Tiger
Fully
Gift
Down
Chagrin
Springtime
Fever
Poets
To # 4
Courage
Daddy
Freak
Bobcaygeon
Fireworks
Nautical D
Music@Work
----------------------
Bastard
Rules
Bones
-----------------------
Scared
Planet
=================================================================
the show last night was great - i got some pictures at the Joshua Tree of the henhouse folks. i think there will be more tonight - if anyone has some extra room to slam these up on their site, let me know and i'll get them scanned asap.
kate and chris were a nice opener. the power of her voice belies her small stature. like someone mentioned earlier, on stage for some of the hip's songs has turned into on the stage for *all* of the songs. i think she was a beautiful touch on a few of the pieces - scared gave me goosebumps, lake
fever, the rules,... generally the quieter songs. the other songs i thought she was lost in the mix and sort of distracting, especially since gord's timing is not the easiest to anticipate. i know silirat had trouble paying attention! tiger the lion was a great opener.
all in all a beautiful venue, with perfect accoustics where i was sitting, a small stage, generally a fun crowd with alot of hiphiphips but no ohcanadas.
can't wait till tonight and grinning in anticipation of rob's sore body after a day of waterskiing for the first time. there are enemas and there is waterskiing for the first time....

over and out,
fiona
=================================================================
WOW! I just got in the door from Boston! it is 8:00am Sat. I haven't slept yet! Happy Canada Day!
This is going to sound like I am gloating but I'm not, I just want to share my Boston experience with someone/anyone. I'll try not to sound like a teenage obsessed fan, but after this once in a lifetime experience I really feel like one.

Here is my 2 day Boston experience starting Thursday afternoon.

DAY ONE:
6:45 Martin and I roll into Boston on Holland avenue looking for The Joshua Tree. We park, get out of the car, and who is at the payphone next to the subway station? Paul Langlois. I shit you not. So we stand around about 30 feet away waiting for him to finish his call so we can ask him for a picture. We didn't want to look too obvious but I think we gave ourselves away. Was it my Bobcaygeon Cougars jersey or Martin's Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant Toronto T-shirt? There was Paul Langlois, a
famous Canadian Musical icon-right there, by himself on a public telephone! As soon as he finishes his call he turns and darts behind a building before we can catch him. We corner the building and, no trace. Gone. Disappearance act. Damn he's quick! (the building he went behind turned out to be the Somervile Theater)
7:00 Martin and I get to the Joshua Tree where we meet up with fellow henhousers:
List Moderator and kneeboard extrordinair Rob Bertrand, Phil "meet my internet friends" Pietrowski, "I am like a babe magnet, but with reverse polarity" Sili-Rat Ian Berkhuizen (Spelling?) Gerald "wanna buy a ticket" Oskoboiny
Eric "coffee intervenus" Leduc from chicoutimi Fiona Barnett Alison Harvard Bill

