WOW! Kick ass show! I'll post a full length review tomorrow, but for now here's the details....
Something On
Fully Completely
Courage
Membership
Gift Shop
Lionized
Poets
The Luxury
700 ft Ceiling
Ahead By A Century
Bobcaygeon
Nautical Disaster
Fireworks
Springtime In Vienna
Blow At High Dough
Escape Is At Hand...
At The Hundredth Meridian
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Vapour Trails
Scared
Fire In The Hole
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Chagrin Falls
New Orleans Is Sinking
OK, here I go again...
First off, IMO, last night was 10 times better than Buffalo. The sound was a lot cleaner, the crowd was really into it, and Gord looked very much at ease on stage. I kept a real close eye on Gord this time 'round, and made some notes/comments below on him.
The songs:
Something On: Gord talked a bit before they started playing, and
the connection he made with the crowd turned what's usually a so-so song
for me into a great opener. Gord sang.
Fully Completely: An old fave of mine, and everyone elses too,
judging from everyone singing along with Gord. I was in heaven...
Courage: See above. No one single person at this point
was sitting down anywhere to be seen. Gord just sang for these first
three, and his antics onstage were classic. I wish I had a camcorder.
Membership: Gord donned his trusty guitar and strummed along
in good time. The crowd was okay with the song, but I had the feeling that
many simply hadn't heard the song on the radio before and lost interest.
There's been talk on here lately that Gord isn't the same with a gt in
his hand. That
may have been the case, but things are changing. He wasn't bebopping
around the stage per se, but he did this cool lil' snippet at the very
end and it seemed well thought out and well known by him; could be another
new work in progress. I've dubbed the snippet "When In Doubt" for
now, I'll
have to listen to my tapes again and comment more later.
Gift Shop: Gord kept the gt going and, like Membership, there
was something at the end, although pretty brief in duration. I was
watching his hands as I was listening to the music and you could just make
out his few chords amidst the others. A couple behind us, in their
40's I'd say and really cool to chat with, commented to me that it looked
cool to her to see four guys lined up on stage, all playing gt's...
Lionized: "This is called Star System..." No funky lead
in on the gts this time, but damn near everyone was singing along.
Gord sang, no gt; and roamed for a bit. Stacie pointed out Bobby's
hair, which looked like he'd just got out of the shower; it was crimped
a bit and very long and we
wondered if he was using Paul's hair stylist now.
Poets: Kick ass! Gord rattled his gourd and I even saw
the 50-something couple in front of us mouthing the words in time.
Sinclair had a really damn cool looking outfit going; I gotta get me one
of them.
The Luxury: I love this song. Gord had the gourd out and
I was really impressed; he kept up with it for the entire song! May
not sound like much but you try tossing up a rattle and catching it, on
beat, for 5 minutes while singing and swaying - it ain't easy! At
one point a big blue beach ball got tossed up on stage. Gord picked
it up and started talking to it and cradling it like it was the earth and
he was saying something like "don't worry little people of blue ball planet,
I won't hurt you...." then his tone turned condascending towards said little
people of blue ball then finally they met their untimely death when their
planet was tossed back stage at the whim of evil Gord.
700 Ft Ceiling: A song for Special_K... need I say more?
Gord played guitar and just ripped into the vocals.
Flip the tape....
Ahead By A Century: The first few strummed chord sounded like
Wheat Kings to me and I got waaaayyy too excited. I was jotting down
notes and singing along when, around the first chorus I realized that I
was singing ABAC and they weren't playing Kings. Oh well, if they
fooled my brain what can I say? It was that good. Gord played
the gt and his feed was a little stronger at this point. Nice long
flowing snippet at the end; I was enjoying it a lot but couldn't place
the words to it. Just then I turned to Stac with a questioning look
on my face and she mouthed the words "Cookie Factory" to me. Smart
gal, she picked it up before I did! While the snippet wasn't the
Cookie I remember from 96, the part about the west wind was still in it.
Bobcaygeon: Gord did gt again, very well done. Didn't pay
too much attention to things; Stac and I were dancing....
Nautical Disaster: Cool stuff. Gord set aside the gt so
he could get into the song, showing the crowd how he swam, hell, you all
can picture it. Some unidentified rambling at the very end of it; again,
I need to hear the tapes soon. I saw Johnny break both sticks simultaneously,
nod to his roadie, toss off the sticks with one hand and catch the new
ones in the other and NOT miss a beat. Damn fine : )
Fireworks: Kind of a surprise to me as Gord picked up his gt
for this one. I don't remember anyone mentioning him playing this one before,
maybe he's been busy practising. He ripped the vocals again, and
by the end of the song he had moved a few feet from where he'd started
playing, so I'd say he's getting more comfortable with the git bit by bit.
