The Ambassador Theatre (http://mcd.ie/ambassador/) is a former cinema, with
a capacity of about 2000. The main floor has two bars, no seating and is
gently sloped toward the stage. The balcony, which I couldn't really see
very well, was considerably steeper, and started about halfway back from
the
stage. There seemed to be about 1500 people there, and we figured they were
90% Canadian. We brought a couple of Irish people with us, and they guessed
there were few Irish at the gig. Judging by the height of the average
audience member and the striking clarity of the air (there were fewer
smokers than usual), I'd say this was true.
Because of their proximity, the small size and Canadianess of the crowd,
somebody commented that "it was like seeing the Hip in your high school
gym." That's not a reflection of the theatre's architecture, which was
understated and charming.
The band seemed in fine form. They offered 5 songs from their new album
(including 2 in the encore..."Lake Fever" and one other). The high point
for
me was a transcendent version of "100th Meridian", with Gordie muttering
at
length about memory during the bridge. He repeated "life is forgetting"
for
a while, and then broke into a rapid-fire "Iremembereverything,
Iremembereverything, etc" and then flying right into the actual bridge
lyrics, double-time. Other high points included "Ahead By a Century", an
understated "Grace Too" and a furious "Little Bones". All in all, it was
a
fantastic show. Seeing them live actually gave me a bit more insight into
Gordie's surreal lyrics.
-Danny
The Dublin show was spec-f***ing-tacular. Full
house of crazed yet respectful fans. We were against the barrier between
Gord S. and Bobby. I've never seen the band look so happy or smile so much.
After 1st encore, houselights and music came on. But after 5-10 minutes of
LOUD cheering, the band came back for Springtime and a blistering FITH. I'll
post the setlist and a real review later. It was most definitely a greatest
hits package that night. Off hand, I'd say we got:
Use
Grace
NOIS
Fully
BobC
Jet
Courage
Fireworks
Good Life
Meridian
Wolf
Gift
Poets
ABAC
Bones
E: Fever
Ready
Blow (longest version I've ever heard)
E2: Vienna
FITH
LOTS of pics forthcoming, probably tomorrow.
Cardiff... Well... Let's say Amit and I were less than thrilled at finding
out at 4 that the show was cancelled. Especially because Cardiff BLOWS. Think
an unsexy version of Albany. The ticket place said it was due to a death
in a band member's family. The venue itself had signs that said cancelled
due to bereavement. I won't speculate more than that. That's just what we
were told and saw. We had a chance to see Alice Cooper instead, but decided
that we hadn't sunk that low (though by about 9pm we had).
Rob
Word, bro!!!! Dublin could possibly the best damn
Hip show I've ever seen. Great set list, great crowd, great venue, great
beer...I couldn't have asked for more (well, at least not from the band.
If the cutie from Ottawa who was at the show is on this list.....nah - better
leave well enough alone).
I was happy that they played all my faves from IVL, including Dire Wolf and
Silver Jet. It's been a long time since Blow sounded as fresh as it did.
Sweet.....And Courage was almost transcendant. Just a f**king incredible,
sweet, beautiful show. Or as they'd say in Ireland, it was simply grand.
If anyone knows of someone who taped it, I'd love a copy of this show. It'll
be my personal "Live Between Us". Might be some consolation for what happened
next....
We were disappointed but understood the situation. I would not have expected
the band to go on, given the circumstances.
But DAMN IT - where the hell were all you ex-pats to join us in a consolation
drink? We couldn't find a damn decent pub anywhere in Cardiff. Virtually
freaking barren....Rob was in bed watching a rerun of an NFL game by 9pm.
I went out on my own in a pathetic attempt to find some fun....*sigh*
Amit
Just wanted to expand upon the Dublin show review I read. It really was a
great show!! (the best of the five superb shows I saw on the European tour).
I'm not sure I agree with the last assessment of the attendees being "90%
Canadian". There were a good number of Canadians there, but I just think
they were just more noticeable with their Canada shirts and loud cheering.
