We’re on Rt 5 North on the way to San Francisco…

Del-z has had her power breakfast — Doritos and a Red Bull, followed by a smoke…

She’s driving and tells me to take a nap if I want to. I tell her I may get some rest, but I can’t sleep in the car. She replies, “Me neither, especially when I’m not driving.”

I look at her, and ask her to repeat herself…and she does! When I point out what she said, she started laughing, I started laughing, and we were laughing so hard for the next few miles our eyes were tearing up and our stomachs hurt!

Never a dull moment!

We’re happy to share this information with everyone, but we’d like to ask that if you post material from this blog elsewhere, if you would be kind enough to provide a link to this blog on your website/forum.

THANKS!

Siamo felici di poter condividere queste informazioni con tutti voi, ma vi chiediamo di inserire un link a questo blog nei vostri siti web / forum nel caso riportiate testi e notizie tratte da esso.

GRAZIE!

Well, we knew this was going to be a big night, and it WAS!

I’m guessing the crowd was around 250, and it was a great crowd! Elisa was ON FIRE tonight…she was moving and dancing with a real passion, especially at the end of the main set, with her twirling around with the mic stand!

Another bonus was that Lacey Schwimmer, who danced to “Dancing” on the Fox hit show “So You Think You Can Dance”, was in the audience, and she was into it! Thanks, Lacey, for coming out to see Elisa!

And then, we got a special bonus during the encore, which surpised even me! Here’s the setlist!

1. Rainbow
2. The Waves
3. City Lights
4. Life Goes On
5. Stranger
6. Electricity
7. Broken
8. A Little Over Zero
9. Mercedes Benz
10. Mad World
11. Rock Your Soul
12. It Is What It Is
    -encore-
13. Almeno Tu Nell’Universo
14. Dancing
15. Luce (Tramonti a Nord Est)
16. Gli Ostacoli Del Cuore
    -encore-
17. Cure Me

Oh, and Elisa and I got a little more practice in on “Wuthering Heights”. ;)

Just got back from the show!

Amazing once again! Elisa was on fire! I don’t think I’ve ever seen her dancing like tonight! Jumping, spinning, moving…breath taking!

The place was crowded, audience very warm, Lacey Schwimmer was in the audience, she applauded very very much, specially in “Mercedes Benz”, she sung along with “Mad World”, she got moving with “Rock your soul”, she got standing during “Dancing”!! She also seemed to enjoy very much the second encore with ….drum roll……CURE ME! Yes Elisa sung ‘Cure me”, she was on fire, again!

It is so unespected that from a tiny person like she is, those sounds and those big movements can come out; she is a wonder!!

I let LabDaddy continue…

FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!

It’s getting better and better every single time! A lots has to do with the places that we’re in, in California like last night was a blast! For the audience, for the band!

Crowded, nice, loud!

As LabDaddy already said I was “stolen” once again by crew members (believe me I don’t mind that at all) to record the performance - I had to do Max Gelsi (meaning recording him…LOL) and for the first time I found myself right below the stage…it was hard in times trying to focus on Max while Elisa was going crazy on the stage in those “famous” songs! She was on fire!! Literally!…at one point I also thought that smoke was coming out Ringo’s guitar! For real!

They looked soo happy!! Amazing! The energy level was high from both parts feeding off each other! it was like the crowd couldn’t get enough of them…second encore was a must!!

After the concert a lot of people were lined up for the meet and greet, more then expected! She was nice and friendly as usual, happy!

We (me, Elisa, Max) where able to tell that the crowd this time were mostly american ’cause they went nuts when she sung “mercedes benz” and when she was singing italian tunes, there wasn’t so much singing along…overall, the crowd went nuts for everything she sung!!