We all split to the Somerville Theater at 7:30 after a few pints. Martin and I are at the top of the theater, 3 rows from the back wall. Hmmm, what do we do?
Phil, Sili-Rat and Rob are close to the edge of the balcony-center, with excellent views. I don't know where the other henhousers are.
Chris and Kate are on at the first. She's not bad, and her voice is alright too!
Martin and I begin to scope the place looking for better seats to take over. We immediately decide that as soon as the lights go down on the Hip we are going to try to get on the left side balcony imediately over- hanging the stage, 15 feet above Chris Brown.
The lights went down and the hip are rocking onstage, but Martin and I still have not decided to make our move yet. We watch half of the show from the back rows.
Then finally the hip begin the opening bars to Bobcaygeon, I took this as an opportunity to try a different angle to get on the balcony. I was going to nicely ask the side balcony spectators if they could kindly hang my Bobcaygeon Jersey from the balcony railing. Instead they pull me right out on the balcony with them flooding me with questions about Bobcaygeon. Are
you from there? blah blah blah. They tie my Jersey to the balcony, proudly displaying the cougar to the band and the rest of the theater.
I'm thinking to myself, Here I was on the balcony! Going from the back of the theater to literally spitting distance of the band. I was right above Chris Brown. I could read Paul's setlist sheet from where I was! I could see Kates Cleavage! Could it get better?
The show was amazing. The crowd very receptive and resposive. This was the best live hip show I have seen yet, and the closest to the stage I have ever been. I took at least 20 photos from the balcony.
After the show, we the henhousers, head back to the Joshua Tree for a pint or too. Rob Bertrand assures us that if we go back behind the theater in about an hour we'll be able to meet the band.
Martin and I have a coincidental encounter with someone from our hometown of Lindsay, now working in Boston. What are the odds of that? After an hour, rob and sili-rat and Phil head back to the theater, and Martin and I stay and talk to our Lindsay friend.
Martin and I finally make our way back to the rear entrance of the theater to hear that we missed Johnny Fay and Gord Sinclair already. Damn!
We wait a few more minutes, then suddenly the door opens. Out steps Bobby Baker! he says hi to everyone, then notices the Bobcaygeon Jersey. "Very cool Jersey, I saw it on the balcony" he mentions. Then he continues, "do you know we sponser a hockey team from kingston?" I follow up, "Really?" "Yeah and they won all-Ontario this year!" (he continues to tell me about
the team, a kingston girls hockey team that the Hip sponsor, but I can't remember the name of the team. He was really sincere and really proud to sponsor the all ontario team) I finally ask to get a picture with Him, and Phil snaps it for me. I then ask one last question: "why Bobcaygeon? of all the small towns, why Bobcaygeon?" Bobby's reply, "well Gord has a friend that has a cottage there, he really liked it there... you know, it's a nice town."He then chats quickly with everyone and is on his way to the tourbus. He is extremely personable for a celebrity musician.
5 minutes later Paul comes out. He says hi to everyone and chats briefly with Martin about a mutual friend that they both have. (Martin used to room with one of Michael Downies best friends when Martin went to queens. Paul knows the roommate also) Paul says his "Hi's and Thankyou's" and he is off to the tourbus.
about ten minutes later Gord Downie walks out in an addidas track suit and white rapper hat, along side is his body guard. He seems in a rush. He looks at everone and mutters "hey guys", everyone says their "great show Gord" and "you guys did good", he replies "thanks, thanks alot" then he too takes off to the bus.
It was very cool!
We all go back to Phil's place happy.
Could it get better?

DAY TWO

10:45am I turn 27 years old.

6:45PM: Martin and I get to the Joshua Tree. we find out our tickets are again at the very back of the theater. Damn!
I tell Martin "screw it, we should just go on the balcony tonight."
I am telling you, security was so lame at the theater, anyone could have sat anywhere! You could have gotten into somerville free with just a red happy face stamp. That is all they were using to indicate you paid for a ticket.
As the show starts Martin and I go down to the lefthand side balcon doors. No luck tonight, security locked the doors.
We watch a few of the songs from our seats. Then I head down for a washroom break. Coming up I am behind a group of guys heading into the floor section. I quickly duck in behind them, and voila, I am right up front... 30 feet from the band! From there I snapped about 15 pics.
The show is amazing of course.
Towards the end, actually at the first encore break, the crowd slightly disperses at the front of the stage, and whammo. I am 1st row, dead center pressed agains the stage. I can't believe it! The hip come back on and I unload the rest of my film 3 feet from Gord Downie's feet! I took a picture of Gord D's setlist and was able to get gord's feet in the picture to prove how close I was.
I couldn't believe it. It was amazing to be that close. To see the eye contact the band makes with each other. They way they watch each other's instruments so closely to keep in perfect time. the way they scope out the audience members then slip back into the music. The way johnny Fay scopes out the chicks, then slips back into the music when he see's them beside their husbands! the way the sweat flies off of them under the hot lights. Simply Amazing I must say.
Does it get better?
At the end of the show, just before the band walk off, I wave my Bobcaygeon Jersey in front of Bobby. It catch's his attention
and he laughs and points. I do the ole' "do you want it?" motion and he shrugs his shoulders, "what?". He comes over to the edge of the stage and I hand it to him "have it". He says "thanks" and Shakes my hand, then I quickly ask him, "will you ever wear it on stage?".... he laughs and says, "we'll see.." then gives a thumbs up and another thanks, and walks off.
Too fucking cool!
Nothing will ever top that for me.
After the show, Martin and I wanted to get back to Ottawa ASAP so we could catch some ZZZ's and be ready for the Canada day Celebrations. We didn't stay around to try and meet the band again. I don't know if anyone else was able to.
So here I am now, exhausted but last night so fresh in my mind I can't sleep until I've shared my experience with someone.
Tomorrow, I'll be getting some one hour photo developing done. Monday with my Canada Day weekend hangover, I'll scan them and make a website displaying them for everyone to see. two rolls of 27 pics.

