It seems as if The Tragically Hip realized that many hardcore fans would be attending this particular show. I’m sure this was obvious to them when the show sold out quickly through thehip.com pre-sale. The set list was full of suprises both old and new. The mixture of songs surely pleased everyone there. Our concert experience began with a large group of Hipbasers meeting together for a few beers prior to the show. It is always fun to meet the people behind the screen names. It was a festive atmosphere as we all anticipated the show.

The Fort York venue was filled with fans screaming for The Hip as they began with the powerful Don’t Wake Daddy. This was followed by Courage in which Gord stood up on the monitor and pretended to urinate on the fans as he sang the line,”Piss on all of your background….”. Next I was thrilled to hear the new song Ocean. I would describe it as an upbeat rocker that I really enjoyed.

The Hip played many of their best songs from nearly every album. It would be difficult to pick the best song of the night with such a wonderfully varied set list. The Hip demonstrated to me the exact reason why I have become such a big fan of theirs. There ability to play almost anything in their large catalogue of songs continues. I loved hearing No Threat live (my first time). I think it’s safe to say that everyone was blown away by 38 Years Old. There were so many highlights it would be hard to put them in order. I had to laugh when Gord told the Canadian audience that “We must stop following Prime Minister Bush”. Near the end of Something On Gord was crawling on the stage between his monitor and Paul’s. Gord extended himself out past the end of the stage and reached into the crowd. He was lovingly mauled by the fans around him. As The Drop Off was playing Gord stumbled around the stage like a blind man in an unfamiliar room. During this Robbie was playing some wicked riffs. Robbie was the epitome of coolness and style wearing a dark blazer with a cowboy hat and aviator glasses.

The show ended with We’ll Go Too. The entire place was going crazy as the song began to wind down. Gordie casually streched out across the two center stage monitors like he was watching T.V. on the couch at home. As he got up to leave the stage he said, “There’s a lot of power in this house”. I think he was refering to the former military might that was onced housed in this historic fort and the power that was produced between The Tragically Hip and their fans last night. I would have to rank this as a “top 3” show out of the 28 I have seen. The set list was phenomenol and I enjoyed hearing the crowd sing along to the songs. We watched the show from in front of Robbie about half way back. Everyone in our area was singing and dancing with no rough stuff. I had a great time meeting with all the Hipbasers at the show. I especially enjoyed hanging with my Hipbase pals from Brantford these past two weekends as we experienced The Hip together