As LabDaddy said before, him and Elisa had a little “duet” with Wuthering Heights…I’m telling you, I wish I had a camera or a recorder but it would have been useless since I was laughing so hard, I had cramps on my stomach, literally!! I thought I was going to die laughing (which it would be a good way.LOL). while singing that she also started to do a sorta of a cowboy dance (two steps)…she was laughing, Lab Daddy was laughing, Gabriele…I mean..I feel awful writing this ’cause I know I don’t have anything to share this with you, only my words, hopefully you let your imagination run and you’ll get the picture!

That should be all from SD, I’ll see you tomorrow with LA…and I have a feeling is going to be huge!!!

A dopo ragazzi!!!

Well, we flew from Salt Lake City to San Diego today.  The two hour flight flew by, as Del-z and I watched the Soundtrack Live DVD together.  And it was so nice to land in San Diego! 80 degrees F (around 30 C) and sunny! When we got to the hotel, we immediately walked down to the beach and spent about a half hour there…niiiiice!

The venue was only about a mile from where we were staying, so we decided to swing by there to check it out. We stopped at Cafe La Bocca, a little Italian cafe for some coffee and gelato, and on the way back to the hotel, Del-z noticed Ringo and Mauri walking towards the venue and she shouted out to them. We turned left on Highway 101 and I noticed Max, Fontana and Gianluca sitting outside at a cafe, so we swung around the block so I could shout out to them. Gianluca must have been happy to see us, as he handed us a can of Coke as a gift. ;)

Got back to the hotel to freshen up, and headed back to the venue. After a bit, I swung down to Subway to get a 12″ tuna sub for us to split, and my 2nd of the day large iced mocha. After finishing that, we picked our locations and set up for the evening.

Boy, I really worked this concert! It was a blur to me! Del-z must be getting quite the reputation as videographer, as she was stolen away from me for more official duties. I had picked a spot up on the balcony, so I set up the video camera on a mini-tripod. I was running up and down the stairs all night…and I hope not too many songs were video-taped with no one at the microphone because I didn’t get to change the position of the camera! She does one tune standing at the mic, then goes to the keyboards, then back to the mic…back to the keyboards…I was running around. Then I was able to move around a good bit, so on many tunes I was able to take pictures from a few vantage points. It was so hectic, I almost forgot to swap tapes at the end of the main set!

The show was awesome, as usual. This is great fun to do, as every night, each venue is special in it’s own way. Tonight was no exception, as the Belly Up was a real nice venue, with good acoustics and lighting. Every night is different too, in the way Elisa performs many of her tunes; seeing her perform night after night you start to really notice some of the small nuances in her performance. The crowd was enthusiastic, really giving it up especially on certain tunes, like Mercedes Benz…but that wasn’t the only one…the crowd was very much into the performance, and you could see how Elisa and the band fed off the crowd’s energy.

So now…the setlist!

1. Rainbow
2. The Waves
3. City Lights
4. Life Goes On
5. Stranger
6. Electricity
7. Broken
8. A Little Over Zero
9. Mercedes Benz
10. Mad World
11. Rock Your Soul
12. It Is What It Is
    -encore-
13. Almeno Tu Nell’Universo
14. Dancing
15. Luce (Tramonti a Nord Est)
    -encore-
16. Gli Ostacoli Del Cuore

One tune not on the setlist as she didn’t perform it on stage, is ‘Wuthering Heights’. I mention it, as she did perform it…kinda sorta…with me as a duet in our ‘funny voice’. Hard to explain, but I think Del-z and Gabriele were going to need Depends while we were putting on our ‘performance’. Elisa would sing one line; I’d respond with the next, and occasionally we’d join in and sing it together. :D

Just got back from the venue!! She started at 11pm…ouch…so u can imagine what time is it now…

Set list is the same as in Denver, two different performances!

Salt Lake City

Sorry for the delay, i passed out, so tired! but it was all worth it!

I was thinking to myself “will I ever get bored to watch the same show night after night?” the answer is most definetely NO! it’s different every single time, the way she sings the way they moves the expressions on their faces! it’s amazing!