I kept my ears open for accents and I would say 20%-30% Canadian, at most.
Plenty of Irish were there!! It's funny, because at the Holland shows I saw,
I would say only a VERY small number of Canadians were in attendance (the
Dutch really seem to love The Hip). For the London show (which is where I'm
from), there were some Canadians, but again plenty of English fans were there,
as well.
Anyway, onto the Dublin show. This was an unbelievable show for energy from
the band. Downie was in his best form I had seen yet, though it was very
close to being a disaster Two songs in, someone flicked a LIT cigarette
at Gord and he was very clearly NOT happy (who would be?). He started asking
people who it belonged to and then "mock-smoked" it for a bit, while mumbling
some furious rantings about people needing ash trays during "My Music At
Work". Then, a couple of songs later, someone threw a LIT sparkler
on stage. Gord barely reacted this time, but you could see in his face he
was not happy with a few select wankers in the audience. Thankfully for the
vast majority of the crowd who were respectful, Gord seemed to channel that
anger into energy, and the show took off from there.
One of the highlights (and the funniest thing I have seen on stage in some
time) was when Gord broke his microphone stand. As those of you who have
seen shows before are aware, he doesn't exactly go easy on his mic stands,
and he managed to break it a few songs in. He ended up singing the next song
holding the mic, but with no base stand. This in itself looked funny and
you could tell Gord was laughing a bit, as well. The roadie then came on
stage and gave him this very silly looking mic, with a tripod base. Gord
then commented how "I've gone from an elongated Freddy Mercury to a Rod Stewart".
He then started twirling the mic in a "mock Rod Stewart" fashion, which was
hilarious. He eventually dropped it and said, "See, Rod would never drop
his.".
Anyway, by this point you could tell he wasn't happy with the mic stand and
his "rantings" were reflecting this - "You're just a microphone stand, and
I'm a full grown man". He then tried to do one of his mic "tricks" where
he kicks the mic away from himself and then uses his foot to bring it back.
Well, this just wasn't working with the new mic, so he threw the stand to
the side of the stage and sang all of "Courage". while gingerly holding his
mic "sans stand" (which looks strange for him... a little too Bono meets
Tony Bennett).
You could tell Gord was anxious to get his regular mic fixed, but then another
roadie came on and gave him ANOTHER one of the silly "Tripod" style mics.
He just looked at while singing and threw it to the side of the stage. About
a song and a half later, a guy with the cowboy hat (a member of their crew,
I think) brought Gord a proper mic and he was clearly very happy. He made
some comment about Van Morrison using something as a trademark, but his trademark
was a microphone stand (I didn't really catch it). Anyway, he was glad to
have it back and the rest of the show reflected it. A great bit of comedy,
though.
Back to the show, it was a fairly standard set list, but it just sounded
so good in this theatre. I tend to like The Hip's newer stuff, as opposed
to their older, more "roots rock" stuff, but I must say "Blow At High Dough"
just kills live. The (excellent) standards of "Use it Up", "Grace Too", "Fully
Completely", and "Nautical Disaster" were excellent, as always. I'll never
get my head around my "New Orleans Is Sinking" seems so popular, but alas.
"Dire Wolf", "Good Life" and "Lake Fever" are among my new favourites, and
they were all great. I had hoped to hear "Thugs" and "Escape is At Hand..."
during my Hip Euro adventure, but hopefully next time.
On a side note, I always find it strange how little The Tragically Hip advertise
their shows, particularly in London where I'm from. In London, the shows
are always full, but unless you carefully read the music listings or get
The Hip's e-mails, you'd never know they were playing. Anyway, that's the
end of my Euro rant (I just get frustrated that The Hip visit our shores
so rarely, when they clearly win over every person who comes to the shows).
Hopefully they'll play Brixton Academy next time!! They deserve it.
Kurt (from the UK)
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