Springtime In Vienna: Highlights were Gord playing hackeysack
with his gourd. Didn't see the banana at all this show. Hmmmm,
wonder where it got to?
Blow At High Dough: Gord and the boys put all their energy into
this one and man was the crowd rocking! He was busy with leg kicks
and dancin' while they tore thru the song.... fine show. The
guy beside me kept jumping up and down which I don't mind but he repeatedly
stomped my foot so
I poked him in the back of the knee with my thumb and he got the idea.
Escape...: No surprise when Gord played gt during this one.
It became really obvious that a lot of the fans weren't really familiar
with the song as I saw many people sit down for a bit and many looks of
mild interest. Stac commented that songs that haven't hit the airwaves
yet are probably the ones that Joe Fan skips over on PP and I think she's
right.
100th Meridian: Two words - Classic Hip. "At the 100th
meridian... where the real test begins." Quite possibly the
highlight of my live hip experiences to date, it was that good. Was
happier than a pig in shit when, instead of going into Insomniacs like
they'd been doing Gord started into a new (for my ears anyway) snippet.
It was about 2 -3 minutes and quite nice - had something to do with ten
episodes of his TV show and he sang about each one in order... I
will do a post soon regarding this. Of over 100 versions of ATHM
I've heard this was the best Gord has ever done at the "If I die of vanity..."
part. The band just suddenly stopped when he hit the "If I" and he
rapped his way thru til "eulogy" then there was two seconds of dead silence
before the band kicked back in. Anyway the reg set ended and Copps
was shakin' for sure.
Switch tapes...
Vapour Trails: Like Buffalo, people didn't seem to care about
this song. What has radio done??? Gord played the gt, strayed from
his mic for a few seconds at a time, and broke into Insomniacs at the very
end of the song. He was singing when the band had stopped and I think I
really impressed (or scared) the couple behind me by being able to rhyme
off Insomniacs in time with Gordie... he used it to lead in to the
next one;
Scared: There was this hushed awe about the building as Gord
plucked along on the gt and gave a really emotional rendition of things.
IMO one of their finer mellower songs. The snippet I like to call
Empty Halls was added to the end, something about being left alone by his
friends. Unfortunetly everyone was cheering too loud for me to make much
sense of it.
Fire In The Hole: For anyone who wasn't seen it live, this rocks!
The intro was the usual bit about a black church being burned down with
the choir inside ("whhhhhhhyyyyyyyy do you treat me soooo baaaadd?").
Some chick three to the left of me stood up on her chair and jumped up
and down,
if she'd been any heavier she would've broken the entire row of chairs
I'm sure. No gt or rattle for Gordie - I think this song has really
got some new meaning for him and/or the band and it clearly shows.
They said goodnight, but unlike Buffalo NOBODY got up and left.
While everyone was cheering I turned around and saw the couple behind
us. They'd been politely using their binoculars to try and see past this
chicks back during Fire and upon seeing that she wasn't sitting down they
started to leave which pissed me off. It just goes back to people
hindering on
someone else view and enjoyment of the show. It's people like
this couple that the hip try to reach; they probably own RA and one other
CD, like listening to the hip on the radio and wanted to go see a show.
If they get a bad impression of the hip or hip fans they might very well
go home a little pissed and might not buy PP, tell a few friends about
their slightly annoying experience and.... well, you get the
idea. Personally, it would make no difference to me in the long run
BUT it probably does to the hip and hence indirectly the fans. So
I reached around, gave chicky-poo a polite tap on the shoulder and yelled
"Could you please not stand on the seat???" Stac was impressed that
a) I did this without swearing, and b) that the chick was nice enough to
get off the chairs. The couple was really glad; he thanked me after
the show and we chatted a bit about the hip. And soon, they came
back out and...
Chagrin' Falls: Some asshole booed !?!?!?!!! Sinner!
Most people just stood fairly quiet and I think the band noticed; when
the guy booed Gord momentarily lost his focus on his gt and stumbled a
few chords. They had Emperor Penguin planned on the setlist but I
think the cool reception to
non-radio PP songs may have killed that option. The night ended
with one song less than usual, and a few minutes under 2 hours with
New Orleans Is Sinking: At the very start some fan jumped up
from stage right on the stage, danced in front of Bobby, Gord and Gord
then jumped into the Zone just before a roadie was ready to take him out.