They looked much more relaxed, they looked happy, they were having a really good time, Elisa was particulary happy and playful with the crowd, Steve took soo many “toffola’s faces” with his camera! She was soo goofy!

Crowd was warm, italian speaking but not necessarely Italians, they weren’t that many, around 80 and the venue was kinda big (like 250 people) so it looked like it was a bit empty. But whoever was there made a lot of noise!!! they also sung along with mad world, Elisa gave them the mic, it was cool! While she was performing this song her eyes were staring at something, like she was seeing something (she was feeling the song very very much), nice interpretation of the song with movement (banging her head on ” it’s a mad world”. It looked like she felt every word a lot!

Max and Ringo keep amazing me with their background vocals and with the differences in sounds while they play “a little over zero” “it is what it is” and “mad world”. In fact tonight it was the first time that Elisa introduced the band after “mad world” ’cause the guys were on fire…so much that Elisa when she left the stage to let them do their things, she was keep on dancing like crazy in the back of the stage!!! Wonderful!

She spoke italian most of the time, or asking questions in italian like ” come state?” and then saying “we’re having fun too” . I honestly can’t wait to share some video of this night ’cause it was just fun! But it’s gonna take a while since being on the road makes things a little more complicated to upload on a lap top, convert the files ect.ect. so just be patient ’cause good things will come!! Promise

Take care you all, talk to you tomorrow night after San Diego!!!

Okay, the show was good and a lot of fun — Elisa was more than a little funny, brought out by a couple of female fans in the front, but my return to the hotel to work on files was frustrating. I’m having some issues with using FTP here — the method used to transfer files such as pictures and audio, so that they can be posted on the main Elisa Toffoli website. That’s why there are no pictures from last night yet! And as fair warning (grin), these are the lowest quality photos yet, as the entire performance was lit with lights predominated by red, which is a nightmare for photography…

Okay, enough whining. Well…I can also mention I was up until 4 am trying to make things work, didn’t sleep well, and have a bad headache. Now that’s enough.

As usual, I’ll let Del-z handle the more interesting narrative of the performance (yo! Del-z….wake up! :p ), but here is the setlist.

1. Rainbow
2. The Waves
3. City Lights
4. Life Goes On
5. Stranger
6. Electricity
7. Broken
8. A Little Over Zero
9. Mercedes Benz
10. Mad World
11. Rock Your Soul
12. It Is What It Is
    -encore-
13. Almeno Tu Nell’Universo
14. Dancing
15. Luce (Tramonti a Nord Est)

…and a picture says a thousand words.

Yes, I usually look this bad. :p

At the Denver airport Del-z and I have a smoke before our flight to Salt Lake City.

What an amazing show!!

The place - Soiled Dove - was beautiful, the stage nice and big, Elisa and her band: FANTASTIC!

Started out with a little trouble, very small, intro starts for Rainbow and when the band comes in we found out that Max and Ringo weren’t plugged, so it was more like a nice drum solo from Andrea Fontana - quick switch of the buttons with Max and they were in business!! Big time!

The acoustic of the Soiled Dove was amazing, you were able to pick any kind of fadings, highs and lows of her voice, Mad World my favorite - once again! (Steve says: “until u hear Wuthering Heights”); She was almost going to laugh when recording loops for “It Is What It Is”, she was all giggly and very funny! (one fan requested “Eppure Sentire” so she grabs her “Martina” and plucks some strings and she goes: “mmm, I don’t know how to play that song that you request by myself with the guitar, but I do know a few others”! Do I need to tell you that everybody bursted into a big laugh?! -she’s so funny);

Let’s talk about the dance:  She is known to dance on the stage on songs like “a little over zero”, “It is what it is”, and tonight was no differet but she was in a very “exoctic groove” slolwly dancing like a Mata Hari (LOL). She’s very very graceful!

Crowd very attentive, warm, I would say that 70% of the club was filled!

– Del-z