Newport
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All I can say is "wow"! Great freakin' show, great freakin' sets. If there was a "down-side" it was that Compuserve was having a Christmas party and had reserved all of the parking at Cobo Hall. I suspect that this explains why a large number of seats in the upper sections remained empty.

The boys rocked out and regardless of what anyone says, C & K do add great depth and dimension; not that I feel that they should "join" the band, but I've thoroughly enjoyed watching them go from scared and uncertain about playing with The Hip, to embracing the experience.

There were far too many highlights to cover, perhaps in another post, but here's the setlists as they were played...the ones at thehip.com are inaccurate:

M@W
Grace, Too
Save the Planet
Fully Completely
Tiger
Lionized
Puttin' Down
Gift shop
Titanic Terrarium (!)
Fireworks
Sharks
ABAC
Thompson Girl
Nautical Disaster

---Intermission---

Scared
Wild Mountain Honey
Every Time you Go
Emperor Penguin (!)
Courage
Lake Fever
Inevitability of Death (!)
Long Time Running (absolute perfection!)
Poets
Toronto #4
100th Meridian
Let's Stay Engaged (!!)
NOIS
Wherewithal (!)

Locked In The Trunk of a Car was the only encore, but like the rest of the gems the boys plucked last night, hearing it live again was well worth the wait.

Perhaps a full review is in order. When I get the time to write one, I'll send it to Rory.

This is the bastard signing off.
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Workzone! Only for the serious Hip fans!

Well. Where to start? I guess where it all began…

It's about 4pm Saturday and the silver bullet is headed South on I-75; we’re within 15 minutes of downtown Detroit. The cell phone rings. It's Scott, who is in Ypsilanti picking up his girlfriend to meet us in Windsor. "If you bring canned goods to the Hockeytown Cafe you get Workzone tickets!"

!!!!SCHWING!!!!

We forgot canned goods, but we prevail. Driving up and down Woodward Ave., looking for a store to buy chili sauce I spot
a check cashing/liquor store (read "crack shack"). Chico pulls a U-turn across 6 lanes and I jump out of the car while it's still moving. 2 cans of chili and 2  of ravioli and I'm back in the car to Hockeytown cafe. Wristbands in hand we head for the border, hopefully to meet ether-world acquaintances at a pub called Big Dick's Tap.

We have a blast at the bar. I'm "accosted", almost as we walk in, by a dark haired beauty and the strains of "I'll be leaving
you..." it's Meg Dab from Pittsburgh! (HEY MEG!). We chat briefly and I excuse myself to the bar. Nodding to a couple
of fellas at the bar, I ask for a couple Canadians (Molson) and a Canadian named Newport. He makes us feel right at home,
inros us to the bartender, and we proceed to have a blast. Among Newport and Meg we meet Angie and Randy and some others who I will now call my friends. I decide Henhousers are cool.

Fast-forward to Showtime!

We end up with 4 Workzone tickets (thank you American Express Credit!) and we walk into the hall. Well, I had to walk in three times ‘cause I set off the metal detectors just getting near them. Doing some fast talking, I make it thru, gear and all! Not sure what to do with the other two Zone writbands we look around for our new friends and Chico spots Newport and Tom in the washroom. Needless to say, they ended up having a blast also! In the Zone we make more friends as I struggle with should I stand with my head in the stacks (I can’t see the stage!) or right in front where I know I’ll have to settle with monitor bleed and crowd chat. I decide I can’t pass up the chance for the perfect view and stand smack dab between Gords.

The boys go right into M@W. Mr. Downie wearing his 3 piece charcoal pinstripe,  Sinclair’s tight ass in tight black jeans, v-neck undershirt and black topcoat. A clean shaven Rob with the leopard pants, Paul with black on black and Johnny in a grey t-shirt. Kate is out in a full length gown coat with faux fur on the collar and cuffs, Chris is sporting a black and white touque.

