The boys played another great show tonight in Albany.  It would be difficult for me to put out a setlist at this point.  There weren't any big surprises. Most of what they've been playing this tour.  Before the first encore Gord introduced  "Springtime" as the song that was the "pin to break the balloon of tension" (there appeared to be a number of scuffles down front).  Unfortunately before they could finish, and go into a second encore, a "fan" got knocked down and the band walked off the stage.  I couldn't get a good look at what happened but it looked like someone tried to get up on stage and the security took him out.  Gord apologized but couldn't continue under the circumstances.  What a let down to a great show.  He seemed a bit pissed about the crowd surfing
which was kept to at minimum "There's been a bit of stage/crowd surfing going on here tonight. I think that went out with 'you go girl'."  I just wanted to hear '100'th".  No fault to the Hip though.  Just could have used some more security.

--Jason

Amazing Show!  After seeing them at Sugarbush I was impressed once again.  Not only was the band going crazy,  Gordie!!, but the audience was definitely into it.  From the opening "Save the Planet" to the short sung "Springtime In Vienna" the Palace was electrifying.  So exciting that one crazy fan tried to make it on stage but instead did a nose plant on the concrete...Gordie saw this guy not move  for about a verse of the song, and  closed it by saying "You guys can stay and watch the horror" as hundreds of college students hung over the two foot high railing screaming for the show to go on.   Other than this the HIP blended old school classics from UP TO HERE with the newer PHANTOM POWER hits amazingly.  Coming back for the encore with "Poets" was the best version of this new song that I've ever heard.  If anyone can get a BOOTLEG of the Palace please let a fan known and E-mail me back.

Grace Too
Fully Completely
Springtime in Vienna
Twist My Arm
Gift Shop
Ahead By a Century
700 Ft. Ceiling
The Luxury
Courage
* New Song* - perhaps 'Hiccups'? - that's what it seemed to be about

   anyway
Daredevil
Flamenco
Stereo (aka Best Friends) - last verse was last verse of NOIS
    -"...pale as a lighbulb..."
New Orleans is Sinking
Don't Wake Daddy
Scared
Blow at High Dough
Nautical Disaster
The Wherewithal

First Encore:
Thugs
Everytime You Go
Fire in the Hole

Second Encore:
Locked in the Trunk of a Car
Little Bones

Put simply, the show kicked ass! This was the 3rd time I've seen the Hip (all on the Henhouse tour) and this show was equal if not better than the others. I'm American and seeing this show with 10,000 Canadians was a great experience. However, I would highly, hgihly recommend seeing the Hip stateside sometime. I caught them once in Boston and once in Philly this summer, and really it's just more exciting to be 3 feet from Gordie than 300.
Other stuff:
Grace was pretty standard but I did hear Gord singing a few lines of John Lennon's 'Imagine' toward the end. Twist was a nice surprise. ABAC was a bit sped up and sounded really cool.  Courage was incredible.  Stereo has changed a lot since I first heard a piece of in Boston in May and is going to be a keeper. Scared was beautiful. And with another Beatlesque reference Gord started singing Paul's "Band on the Run" after a fan jumped on the stage at the start of Fire. Locked was awesome! A very solid show, but I do have one complaint. All the songs were very straight ahead with little of the jamming/experimentation I saw in Boston and Philly. As I've said about five times so far though, a great, great show! The Hip _are_ amazing. See them! I can't wait until they come Stateside again. Thanks for listening to me babble...

Scott Katz

On Friday night at the Palace Theatre, the Tragically Hip -- a superstar rock band in their Canadian homeland, but still trying to break through to the big time here in the States -- delivered a hard lesson in gravity.

About halfway into what later became a truncated show, the rock quintet was cranking its way through "Something On'' from their latest album, Phantom Power, when suddenly Gordon Downie, the band's quirky vocalist, was sent sprawling across the stage floor.

He awkwardly landed against a monitor speaker just a foot or two from the edge of the orchestra pit, which was lowered to create a moat-like security barrier between the band and the crowd.

It was unclear whether Downie had slipped, tripped, or just flipped out, but he came perilously close to a long fall off the stage. Fortunately, he emerged unscathed from the incident and even joked about it later, declaring "You know what they say, if you're not falling, you're not trying anything new.''

He proved to be all too prophetic.

During the band's first encore -- a rip through the hook-filled "Poets'' -- the crowd at the front of the stage crossed the line between enthusiastic and downright rowdy.

Seat cushions, which had been dislodged from the seats, were being thrown into the orchestra pit and passed overhead in the audience.

A few fans began crowd-surfing, while others mounted assaults on the stage, jumping into the pit and confronting security guards.

Downie tried to defuse the situation. "Of course crowd-surfing went out with 'You go, girl,' '' he chastised the roiling crowd.

"This next song is called 'Springtime in Vienna,' '' he declared, "and it was actually designed to prick the balloon of tension.''

Unfortunately, the song didn't work well enough, and the band never got to finish playing it.

Somewhere in the midst of the song, a foolhardy fan decided to launch himself across the abyss in an attempt to reach the stage. He didn't make it. Instead, he slammed into the side of the stage with considerable force and collapsed in a heap on the orchestra pit floor.

First aid quickly arrived and the fan was taken out on a stretcher.

Downie wisely stopped the band and called the rest of the show off.

Too bad that the foolish few ruined the night for the rest of the crowd because the Hip were just shifting into high gear when the proverbial plug was plugged.

The quirky Downie, whose earnest tenor walked the tightrope between Michael Stipe, Harry Chapin and James Joyce, was an undeniably charismatic character on such songs as the blues-lashed "New Orleans Is Sinking,'' the squarely rockin' "Fireworks'' and the chiming, acoustically anchored "Bobcaygeon.''

Maybe next time, they'll play "At the Hundredth Meridian'' and actually get to finish their show.

First published on Sunday, October 11, 1998