Thanks to The Hip, Chris and Kate, all the henhousers I met and Somerville
Theater for the concert experience of a lifetime.

Catch you Later...
I'm zonking out for a while.
Livi
=============================================================================
Good Morning All,  I thought I would give you the setlist for the 2 T-Hip shows we saw the last 2 nights.  Overall the first show on the 29th was very good but the show on the 30th really rocked.  I have seen 7 T-Hip shows so far and this one was one of the best ones.  The Somerville Theatre was a great place to see a show holding about 900 people.  We are hoping the Hip
will come back there again when they hit the States hopefully in the fall. Many of the fans at the show were from Canada and had never seen The Hip in such a small venue.  We are some lucky here in the States to be able to see The Hip in such small places.  Chris Brown and Kate Fenner joined The Hip on stage both nights for all songs.  Kate on vocals and Chris on keyboards and vocals.  Kate had a couple nice solo parts in Flamenco the 2nd night that the crowd really loved and so did Gordie.  Our crew at the show was better know as the banana section as we all went to the show shaking our bananas.
Dave, Joe and Sonny all saw their first 2 Hip shows and yes they are now all hooked on the Hip as well.  Right guys?  They all thought the 29th was a good show but really saw what the Hip was all about on the 30th as The Hip brought the house down!  Now for the run down on the show........

June 29th  (From the 6th row)
Tiger The Lion ( Yes Kev you should hear it in VT)
Fully Completely
Gift Shop
Putting Down
Chagrin Falls
Springtime In Vienna
Lake Fever
Poets
Toronto #4
Courage
Don't Wake Daddy
Freak Turbulence
Bobcaygeon
Fireworks
Nautical Disaster
My Music At Work (End of Set)

1st Encores
The Bastard
The Rules
Little Bones (Highlight of the show for me!)

2nd Encores
Scared (First Time We've Ever Heard This One)
Save The Planet

June 30th (From the 11th row)
Putting Down
Something On
Grace, Too
My Music At Work
Escape Is At Hand For The Travelin' Man
Tiger The Lion
Pigeon Camera
700 Ft. Ceiling
Stay
Poets
Flamenco
Wild Mountain Honey
Ahead By A Century!!!!!!!
Fireworks
Lake Fever
At The 100th Meridian (Crowd sang the last verse - The place was rocking)
(End Of Set)

1st Encores
Sharks
Thompson Girl
Fire In The Hole

2nd Encores
Wheat Kings!!!!  (Highlight of the night!) (2nd Wheat Kings for me in 7
shows) (One guy outside the show said only his 2nd in 18 shows)
The Completists to end one kick ASS Hip show...........

Only 6 repeats from the first night.  No New Orleans Is Sinking either night!  Gordie made reference to Bruce Springsteen both nights so it wouldn't surprise me if The Hip goes to see the Boss (Last show of his tour) tonight in NYC after their show in Central Park.  The next stop on the Hip Tour for us will be Darien Lakes near Buffalo NY on July 29th.  Only 4 weeks
from today.  YES.... Then it's on to see them in Hartford on August 4th and then to Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VT on August 5th to end this leg of the tour!!!!!!

Until next time........

Bob

PS Rory enjoy your 3 shows in Minn...................
============================================================
I'm calling it "The Weekend of Seeing Red." The sunburned skin and the flags,
flags, flags waving everywhere ("Are you Canadian by any chance?"), the colour
of my eyes from staring at concrete for 7 or so hours today and the second-hand
pot smoke.

I won't post setlists or give song by song comments from the three nights,
because that's all been done pretty well by people with less foggy minds than
mine currently is. But I will post impressions, because it all feels like some
sort of Van Gogh painting.