Titanic Terrarium and Lionized are highlights of set one. Gord seems subdued but is right on and performs just for us (of course). Mr. Sinclair’s head is hen-pecking with every beat, Rob is all over the place and Paul is a rock. Johnny pounds it out as only Johnny can. Everybody is way tight and loose at the same time. Set 1 ends with Nautical.

We get 20 minutes to pee and we’re back to set 2. I predict Wheat Kings and we get Scared instead. Everytime You Go and Let’s Stay Engaged were surprises, Penguin and Courage were just fantastic. Gord was more into set 2 and the sound was a bit better this time. We see Locked for a finale and as quickly as it started, it was over. Drum sticks and set lists for all of us!

On the way out I thank Mr. Vreeken for the great sound and we’re headed back to Saginaw. This morning I find that the recording went much better than I could have hoped for, the essence that is the Workplace well caught on tape.

Again, thanks to Newport and everybody we were lucky to meet. We must do it all again!!!!

scoots
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Only gotta 2 seconds here so i'm not gonna post you a review. Unbelieveable show last night... take a look at the set on canoe and then replace membership with save the planet and opiated with BRING IT ALL BACK! (and there was no time for Freak in teh encore) I could not believe they pulled out bring it all back. Through a rediculous sequence of random events i found myself backstage after the show... got to talk to everyone except for sinclair... some funny stories... i'll post more later.
-Joffe-
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whew. what a day. so, here's my story on detroit. it's long. consider yourself warned.
i had an extra ticket until about midnight friday, when we finally got it all figured out. fellow henhouser roy was coming with me. and driving his rental car. awesome. so, we get out of pittsburgh around noon, and get to big dick's in windsor around 4:30. this place is awesome. the ep is playing when we walk in the door, there are 2 video screens going with hip performances, the bartenders are cool, the waitresses are cool, there's a large framed, signed pic of gord d. over the bar... i can't wait to go back. so, now, shoutouts to all my homeboys- randy- great to see you again, did you win any money? ang- hope that show made your birthday weekend all the better, newport-holy shit, dude. thanks for setting that all up at big dick's and letting us know about it. it's my new favorite bar in canada, chico the lurker- i don't care if you didn't get twist my arm, you better post anyways! and last, but certainly not least- scoots. what can i say. quite a guy. (thanks again for the drink) i could see you in the work zone from where i was sitting. it's ok, though, i'm not bitter...ooh, p.s... ladies, not only a great guy, but he's cute, too-and taken. :) me and roy actually had some pretty kick ass seats, considering i didn't bother trying for good ones. right on the bobby/gord s. side, right where i like it. bobby looks like he's 14 again without that goattee. paul got a haircut since i've last seen them. no one was wearing pick pants. much to my chagrin.
anyway. i couldn't have asked for a better setlist. i think it went for pretty close to 3 hours. first set highlights: tiger the lion has to be the best light show in rock and roll. in fact, the lighting all night was incredible, but this really stood out. titanic terrarium and lionized were way cool, too. as well as everything else.
set2 highlights:
everytime you go. it sounded incredible. i was still in shock for about the first 30 seconds: "can they really be playing this?" then i got chills, then i almost started to cry, b/c i was thinking "what if this is a farewell tour?" then i kicked myself, and all was well. emporer, long time, let's stay engaged, wherewithal, and inevitabilty were all awesome surprises. well, not really surprises...
and locked was a great encore. really intense. overall...the crowd impressed me. these were same people (probably) that
were acting like jackasses at pine knob, but now...i don't about lack of enthusiasm on this tour so far- this show was great. everyone was into it. and no one really misbehaved too much, that i saw. there was the chick who got mauled and spilled beer on my foot, abut thats about it. oh, and one question: if anyone is still reading...did any of you guys hear gord say something about sympathy for the devil right before locked? also, sorry i didn't meet back up with you guys at big dick's. it appeared
that there was a band playing and they were charging to get in? true? who knows.
so, what have i gained from this hip experience?
1.going back and forth between windsor and detroit as many times as you can in one night is fun.
2. henhousers kick ass.
3. detroit is really not as far from pittsburgh as i thought.
4. i will NEVER get sick if this band. 22 shows and they continue to amaze me.

