrangement they’d tried last year, and this performance was smoother than the one I got to see in Los Angeles, but there’s still something about it that doesn’t sound quite right to my ears, which is ironic considering that no tour arrangement has ever been closer to the album take… but I guess that for me, a faithful reproduction of the studio experimentation doesn’t quite work in a live setting! I was still thrilled that I got to see it again while not spaced out on pot cookies.
Bliss was next up, a song I love, but have been dreading lately because of the possibility of a mash-up happening at any moment—and sure enough, she went into Running Up That Hill again. We were in Rochester Hills, of course, and she’s nothing if not literal! Having now heard it a bunch of times, I don’t hate it as much as I used to; musically, the transition works well enough, but I still just don’t get how these two songs make any lyrical sense together, so I just can’t get excited about it—together, they are less than the sum of their parts. This was the last one I got to see, and I hope that it’ll stay an Ocean to Ocean arrangement we won’t see again on future tours. The main set ended with Cornflake Girl, with the rush happening at the top of the song, and she even threw in a small ad-lib, which is quite rare—a little “come see me soon” in the chorus.
The encore was delicious—I was extra glad that Big Wheel had kicked off the show now because it gave us this stellar, classic plugged pairing: First, Precious Things, which featured a fuck-up on her part in the run up to the “so you can make me cum” line. She went “oh fuck! Keep going—top of the second!” to the band, and her reaction was a hilarious and adorable shrug before nailing it on the second go. Second, Sugar, for its last outing on the tour, and the first time I’ve seen it close a show! It may have taken me all tour, but by now I was used to the new arrangement, and enjoying it rather than focusing on all the ways it differs from the iconic Plugged ones she’d been doing for the past twenty years—it works for the now, and rather well! This really was an all-around great show, full of unexpected twists and turns from the very start—she was in top vocal form, and I never would’ve expected this random Michigan show to be one of my favorites on the leg. She really loved the crowd tonight, and it showed in an unusually long curtain call during which she kept walking up and down the stage several times, grabbing hands, greeting a little kid, and accepting a flower crown someone offered her.
Setlist
Big Wheel
Ocean to Ocean
Addition of Light Divided
Suede
Pancake / Ohio (Neil Young)
Bells For Her
Baker Baker (solo)
Marianne (solo)
Hey Jupiter
Beauty of Speed
Riot Poof
Bliss / Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush)
Cornflake Girl» E n c o r e «
Precious Things
Sugar
watercolorstain 