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!

Update January 1: Photos from Salt Lake City have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Update December 23: Photos from San Diego have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Update December 22: Photos from Los Angeles have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Update December 20: Photos from San Francisco have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Update December 17: Photos from Portland have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Update December 16: Photos from Seattle have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Update December 6: Photos from Denver have been posted on the Multimedia From The Tour page!

Some videos from Seattle have been posted, as well as a number of new audio clips from a variety of the concerts, so be sure to check out the Multimedia From The Tour page!

“so long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning” Aaron Copland - Seattle on the wall in front of the triple door.

Seattle, wall in front of the Triple Door

Updated daily:

For FAVORITE AUDIO: Soiled Dove, Denver CO; all the little details, highs and lows of her voice, guitars, base, drums, piano, keybord, were perfectly clear!

For BEST ENCORE CHANTING: The Roxy, LA - After Elisa finished her set, crowd wanted her for an encore “ole, ole, oleee, oleee, olee“…San Siro style!! Awesome

For FAVORITE STAGE: The Triple Door, Seattle WA; nice lighting, big stage, a lot of place to move!

For FAVORITE OVERALL VISUAL: Soiled Dove, Denver CO; the place looked like Santa Claus’s house, with little Christmas lights all over, wonderful seating, beautiful stage!

For VENUE WITH most CHARACTER: Cafe du Nord, San Francisco CA; built in 1906, words are that it’s haunted.

For FAVORITE I FEEL IMPORTANT moment: Me and Steve being chauffeured by personal driver named Sam on the streets of Salt Lake City from the hotel to the venue for sound check, back to hotel, back to venue and he also called us to make sure we were alright and what would be a good time to pick us up after the show. Car: big black suv, maybe a lincoln, maybe an escalade, maybe a gmc yukon, tinted window!…rock ‘n roll!!

For MOST CRAZY FANS: Bar Deluxe, Salt Lake City UT

For QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Triple Door, Seattle WA - Me: ” CuRRRRRRe me CuRRRRe me” Max: “eh it’s a catchy tune” Me: “Not only it’s catchy but cure is the only word where I can roll my R, and even then I still cannot say it right” Max, Elisa, Ringo: “ti te son schoppada! (you’re a weirdo/out of this world/crazy)”

For STRANGEST WAY TO LISTEN TO ELISA’S CONCERT: Toronto, Montreal - since I wasn’t able to attend those two concert, I had a nice 20 minutes of it over the phone with LabDaddy…his phone bill says: Thank you! LOL [edit: It may have been cheaper if I had just flown her out for the concerts! -- LabDaddy]

For MOST INTO it CROWD: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA

For VENUE WITH the MOST INTERESTING SURROUNDING: Bar Deluxe, Salt Lake City - next to the club there was a tattoo joint and a radio shack, in front of the club a pawn shop, next to it a loan office and an Homeless Youth outreach office….lallalllalallala! [edit: and at least one member of the entourage got a tattoo! -- LabDaddy]

For FAVORITE PLAYED SET: The Triple Door, Seattle WA

For MOST CROWDED (in small place): The Great Scott, Boston MA;…one word: SWEATY!

For MOST FUN BACKSTAGE: The Belly Up, San Diego CA

For MOST “WEIRD” OPENING ACT: Cafe du Nord, San Francisco CA (opening act by Anya Marina) - still wondering if I was watching a concert or a stand up comedy act!

For BIGGEST VENUE (capacity: 600): The Belly Up, San Diego CA

For FAVORITE NOT SO “SNEAKY” MOMENT: The Triple Door, SE - Elisa having a conversation with Ari in english about music, me, in italian, asking Elisa to find out how old is he…Elisa: ” You know in Italy I’m kinda big, very different from here I play in big arenas and, by the way, how old are you?” - Very sneaky Elisa!! LOL (thank you though XO)

For FAVORITE VENUE (looks, location, food, backstage, pre concert, post concert): tie between The Doug Fir, Portland OR and The Triple Door, Seattle WA

For “THIS ONE MADE ME CRY“: Dancing at Triple Door, Seattle WA

For MOST FEELING USELESS MOMENT: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA up until the post concert moment that made up for the entire evening! LOL