can't f-in wait till buffalo...and hamilton...:)
-megs.
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A few thoughts:
- Gift Shop had an awesome keyboard start - couldn't figure out what song it was going to be!
- In the intro to Thompson Girl, Gord said, "This is a song about a really big girl."
- Thrilled to hear Scared - I got goosebumps!!  Kate nailed the verses she sang!!  I was, well, scared when she started singing them, but ended up being very impressed.
- It was awesome to hear Titanic, Engaged, LTR and IOD.
- Don't know why we only got a one song encore.  Might be cuz they played 29 songs in Chicago, so only needed one encore song to make 29 in Detroit... or maybe it was cuz the guys were ticked at the few idiots who threw those glow sticks onto the stage, at least one of which either hit or narrowly missed one of the guys.

It was a great show, but I would've enjoyed it more if I could've sang!!  Mild laryngitis struck me Sat. morning due to a cold that I'd been trying to get rid of all week.  Hopefully my screaming voice will be back in time for Thursday's concert! :)

K.
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Well after a whole day of recovery, I can finally write my detroit review. Thanks to Highway Girl for putting me in that state.  (God what time did we leave the bar must have been close to 4 am eh).

First of all David K, Jason B, and Ian B, what happened we were looking for you guys before the show?

The day started later than I wanted to and didn't get down to the preshow until 5pm.  Stupid me I forgot to find out what everybody looked like, didn't realize until I walked into the bar and saw a hundred hip fans partying it up, so it took me a while to find everybody from the Henhouse. Good to meet you guys, Sorry Randy it is Roy who owes me a pint of Tarten! Scoots you truly are a party, thanks for the great night, and getting us into the zone, any time you are in Windsor let me know!  Meghan if I knew you girls thought Scoots was so cute I wouldn't have invited him, I dont need the competition.  After a bunch of pints and some great hip tunes, we hoped on a coach bus stocked with beer to get to the show.   We got into the show with plenty of time to spare so we went to take a leak and ran into "Chico The Lurker".   He offered us two extra tickets for the Workzone and we thanked him profusely, only thing was he forgot to give us the wrist bands we needed.  Took us half an Hour and two trips around the arena to find a security guy with the authority to give us wristbands.   Scoots and Chico and saved us spots right in front of Gord S. and we politely made our way through about ten other fans in the zone, eyeing our saved spots.  Wow
what a view, I was leaning on the stage for the second set, made up for all the times watching from the rafters at the ACC and MLG.  Great setlist which has already been covered but just want to mention a few things.   First of all, god are they tight musicians.   A couple of times they would get off track during the night, and would realize it and recover gracefully.   For
example, the closer, Locked in the Trunk, just as Johnny Fay was going to do the buildup for the final chorus Gord started a mini rant and Mr. Fay had to bring it back down to ranting a beat.  This continued about 4 times, each time the rest of the band following suit until the final climactic finalle. (Hope that made sense) I dont know if it was the setlist, the band, or the seats but that was the best show i have ever seen.  Gord S and Robbie waved to us down front when they left the stage, I thought that was really cool.

We got back to the bar after the show and it was already packed and there were two busloads of people wanting to get in.  Luckily I knew the guys and was able to get me and my buddies and Highway Girl in.   Meghan there was no cover but you would have had a hell of a time getting in, so it probably better you didn't come back, though we missed you.   I kept checking the line to see if any more Henhousers showed up so I could get them in.  If any of you did and were unsuccessful I apologize.   Had a great time the rest of the night, finally someone to talk to the hip about who shares my obsession (thanks ang).   Great night in all, sorry more of you guys didn't make it over to Windsor.   Meeting you guys made the night that much better!

Can't wait to see the pic Ang.

Newport