First off, the people... There's an incredible feeling behind driving a few
hundred miles knowing that faces old and new await you to share the moments
with. People you can look over to in the middle of a Gord moment ("dinner!") and
share it with. I won't name any of you by name (chicken), because you know who
you are and some of you will just rag on me if I tried (and I respect that, I
truly do). But it's this sharing that makes these concerts worth driving to,
worth the massive sleep deprivation, worth the wear and tear on my poor battered
car, and worth the "You're going to ANOTHER hip show?" remarks. "It's true. It's
you. It's really you." The pre and post show gatherings are often as
entertaining as the shows themselves (well, maybe not when that bastard Leduc is
there... ;)) And it's nice to have an excuse to plan roadtrips to strange and
exotic cities you could only ever dream of visiting... Like Chicoutimi or
Providence. Names of cities that beam excitement and intrigu!
e. It goes so far beyond what Amit and I hoped to get out of this list when he
came up with the idea to start it up. (Of course, we were also hoping for
Johnny's leftovers and free tickets... Dare to dream.)

All in all, it's basically just nice to know that you're not the only insane
one. ("You've seen 29 shows?!?") At least *I'm* not taking pictures of their
roadies... Well, at least not yet.

The band... The nicest bunch of guys. As Livi mentioned, we met them after
Thursday's show and at least exchanged pleasantries with them all.

This morning, I was sitting on a bench in Central Park with a horrible magazine
Sili bought and a notepad and pen, jotting down whatever poetic things entered
my head (not surprisingly, there were few). Various joggers, cyclists, and other
assorted very happy-looking people were out enjoying a beautiful New York City
morning (most of them looking like they either just got some or were about to...
those bastards!). At one point I looked up from whatever I was putting to paper
and noticed that Gord Sinclair was standing not 10 feet in front of me talking
with a couple of friends, taking a break during a morning jog. At first I
thought I must be hungover and hallucinating, but then I realized I didn't drink
the night before. I wasn't going to say anything, because it was his day off and
he was with friends. But his friends jogged off in another direction, so I
quickly and not too loudly thanked him for the wonderful show he and the boys
put on a few hundred feet away the night be!
fore (I mean, he just happened to look over at me as he started jogging, how
could I not say anything?). He smiled and thanked me and then continued on his
way. A nice way to cap off a lovely visit to New York. (Hmmm... that's the 3rd
time I've talked to him in the last 2 weeks, and all in different cities... He's
probably thinking of adding me to "the list".)

* The shows... Somerville Theatre has just about the best acoustics. A
wonderfully-small venue and my 2nd and 3rd row balcony seats offered incredible
views of the procedings, despite the humongous idiot sitting behind me the first
night (no, Phil was sitting BESIDE me). The music just poured over you in waves.
Quite wonderful. Gord D. was a bit restrained on Thursday. He barely did any
ranting at all, perhaps concentrating more on the harmonies in acknowledgement
of the acoustics (or, perhaps, to borrow from one unfinished piece, because his
voice could tinkle like a chandelier). Whatever the reason, it was by far the
most reserved of the 3 nights. Any doubts, however, as to whether he could still
recite and incite disappeared the next two shows.

The band was tight. The 1st night was notable almost as much with what they
didn't play as what they did... NO New Orleans, Grace, Century, or Meridian. The
one thing that really annoyed me about Hip shows was that you knew that these
songs would be played. Because the band seemed to think they HAD to be played.
This augers well. There was a notable lack of pre-Fully songs (Bones was played
on Thursday, that's it out of the three shows). I hope some are resurrected in
the weeks to come, especially some of the songs that Chris and Kate could really
add to (Long Time Running, Midnight, Bring it All Back, etc.). Time's tellin' on
that one. When they didn't bust out NOIS on the second night, I was even
happier. They did pick weird songs to end both shows with (Planet and
Completists), but I won't complain. No sirree, Bob. Hearing Scared, Pigeon
Camera (whoo!!!), Scared and Wheat Kings with the extra Chris and Kate layers
were definite moments. Yeah, they are all slower songs. They!
're just such good sing-alongs, what can I say? They all felt so fresh and
exciting.

Of the new songs, I haven't been the only one to say that TTL is a whole whack
better live than on the album. I just wish they substituted another new song on
one of the nights so I could hear it (4 shows, still waiting to hear Pines and
Bear). Sharks was awesome (what's up with the drum track? Johnny barely was
playing anything for a good part of the song... Comments anyone?). Honey was
decent. The people who love the song on the album loved it live as well. I'm
indifferent to both versions. Maybe a bootleg will steer me right. Completists
seems a bit too... busy... at the moment. The way they played it in Montreal
gave me goosebumps on top of my goosebumps. Regardless, it still rocked. Chris's
added touches to Putting Down in Somerville were magical.

