I'd been smoking just a little too violently to remember it all, but
here'e an approximate set-list, in an approximate order :

Gift Shop/Grace Too/Fully Completely/Ahead By A Century/Springtime In
Vienna/NO is Sinking/Twist My Arm/700ft Ceiling/Flamenco/100th
Meridian/Idon't know/Don't Wake Daddy/A few others I can't name, be it
because of holes in my record collection or gaps in my memory.

There were the expected loud Canadian ex-pats there (flags and maple
leafs - you know the score), but also a good few Irish which was good to
see.  Tell you what though, its a long time since I've overheard people
talking about hockey!  Anyway, all I can say is I'm damn glad I drove
down from Belfast for the show ; I'm damn glad they gave us Europeans a
chance to see em (in an excellent old venue, intimate, great sound) ; and
the only thing I'm sorry about was the club curfew that forced em off
stage.  Here's hoping they're back soon...

Mike

First, to get a sense of the show you must appreciate Whelans.  A smallish
pub on Wexford Street, about three blocks from St. Stephen's Green, the
main park in central Dublin, Whelan's was the perfect place to see the
band.

The pub and the concert venue are actually two different sets of rooms.
When you walk into the pub, you realize there must be more to it, as there
is room only for about thirty people.  Dark and traditional, the pub is
about three paces wide and fifteen deep, with a bar running along most of
the right side of the building.  Very Irish, very smokey.

You can clearly hear the sounds of a band in warm-up coming from the back
of the pub.  If open, you could walk through the back door and into the
music room, at about the stage, where the bands play.  Instead, to get in
you have to leave the pub and go back to the street, then walk around to a
side street and come at the music room from the back of the room.

When I walked into the pub at about 7:30, the place was already full.  I
counted seven Irish accents, the rest North Americans, the latter mainly
drinking Guinness and talking of things Canadian.  The doors to the music
room opened at 8:30 or so, and there was much time to get caught up on
news from back home and to explain to the locals what they were in for.
It was, as you can imagine, the easiest place to meet people.

Anyways, we all trekked into the music room once the doors opened.  Again,
the place was perfectly sized -- example: there were only three urinals,
total.  From the front door you walked down a corridor, wall on the right,
long bar on the left, to a set of eight stairs down to the pit, with room
for about 150 to stand in front of the stage.  The pit had a ceiling three
floors up, and there was a ring of tables  on a balcony over the room on
three sides, room for another twenty or so.  The place was packed.

The Mutton Birds, the opening act from New Zealand, weren't that bad, but
they struck me as across between The Hip and Spinal Tap.  Imagine New
Orleans is Sinking slowed down with horns and stretched guitars.  I half
expected Nigel Tuffnel to start dancing around Stonehenge when their lead
singer brough out this silver trombonish thing.  They sound as if they
could rock, but that they have instead chosen to tap into that
ever-eclectic European music scene and go for a win at the Eurovision song
contest.  Anyways, no Hip chant and much respect was paid to the Mutton
Birds.  That said, we couldn't wait until they were off the stage.

The Hip came on about half an hour later, Gord in blue shirt and a blazer
suspiciously close to the one in the ABAC video.  He said the blazer came
from a movie set at least three times during the evening.  No Gord guitar
until ABAC, and he dumped it later.

I don't have the playlist, just some Guinnessed memories, but I do
remember they opened with Gift Shop, then went immediately into Grace Too.
 Twist My Arm, Fully Completely, 100th Meridian, and Courage were all in
near the start.  Gord clearly started singing the second verse of  ABAC
instead of the first, but covered his mistake by launching into comments
about losing his virginity and asking the other guys about them losing
theirs, at which point the band brought the music back to the start and
they got back on track.

Compared with the Avalon in Boston last year, the only other time I've
seen them in a small venue, they were far better this time.  Gord seemed
possessed on stage, with ramblings in almost every song and some serious
stage movement.  I guess that's what's good about seeing them before the
tour wears them down.

My favorite ramble of the evening:  "I went for a walk in the park...
every blade of grass looked like a different person... LEAVE ME ALONE!!"

Anyways, Springtime in Vienna, Flamenco, Sherpa, 700 Ft., and Don't Wake
Daddy were all there.  Yes, the banana is back.

New songs Stereo/Best Friends, and something called Long Term Membership
(dark and foreboding, wait, that's comp lit -- never mind) were in there
as well.

New Orleans was huge, and Nautical Disaster closed the main set.

Sorry to keep referring to Spinal Tap, but there was another such moment
-- after the set the band left the stage down some stairs, the lights
stayed low, and we cheered for them to come back.  After a very short
break they returned to the stage -- apparently there had been nowhere to
go, and they'd been huddled just barely out of sight.

The one downer was that the encore was limited to one song because of an
11:30 Dublin curfew (go to the pubs there and you'll understand how strict
these things can be).  Anyways, they cheated a bit and played something I
didn't recognize, then broke into Daredevil to close.

As Gord left he shook hands from the stage with anyone who wanted to
saying "Vote for me, vote for me" over and over again.

In short, an excellent night out.  Bring on ARA.

I'm back off to Dublin.  Talk to you in a few weeks.

Greg Gilhooly