For MOST UNEXPECTED THING I’VE DONE: Cafe du Nord, San Francisco CA, never imagined I would walk out for a cigarette break and air while Elisa was performing on stage. [edit: Yeah, me too. I was out smoking and when I turned and saw you, it was like -- WTF? Both of us?? lol -- LabDaddy]

For FAVORITE PARKING SPOT: the Belly Up, San Diego; The limit for the public park was 4 hours, and me and Steve needed a lot more time then that, so with totally nonchalance, we belong here kinda feeling, we drove in the back, parked right behind their tour bus, management came, he assumed right away that we were part of the band and closed the gates to avoid “strangers” to come and park there! talking about “special treatment” LOL

For QUOTE OF THE DAY: Soiled Dove, Denver CO…Mauri told me: “ I noticed in Boston that you don’t give a *beep* about the concert! So I was thinking if you can handle my camcorder for the next shows“

For FAVORITE SING ALONG: The Great Scott, Boston MA (Gli ostacoli del cuore, made me cry…)

For FAVORITE “SCARED AWAY MOMENT“: Doug Fir, Portland OR - After Elisa and her band finished their set, I went back in the green room, and there were a few guys standing, from a band called Rosebuds, they were schedule to perform after Elisa, and one of them said: “OMG, what do we do now? How can we play after her?“  - Oh yes, Elisa scared them away!!! YAY

For QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Great Scott, Boston MA - Steve: ” so Eric, you’re all traveling by bus, do you have bunk beds, where do you sleep? ” Eric: “ I sleep in the Uhaul trailer!”

For WORST CAR RIDE: Seattle Airport to Holiday Inn, the driver was on something…bad trip! bad trip!

For FAVORITE BACKGROUND VOCALS perfomance by Ringo and Max: The Belly Up, San Diego CA “I bleed but I’m chosing you again, I’m done but I’m ready to begin, so I come back home to you“

For QUOTE OF THE DAY: Cafe du Nord, San Francisco CA - Mauri: ” the speakers and the audio consoles are worse then the ones I had for my nieces and nephews on their b-day parties“

For FAVORITE WUTHERING HEIGHTS performance: The Belly Up, San Diego CA - post concert, a duet! Welcome to the ZELIG (Italian cabaret/stand up comedy show!), Elisa and Steve!!!

For FAVORITE TRAVELING PARTNERs: On the road, Red Bull and Doritos….ROTFL!!!!! [edit: Thanks a lot, Del-z! :p --LabDaddy] [edit: lol...BWUAAAAUAUA - Del-z] [edit: Fine, be that way! Then don't forget your cellphone!! *bink*!! :P -- LabDaddy]

For FAVORITE CATCH PHRASE: On the road: “Te ga mai bevu?”;

For FAVORITE SOUND CHECK MOMENT: Bar Deluxe, Salt Lake City - Elisa singing “river” by Joni Mitchell…with the megaphone too!!!

For FAVORITE UNOFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHY: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA - Gabriele!!!!!!!!! Rock ‘n roll! - 6 attempts to take one pic, 4 came out black!!!!!…”te ga mai bevu?”

For FAVORITE DRUMS SOLO: Soiled Dove, Denver CO - beginning of Rainbow, solo by Andrea Fontana when Max and Ringo were accidentally left unplugged!

For FAVORITE ITANGLISH moment: Bar Deluxe, Salt Lake City UT - Elisa: “ciao a tutti, welcome everybody, come va?… state bene? …me too“

For FAVORITE TAKING OVER THE BAR moment: Any venue, Ringo in “A little over zero”, “Mad World”, “It is what it is”…my overall favorite will come after I re-play all the audios! Any venue, Max in “A little over zero” “Luce”…there will be an overall favorite here too!

For FAVORITE STAND UP: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA - Lacey Schwimmer on the notes of “Dancing”

For FAVORITE WARDROBE MALFUNCTION: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA - Elisa’s pants…during “A little over zero” “it is what it is” and “cure me”…some things should be left to the imagination only!!!

For MOST WEIRD HOTEL: The Grafton, Los Angeles, Sunset Blvd.

For ELISA DID IT TOO: The Triple Door, Seattle: I was telling Elisa what kind of hotel we ended up in Los Angeles, I showed her this pic and she goes: “noooooooooooooooo!!! I stayed in the same hotel last summer, on top of my bed there was I picture of a woman wearing fishnet stocking!…that hotel is funky!”

