ok, it's over already. great show yesterday night in Brussels. Some info
:

SETLIST
ok listen, as you seems to be one of the hardcore fans, you will have to help me through this. i did know most of the songs but not all the titles. so when i don't know the titles of the songs, i'll put some comments, like lyrics or comments Gord gave as intro to the song so that we can put up the whole setlist. but maybe you already have it, don't know. i think that Ben Harper (know that guy ?) is the only artist where i could tell every single song by hearing the first few notes. anyway, here we go :

1. SOMETHING ON
"this one's for Sloane, Sloan-E"
2. GRACE, TOO
"i can't say goodbye, i really can't"
3. PUTTIN' DOWN
This here seems to be special, as gordon introduced it, i thought to hear him say something about a bruce springsteen tribut album, but i didn't know the song and i always thought i knew most of springsteen songs. later in my car to get back home to Luxemburg, i listened to the MD again and realised he said : "this is about the time Bruce Springsteen quit gambling" so, not tribut album but quit gambling lol. the last lyrics of the song were the beginning of Springsteen's Atlantic City, from "Out on the
boardwalk i met this guy and i'm goin to do a favour for him" to "meet me tonight in Atlantic City"
4. GIFTSHOP
5. ESCAPE IS AT HAND
    In the spoken intro are things like something about "how to get strong and how to stay so", "anyone can do it and anyone should"
6. AHEAD BY A CENTURY
"this is about a woman who is far ahead by her time"
7. POETS
8. STAY
9. NAUTICAL DISASTER
10. DON'T WAKE DADDY
11. THE COMPLETEST
"we'd like to do a song now called the completest. it's about someone,
well, swept away by an avalanche.. into a frozen lake... (???)... that
never happens. it's called the completest, the completest-E, the
comple-test, who cares ?" he seemed to jokin but i'm not sure people got
the point.
12. SCARED
13. FIREWORKS
14. MUSIC AT WORK
15. NEW ORLEANS IS SINKING

Encore 1
16. FULLY COMPLETELY
17. LAKE FEVER
"One from Lake Ontario, the most misunderstood of the great lakes", then Gord is goin into Mrs Robinson
"Well here's to you Lake Ontario, Jesus loves you more then you will know"; "IF you ever made love by the lake, this is for you, if you haven't, why not?"
18. LITTLE BONES

Encore 2
19. SPRINGTIME IN VIENNA

that was my fist hip show. before that show i really liked their stuff. i discovered them back in 95 when i heard scared on a belgian radio station. but this is different now. the guys are really cool in concert. gordon d. seems to be a real actor. jokin around between the songs, but the serious kind of jokin. "this is a song about the time bruce springsteen quit gambling". He was playin around with the mic, hanging himself with his tie. yeah, he came on stage with a complete suit. must get hot after a time, but it didn't last long and there was just the shirt left, and trousers of course. I was impressed too by the Gord Sinclair. he seemed to be totally in his bassplaying, same for Bobby, seems to be the easier type of guy, but what a guitar play. and Paul too. When you hear Grace, too on the studio abum, it's already strange. But when you hear him do the backing vocal on stage, you realise he really has this strange voice - great. And Johnyy had a little probelms with his drums. there was this guy from the crew comin on stage four or five times, to put the cymbals or the mic's back up. They didn't play a lot of songs from their new album. Anyways, it's not even available here in Europe, what a pity. I've done like 15-20 cd-stores in the last days
here in Luxemburg and Belgium and always the same type of answers : "yeah we gonna have it in the next days" - "the package is still at the airport" - "the tragically what?". just one guy said : yeah yeah i got that, wait a sec". then he came back with "Live between us" lol. they did 2 encores (3+1) which makes it 19 songs at all and i guess that's pretty good.
The show took place at the "Ancienne Belgique" in Brussels with around 2000 people. This venue is cool. If you ever get to Brussels and they have a concert there, go for it. It pretty small and the ambiance is great. Oy yeah, Sloane did the opening. They very ok but didn't leave a big impression on me
Just one lat thing : guys, please don't wait another 3 years to come back over here !!! Why not a few dates after the summer tour in North america. C'me on. 4 dates after 3 years. that's lame. oy yeah, one really last thing. i can imagine that the hardcore fans didn't appreciate the setlist that much cos all the old songs. one thing i've learned with the years is that if there's one thing in life that doesn't make sense, then it is bitchin about setlists. these are the performer's finals choices and should stay so, whatever they are, there is a reason they are this way.

have fun in can
Ralph
Luxemburg, a whole in middle europe