Central Park? The perfectly sunny day; the great line-up (Jeff Healey, you
time-consuming bastard!); the cool people; the wonderful 4th row vantage point
for everyone(thank you, lanky frame!); the shared memories; that sexy Tracy with
the pouty lips and flowing locks of curls (hahaha); the dim possibility of the
chairs supporting our collective weight for the entire show; the strange and
embarrasing photo ops ("What's one more statue grope gonna do to your rep?");
the sharing of anecdotes from previous shows ("I can fit two in my ass!"); the
wise-ass comments about other obnoxious fans ("I want to be your whiee whiee
whiee whiiee???"); Words won't do justice to any of it.

Chris and Kate... There are times when they make it through the wall of sound
and it's beautiful. And that's usually, as noted by others, during the slower
songs. Chris has the chops on that organ, and on songs like Lake Fever and
Giftshop the songs are allowed to breathe in different ways. But on too many of
the harder songs, it's lost almost as much as Gord D.'s acoustic guitar (Phil on
Friday, "Ohmygod, I hear it!"). Kate's voice is wonderful as well. Her lead
vocals during Flamenco are stunning and definite crowd favourites. Her backup on
Toronto 4 and Scared were spine-tingling. But too often they're lost.

Bootlegs... I exchanged emails with a few people who were taping the Boston
shows. One guy videotaped both nights (1st from back of floor, 2nd from 1st row
balcony), one guy videod the 2nd night only (from 2nd row), and one guy who
dat'd the 2nd night from 1st row balcony. I'll let the proper people know about
all when there's something to report. Sweet versions will be treed (so please no
emails... it'll get out if it's good).

I'm still singing along. F***ing fabulous weekend. Burlington is only 5 weeks
away...

I've quickly scanned everyone's comments from the weekend, but haven't had a
chance to actually read them. My increasingly-heavy eyelids tell me that is a
task for another day.

Rob
P.S. Yes, I survived kneeboarding in (mostly) one piece.
==================================================================

               I had never heard of The Tragically Hip when my friend Gerald proposed me to go and see the coolest
               Candian band. Since I hardly ever sy no to a concert, I accepted.

               I listened to Gerald's CDs for a few days, and it wasn't bad. Moreover, it was in the Somerville
               Theatre, which is a small venue, and this band usually plays in very large venues, so it was going to be
               interesting.

               We went there early to meet with the people of the Henhouse mailing list, a mailing list of fans of "The
               Hip". So we had a beer with all those Canadians (I doubt that there was another French going to this
               concert), and went to the concert after having tried to get rid of two extra tickets: it was impossible, too
               many people were selling extra tickets. I actually don't know if that is legal or not, but the aim was not
               to make any money, just avoid wasting them. The Tragically Hip might be very famous back in
               Canada, they're totally unknown in the US!

               We finally got in there, and we had tickets way back in the amphitheatre.

               The concerts started, and a third of the seats wer empty, so we could go in a more reasonnable spot
               without any problem. I love it when a plan comes together.

               I had studied well, because I knew half of the songs they played. They essentially played songs from
               their recently released album Music @ Work and from the previous one, Phantom Power. It was
               pretty good. They were playing with two guests, Chris Brown and Kate Fenner. During the concert, I
               found that you couldn't hear Kate Fenner singing much, but I listened to the concert again and that's not
               true, you could hear her perfectly well on songs such as Toronto #4.

               The audience was dancing and screaming. I guess that 90% of the people there were Canadian, which
               you could tell when the singer sang That night in Toronto in Bobcaygeon.

               After 1h15 and a good set, without any breaks at all (the drummer hardly stopped to change his sticks
               between the songs), they left the stage and came back after a few minutes for 3 more songs. They then
               left again 15 minutes later and came back again 5 minutes later for two more songs. The concert ended
               after 1h45, and it was really good.

               So Canadians can do something else than playing hockey and drinking beer: they can play good music
               too! :-)

                -Hugo Haas