For IT HAPPENED AT EVERY SHOW: Audience shouting ” Elisa!!!! Sing one in italian, una in italiano Elisa!!! canta in italiano! LUCEeee!”

For FAVORITE ELISA’s CRAZY MOMENT: Bar Deluxe, Salt Lake City UT. ” IH IH….HEWHAW” right before performing “a Little over zero”.

For FAVORITE CROWD EXCITEMENT: Belly Up, San Diego CA, “oh Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz..”..crowd went C.R.A.Z.Y.

For I CAN FINALLY SEE BALLARIN AND FONTANA: The Triple Door, Seattle WA

For FAVORITE PRE MEET AND GREET moment: Belly Up, San Diego CA - Elisa after she took a sip of Corona - Elisa:” I’ll be there in 10 minutes” Gabriele:”make it 5” Me: “she’ll be there in 7 minutes!” Elisa: “like in The Ring!!” Me: “no…that one was 7 days“…Elisa: ” I can’t drink anymore!”

For MOST AKWARD moment (for me): The Triple Door, Seattle WA - Following Ari Hest in his dressing room, found out he was locked out and we got stuck with Elisa and Co. in their green room

For FAVORITE MEAL: The triple Door, Seattle; Potstickers!!! The best!

For FAVORITE ELISA’s on STAGE QUOTE: Soiled Dove, Denver CO; “Elisa sing Eppure Sentire!” ” I don’t know how to play the song you’ve requested with the guitar by myself, I know another…a few others“

For QUOTE OF THE DAY: The Belly Up, San Diego CA - Me: “Toffoli, I thought I would get sick and tired of listening to you playing the same set every night…no offense eh..” Elisa: ” No, I know what you’re saying, I probably would too” Me: “but instead I’m enjoying every single night ’cause there is not one performance same as the other you sing it differently and the guys plays differently” Elisa: ” OMG, Thank you so much” (this conversation happened in Italian and in our dialect, so it doesn’t sound much funny in english..sorry..)

For FAVORITE OUTFIT wore by Max: The Triple Door, Seattle WA - pre concert, green room - Bright yellow polo shirt with stripes across his chest! Elisa: “Max please take off that shirt! It’s blinding me!” Ringo: ” in the dark we can use u as flash light” [edit: and LabDaddy sang: "Then...comes the sun...comes the sun... - LabDaddy]

For MOST USED LYRICS not during a concert: On the road, “out on the winding, windy moors we’d roll and fall in green…I hated you, I HATED YOU TOO but then I loved you too“

[Edit:For 2ND MOST USED LYRICS not during a concert: "Currrrre Me! Currrrrrrre Me!" --LabDaddy]

For SONG STUCK IN OUR HEAD: On the road; Akon - Right now (na na na)

For MOST USED GOOD MORNING WORDS: On the road; ” Theeeeeeeeeeen, comes the suuuuuuun, comes the suuuuuun“

[edit: For 2ND MOST USED GOOD MORNING WORDS: On the road: "On the road again / I can't wait to be on the road again!" --LabDaddy]

For NEVER A DULL MOMENT: The Great Scott, Boston MA - Elisa looping for Mercedes Benz - Me: “Steve who’s doing oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh” Steve: “That’s Elisa! you Idiot!”

For YOU KNOW THE SET LIST BY HEART moment: From Los Angeles on - moving with the camcorder and the cameras, two seconds before you know what’s gonna happen, what the guys will do and where will they move on the stage.

For FAVORITE INTRODUCTION: The Roxy, Los Angeles CA - Voice from the dj boot ” Ladies and gentlemens, please welcome, ELISA” Audience went nuts!!!!

For FAVORITE ELISA’s VOCALS (”woof” a couple of times): The Roxy, Los Angeles CA - From Rainbow to Cure me her voice gave you chills!!

