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
==========================================================
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.
============================================================
Well i've come in monday morning to find an over abundanc of hip email, taking about boston, nyc, and other shit.

but i'm going to post my take on boston, just because i need to purge.
let me just say, it was open season for taping and video. there were mic stands everywhere, and at least three people videotaping. One dude video taped the whole show from front row, and at the end, jonny came down and gave the guy his sticks while the guy filmed the whole thing.. soo cooooool. dud if you're out there (long blonde pony tail) hook me up!!!!

Puttin
something
Grace

<<i was taking photos right under gords toes on all of these, dont recollect much other than the incredible photos i'm going to have of the sweat on gords brow. i'll post them when i get em..l>>

M@W <<star beyond the chart, gord reaches out and grabs a star and puts it in his mouth and swallows it>>

Escape <<done much slower and softer than power tour>>

Tiger  <<spotlights!! red and white.. great song live>>

Pigeon Camera << no intro from gord, just heard those opening chords... gord was great on this...>>

700ft <<rocking, long coda with rob's screaming guitar licks>>

Stay  <<the sound was mint, i could hear everything perfectly, gords pronuciations were crystal clear here.

POETS  <<shake, shake. lots of percussion action from gord tonight, i think he shook everything he had. During the right after solo, the audience was clapping along, carrying the song, gord did a little rant, very participant audiance/band thing here...>>

Flameco  <perhaps the most beautiful thing i've ever seen the hip do. kate sang the "maybe i'll go to new york.." parts by her self, gord did the rest. a silent coversation between two people, as gord commented...

Wild mountain honey << great,but still not yet a song i think is easily digested>>

ABAC  <Very sweet, long exit, crowd loved it..>>

fireworks  <whoo, hooo...>>

Lake fever  << again, those acoustical soft numbers were especially cool because i could hear everything like i was wearing headphones... she whispered..Hurrry..>>

100th <<yikes, long rant.."i went to bed with my suit on so i'd look good in my dreams...""

encore
Sharks  <<OOOH.....MY.....GOD!   Very intense, not one of the band looked up for this one...>>

Thompson Girl  <<the canadian version of paul bunyon is a giant women" GD. I remember gords high notes being espcially RIGHT ON and strong>>

Fire in the hole <<no way!!!!!!!!!!! Very stong number, gord just goes mental here..>>

encore2
Wheat kings  <beautiful, at this point everyone knows this was a killer show>>
Completist  <<this is such a powerful song and makes a great ending>>