WOW!!....last night's show was so awesome.......we got there like three hours before the show started and saw literally the whole band walking around town.  We were wasting time in a bar across the street, when Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay came walking in to get something to eat.....of course no one in Delaware recognized them or knew who they were....later on we were walking back to the parking lot of the venue when we past Gordon Downie walking across the crosswalk to the same restaurant to get a bite....he was wearing a beach hat and flip flops.....it was so cool...we said hello and he was real nice......later that night, they put on an amazing show......played some rare tunes like We'll Go Too and Flamenco and finished with NOIS.  There were only about three hundred people there....making the show even better.
-Brad
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First, I enjoyed Chris and Kate's opening act.  They're both very talented musicians and got a warm reception from the crowd.  Hopefully, the slack-jawed guys in the crowd were cheering Kate's music and not just her looks.  There was an uncomfortable moment during their set, where between songs Chris explained that they live in New York, originally from Toronto.  Whenever he tells someone from New York that he's from Toronto, they always say what a clean city it is.  So then he
compliments the crowd on how clean Dewey Beach is.  Dead silence.  He didn't seem to realize that the only people in the bar from southern Delaware were probably the staff.  Of the actual crowd, I may have the biggest ties to the area since I used to live 10 minutes up the road until I was 4 years old.  Before that he also mentioned that it was their first time playing in Delaware and got zero reaction.

Here's The Hip's set, some of these could be out of order:

Tiger
Something On
Puttin Down
Grace Too
Stay
Escape
Poets
Music At Work
Flamenco
Vapor Trails
ABAC
Freak Turbulence
Fireworks
Lake Fever
Meridian

The Bastard (skipped)
BobC
We'll Go Too

The Completists
NOIS

The band was awesome with Puttin Down being a real stand-out in my mind.  The pre-recorded bits for Tiger the Lion didn't seem to gel with the live sound, but I think that song has great live potential.  I thought Chris and Kate made nice contributions to the show and I can't recall a moment when I thought Kate should shut up.

The crowd seemed to be about 60% Canadian, 30% Buffalonian (?), and 10%, semi-local (D.C., Philly-area).  Very different from their last show at Dewey Beach which was at the end of the summer '98, just prior to their Canadian tour.  There were a lot more Americans at that show.

The good part is that the band sounded great and I was the closest person in the building to Bobby Baker (aside from Gord Sinclair).

Here's the bad part:  About 3 or 4 songs in, Gordie's voice started sounding like he had inhaled helium.  I've been to shows where I thought he sounded tired and wasn't able to hit the high notes, but this was worse.  His voice was just a lot higher and you could really hear it when he would talk between songs.  Not Mickey Mouse high, but still pretty bad.  He did less ranting than any show I've seen and just appeared unhappy.  Meridian was very short and he let the crowd sing the "If I die of vanity" part.  The Bastard was cut from the first encore and they played a very short version of NOIS with zero jamming or ranting.  Gord rushed off the stage, obviously upset.  I should mention
that Kate was also having problems, though I couldn't hear it in her voice.  She was constantly popping throat drops and one of the roadies made her a warm drink of some kind.  Hopefully Gord is just tired from their hectic schedule or there was something in that sea air.  I'll be interested to hear how he sounded in Boston.

Resolving to stand farther from the speaker next show,

Jim
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just got back from a week of holidays- from T.O. to dewey beach to Atlantic City to Ottawa and back... lotsa driving. so delayed review.
Anyway the Dewey Show was hands down the best hip performance I've seen and I've seen 15 shows.including (Kingston shows)..  It was probably great because with only 3 or four hundred people there you can really concentrate on the band and enjoy the show without moshing etc etc.and beer is never more than 4 feet away and the sound was good but I digress...
GO EARLY AND SEE CHRIS AND KATE.  Best openers for the Hip I've ever seen.  Funky bluesy laid back Dave Matthews/Ben Harper kinda feel. Kate has wicked pipes and Chris is amazing on the keys.

Anyway HIP setlist to the best of my recollection:

Tiger the Lion (Almost Eeeery live)
Something On
Grace, Too
Puttin Down
Escape is at hand...

Gordie's first rant was about some guy in the crowd being psychic knowing all the words and singing them right back to gordie who thought it was weird "you're in my head" blah blah blah.
fuzzy from here on in, but highlights were definately ABAC where you could really hear Gord's guitar (in fact we heard it all night for the first time ever and he was pretty good)

FLAMENCO - never a fan until now - Gordie lets Kate sing a verse with the crowd that kicks ass.  Just wait until you hear it -- bliss.

100th Meridian was cool but waaaaaaay to short not a big jam in the middle but Gordie let the crowd do a bit of the rant.

We'll go too into New Orleans ended it pretty cool

Lake Fever, Bobcaygeon etc great great great.

The show was definately taped I saw a guy taping it on video AND I NEED A COPY. on audio at very least.  E-mail me and we trade I got lots of crazy stuff.
PART 2

So my friends and I go to Atlantic City the next day and are totally shocked by the amount of Hip press we see.  Their date at the end of this month (24th?) is advertised in all the local papers with big
shots of Gordie

AND

when we went into a Hard Rock Cafe we noticed little Ads on every table hyping up some festival somewhere down there and the HIP are featured about 2/3 down the bill, THEN we see them play Hip Video Highlights on the TV's at the Hard Rock with everyone else.

So maybe Jake Gold's not an ass after all.
anyway cool
Al