Catching the S.L.O. Paso Summer Vibe with Tori Amos

When my son was young, a lot of our summer travel revolved around theme parks and water polo tournaments. Now that we’re empty nesters, more and more often music is the driving force in our adventures. Last weekend we hit the road to see Tori Amos, one of my favorite artists since I first discovered her Little Earthquakes album in 1992. She’d been performing for more than a decade by then, but to me she was edgy and new with a passionate sound and more substantive lyrics than a lot of her fellow rockers.

She’s still got the passion, and watching her swivel between instruments — a giant Bösendorfer piano on one side and a bank of keyboards on the other — is exciting, especially while sitting under the stars at the Vina Robles Amphitheater in Paso Robles. It’s a wonderful space to see concerts, the wide-amphitheater, 3,300-seat set-up means that every seat truly is a good one. All of the seats are within 150 feet of the stage, but the “VIP Box” seats that we had as part of our Hotel SLO Summer Vibes package were particularly excellent. My husband and I had done this before, but the friends we brought along with us were particularly impressed by the sponsor box service, which included someone to bring us beer and wine (handily, we were on the Vina Robles Winery property), as well as food. 

The VIP treatment also includes super close parking, and gives you entry through the Vina Robles tasting room (no lines), as well as access to the private winery patio with comfy chairs and fire pits, another menu of food and wine pairing options, and my favorite perk of all, VIP restrooms.