Like a good book I can't put this day back.

An awesome night on a school night is a great way to put work and life into perspective, and to highlight the importance of a good meal, a good friend, and a good concert to one's mental health and spirit.

Last night I went to see Tori Amos with my friend Eric, with whom I always go to Tori Amos concerts. We both left our jobs earlier than usual so that we could have a nice leisurely dinner before the concert and catch up and chat. My friend Eric is someone who always knows the best restaurants, so we went to a French Bistro that was new to me; where I had a great meal and where we shared a bottle of wine.

The concert itself was amazing. I really like the Hummingbird Centre as a venue. It's been re-christened as the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, but I always like calling places by their pre-corporate sponsorship names. Anyhow, the opening artist was quite good, but I didn't catch his name, and he mentioned that he doesn't have material available in North America anyhow. I'm sure that will change and I'll do some detective work to find out who he was so I can get some of his work.

Tori was amazing, as always. She had a full band with her for most of the concert which I love. She's great with a just a piano, but I tend to like any artist better with a band because I just love the extra energy and sound. For the first part of the concert she was dressed up as Pip, one of her American Doll Posse alter-egos. For the rest of the concert she returned as Tori, and played just with her piano for a few songs. Highlights for me were the songs Bliss, Waitress, Space Dog, Spark, Winter, A Sorta Fairytale, and Precious Things. Okay, so really practically every song was a highlight. Oh, and I also really enjoyed her improvised song which was about her realizing that her 7-year daughter might be smarter than she is while they were in Indigo looking at books. Another highlight was seeing my quite-refined friend Eric hollering like a beer-hoister during the concert and then teasing him afterwards.

I managed to not spend a lot of money on merchandise, as per my new spending diet. I did pick up a set of buttons, but I figure that's negligible. I did avoid buying the fun "I believe in peace bitch" canvas bag, since I do already own a Tori bag, and I couldn't carry that one to school, could I?

Perhaps what I love the most about Tori's current tour is that she is selling bootlegs of her concerts online mere hours after the shows. I just downloaded last night's show tonight, and I'm listening to it and enjoying it so much. What an awesome idea. The album also comes with pictures and CD artwork. How incredibly cool. This is one of the times that I love love love technology.



Anyhow, now that that exciting event is over, I'm next looking forward to blog-related visitors this weekend. Woo-hoo!