Stay tuned for more…

• Things have come a long way from “…and I don’t know who took those pictures” to “And how would you like the lights for your photography, sir?”. ;)
• Our duet of “Wuthering Heights” isn’t Grammy material. Comedy Central, yes. (“I hated you too, but then I loved you!”)
• A lot of Doritos and Red Bull were consumed by Del-z
• A lot of cigarettes were smoked and coffee consumed by me.
• There aren’t many people wanting to use the Business Center of the hotel between the hours of 1:30 a.m. and 5 a.m.
• When doing a road trip, make sure you select a partner who has a difficult time falling asleep while in the car, especially when driving.
• There’s no one like Elisa — even Elisa thinks so….lol… :)
• I never expected to have the tune “Right Now (Na Na Na)” stuck in my head during a tour with Elisa.
• Thank God for GPS.
• Thank God II for the iPhone.
• Non-smoking hotel rooms are fine as long as there is a balcony.
• You know you’re getting comfortable when you feel “STUCK” with Elisa in the green room.
• Lacey Schwimmer is pretty. Elisa is prettier. ;)
• “if it were a bubble…if it were a bubble…if it were a bubble…”
• “Grazie tutti very much”
• Hearing Elisa sing Joni Mitchell’s “River” during a sound-check melted my heart. <3
• Del-z, referring to my 70-200mm lens: “Did you take those pictures with that cannon? LabDaddy: “It’s not a Canon, it’s a Nikon.”
• Elisa didn’t find it particularly funny that I was going to name my next dog “Arinth”.
• Del-z got asked the same question at least once every night — bonus points if you can figure out the question.
• I’m easily amused, as evidenced by my always laughing at Gex mouthing “I am woman”.
• It’s not easy to photograph the left side of Ringo’s face.
• It’s even harder to photograph Gianluca at all.
• Fontana almost always has his eyes closed. He wasn’t happy when I got a picture of him with, not only his eyes open, but smiling. (just kidding!)
• I lost count of how many times I said “*bink!*”.
• Del-z deserves MASSIVE props for her quick thinking and action in Los Angeles — every Elisa fan owes her — you’ll see later why! — YOU DONE GOOD GIRL! :D
• There were a lot of “woof” moments. ;)
• Adjoining rooms don’t mean you won’t get a text message asking “u ready?”

Photos taken:

• Toronto: 441
• Montreal: 494
• Boston: 1161
• DC: 1044
• Denver: 941
• Salt Lake: 1374
• San Diego: 1484
• LA: 1614
• San Francisco: 164 (I told you it was awful!)
• Portland: 1547
• Seattle: 1988 (I told Del-z before the show that I was going to enjoy the show and not shoot so much.)
  Total photos taken: 12,252
  Consider this a challenge, Anna. :P

“WHERE WERE YOU?”

“I WAS STUCK IN THE DRESSING ROOM WITH ELISA”

I don’t even know where to start! What an adventure.

Seattle has to be the most beautiful venue I’ve been to, the place was amazing, the stage with all the lights was magical, Elisa and her band: SUPERB!

The crowd attentive, nobody shouted italian tunes for her to sing, she was happy, happy, happy!

At one point she seemed kinda lost…she had to play “Life goes on”, which means, go to the keyboard and play, she stayed at her microphone, grabbed the tamburine…looking around kinda lost, Max (that was right in front of me said in italian: “i guess she wants to sing Stranger”), after a couple of minutes she realized that she had to play at the keyboard, she started to laugh, sat down, and her face from laughing changed in to ” working in little ice cream factory…” just like that. How does she do that????

Tonight they give it all! I thought the Roxy in LA was amazing, but the way they played tonight beats every other performance on this tour, they were flawless!

First encore with: Almeno tu nell’universo, Dancing, Luce and Gli ostacoli del cuore…second encore: Cure me!

A little teary eyed at the end when she was leaving the stage, but who wasn’t?? Emotional, crazy, fantastic! It really seems she loves this country and the people, I hope she comes back soon, along with her band!

I miss them already…

At the meet and greet she was nice as usual, taking pictures with fans, labdaddy as photographer…which made her laugh so hard, singing “Wuthering Heights” with weird voices…a fan will have a picture with Elisa laughing her heart out!!! It seemed to me that it last longer than the others, probably because in the audience they were 250+ fans, cheering, applauding, singing along, having fun!

We all had dinner after the show…it was kinda the last supper! Bittersweet…all the traveling we did was worth it a ton, I would do it again in a heart beat, you forget about being tired, taking planes every other day, driving for hours and hours just to go see them, the money spent, it does not matter it has been fun!

Come back soon! The Elisa’s piggy bank is starting to fill up again!!! LOL

Our First North American Tour!!!!!!!!!