Everyone laughed, and Gord said something in reference to this guy's dancing
like
"that's sad.... I can do better than that!" Thirty seconds later
and this guy jumped back up center stage, went to resume his dance and
tripped over an amp and wisely made a header into the crowd just as said
roadie was getting up. Of maybe ten times I've seen this song live
this was the coolest of them all. Gord played the gt and his feed
was cranked up high and you really could notice him playing, it was so
nice. The building shook. The mid song jam was very, very tight
and well played; I think there's a new song hiding in there just ready
to come out, much like Escape in late 96 early 97 was. Gord had a
great song worked out which I have heard maybe only once or twice before;
here's what I remember of it: "Could you? Would you?
Hold me and squeeze me tight?!? And never leave me lonely thru the
night / after all I AM JUST A MAN!!!" Some stuff I couldn't
quite make out, then the main body of this new thing was "you know I try,
and I TRY, AND I TRY, BUT BABY...."
[couldn't hear the rest]. I almost thought it was the Stone's Satisfaction
when I heard the I try part, but it wasn't as far as I could tell.
So that was the show. We left in high spirits and I felt great! It had a Cobo'96 feel to it from all aspects - the mood, the band, the crowd; unlike Buffalo which felt lacking. I'm dying to hear my tapes again and try to make out some of the new bits they did, I'll post what I find.
OVERALL, A FUCKING AWESOME SHOW!!
and only a few hours til tonights!
james 'gord' gamble,
the travellin'
man
Looking forward to Friday and Monday!
James
Glenn Nott
The Spectator
They inhale back bacon, wear lots of plaid, and leave their socks on when doing the nasty. Oh, and Canadians rock themselves senseless to The Tragically Hip. Anytime, anywhere, any place -- even in the bedroom, socks on or not.
Copps Coliseum took on the feel of a boudoir last night, with more than
13,000 Hip lovers cozying
up together for another night of passion. It's a loyalty that's automatic
and forever. The moment the house lights darkened and the stage lit up,
the crowd welcomed lead singer Gord Downie and crew
with an anthem-like all-stand, and they stayed out of their seats the
rest of the way.
Of course, Downie and the Kingston trio -- guitarists Paul Langlois
and Bobby Baker and drummer
Johnny Fay --know just how to service their faithful followers, too
-- another sold-out show at
Copps tonight, a surprise benefit concert at Hamilton Place last summer,
a last-minute Roadside Attraction stop in Cayuga in 1995. No other band
-- no other anything, anyone -- has returned that kind of loyalty locally,
especially lately.
"The Hip are the best and they just keep getting better," said Peter Cormier of Kitchener, sipping a pre-show beer in the bowels of Copps with friends.
Part of the fun of a Tragically Hip show is waiting for frontman Downie
to erupt -- he's famous for his stream-of-consciousness rants, his politically
tinged rails, his ad lib quirky-jerky dance numbers.
There was some of that last night. Downie danced a little on a sparse
stage topped by a faux circular ceiling sporting a single large chandelier.
But from the opening number, Something's On, and on into the first half of the show, the singer's vocals seemed somehow thin. The problem seemed to correct itself for a strong rendition of Poets and later Ahead By a Century, but at other times Downie sounded like the mayor of Munchkinland and really couldn't be heard clearly.
Toronto's By Divine Right opened the evening with a tight, well-received package of sharp pop, many selections taken from the group's forthcoming sophomore album, Bless This Mess. And, true to their heritage, Hip fans -- the ones who weren't sequestered underneath the stands with beer and smokes -- were polite and patient.
It was obvious, though, who they really came for.
Much of the first part of the evening was reserved for newer material from the Phantom Power album. But Hip classics such as Grace, Too and the previously mentioned Ahead By a Century received the warmest embraces. The Hip have always liked to keep things simple, and a very modest bank of laser lights and a bubbly neon slide show scheme were the only nods to rock excess. KISS this ain't. These were fans who couldn't be fooled anyway. From the stage-front Phantom Zone on back, heads swayed and bounced accordingly. They knew the songs.
The Hip are the Kings of the High Cs, that's C for Canadians. There was love in the air. Homegrown, too. Cancelling a concert because of a cold? The Tragically Hip wouldn't hear of it, and the heat of their fans wouldn't allow it.
Besides, it's hard to catch a cold when you're wearing socks to bed.
Are you listening, Luciano?