Finally, my update. :)

My laptop died in San Francisco, so after the Portland show I borrowed Del-z’s laptop and was up until 5 am getting pictures to Nomax for the website. Yesterday was a travel day, and I took it easy given my lack of sleep the night before…and with no concert to attend I was able to watch the season premier of “24″! ;)

Portland was awesome! The Doug Fir is a really, really well done venue for Elisa’s concert — nice stage, great lights, great acoustics. Many thanks to Bryan Deckert for running such a great place, and for welcoming us so warmly. {applause to the Doug Fir and Bryan!}

It was a lot of fun tonight, I certainly had a lot of fun wandering around taking pictures! Del-z has already provided some info, so I’ll just add that it was a warm, excited crowd, and Elisa was in top form. It was an early show, 7:30 pm, and there was another show at 9:30…it was just a minute after nine when I saw Elisa motion the band as if to say, “Let’s do it!”, and they rocked into “Cure Me”. The entourage paid the price for this last gem as the band had to hustle to get the stage torn down, then we all were running the gear boxes up the street to load them onto the van…but it was well worth it!

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
17. Cure Me

Question: What’s do you feel like after having spent a day without your travel partner?

Del-z had to fly home yesterday for work; I flew on to Seattle — it’s nice to not have to travel the day of the concert. She’s at the airport now, and should be here in just a few short hours for what promises to be an emotional evening being the last day of the tour!

See ya soon, Del-z! Should I have a bag of Doritos and a Red Bull waiting? <I know, silly question!>

At the meet-and-greet in Denver

When doing a tour like this, every night is a unique experience. Each venue has it’s own character, it’s own flavor, it’s own energy. While the Cafe du Nord in San Francisco certainly has a lot of character as a piece of architecture, that didn’t translate into a particularly good venue for watching Elisa’s performance.

So to at least start on focusing on the positive… :) The building was built in 1907 and has retained it’s Victorian interior, including a forty-foot hand carved mahogany bar; the building also served as a speakeasy during Prohibition.

Now, on to the show. Elisa was fine…as usual…there are no complaints there. But the venue was rough for enjoying her music. The show was sold out, and it is primarily standing room only. The stage was about two feet off the floor…

…so you can imagine what it is like with Elisa (who stands what? Maybe 5′4″? Putting the top of her head 7′4″ off the ground) performing when people in the front, are upwards of 6′. Forget about it when she was sitting at the keyboards. Then, because of the poor sight-lines, you always get people who want to move closer. Somehow, this includes those people who show up for a sold-out show after 9 pm, when the doors opened at 8. Unfortunately, when these folks move in closer and push aside others, those others can no longer see, so they adjust there position, and it just snowballs. In the small area with tables, fans were crowding the walkway (most certainly against fire codes). You felt like you could never give an inch as some vulture would come in and lay claim to where you were. On top of this, the air in the venue was hot and generally “not very breathable”.

As a amateur photography, one of the very first lessons I learned in the use of “semi-pro” or “pro” gear in concert photography is never, ever use a flash (it’s a different story with point-and-shoots). Yet there were two folks with pro-level dSLRs using flash units. One individual was firing off shot after shot with the flash, and in between looking at the results on the camera’s LCD (rule #2 - turn off your LCD). There was one point I was momentarily blinded as, since the flash is so powerful, the repetition of flash after flash got to my eyes. Again, I was surprised the venue allowed this…oh well.

Oh, and the acoustics weren’t very good either…lol…

The environment was so bad, that I did something that I *rarely* ever do — and I couldn’t have imagined doing it during a Elisa concert — I walked out. I left for a few tunes, then decided to give it a shot again, but after being back only briefly, I packed it in and waited outside for the show to end. And I wasn’t the only one.

Now, this is all my *opinion*, and I’m sure a lot of people enjoyed the show and for them, I’m happy. But this was hands-down the worst performing venue that I’ve seen so far on the tour — there have been a number of very fine ones (Portland’s “Doug Fir”, DC’s “Barns at Wolf Trap”, Denver’s “Soiled Dove Underground” to name a couple), some average ones, but the Cafe du Nord was the only “bad” one, and it was “bad” in a big way.

Here’s a picture, taken from the back of the crowd, when Elisa was singing at the microphone. I’m 5′11″, to give a frame of reference…

You can kinda see her, huh?

Now, when she was at the keyboard…I was even standing on the first step of a set of stairs…

Your mission: find Elisa!