They played 19 songs in total. During the show, I met Jake Gold, the Hip's manager. My group was standing right in front of the soundboard, leaning against the metal barrier surrounding it. During Meridian, my two friends (Hip virgins till last night) were asking this guy for a setlist after the show. I turn to see what's going on, and it's Jake! He looks at me and I ask him if he's Jake Gold. I introduce myself, and he says, "You're Rory? I know you. YOU'RE Rory? It's nice to meet you!" Quite the cool experience. He asked me if I was getting a good recording, and asked me if I was going to Newfoundland. Then he handed me the setlist, folded up, and told me not to look at it because he didn't want to ruin the show for me. That was my cool Hip moment for the night, besides the concert itself :)
The day started off well. The weather was fantastic, I'd say probably 25 Celsius all day. The clouds threatened to dump rain a couple times, but they stayed away.
Buck 65 was up first. Reminded me of Van Allen Belt a bit, from Roadside 97. Very happy to be where he was. A local hip-hop artist.
Crush was next. They have a huge single on the radio right now, "Live". Good pop/rock band from Newfoundland.
Sarah Harmer went on around 6 PM. Besides the Hip, I was there to see her. I love her music. You Were Here was easily one of the best albums of 2000. She played a 12-song set, which included Silver Road. For that song, she brought a special guest on stage. You guessed it: Gord Downie. He sang the song with her, and then quickly left the stage after shaking hands with the entire band. What a beautiful song. She was very well received by the swelling crowd.
Our Lady Peace took the stage at 7:30. I'm not the biggest fan, personally, but I have to say they played an energetic set. The crowd adored them. A lot of screaming teens.
OK, bring on the Hip :) They started right on time at 9:30. Here's the setlist and some notes:

USE IT UP: They just walked on stage and the drum loop started. This is a great show opener. Gord D. put a great deal of energy into this one. The original setlist had Are You Ready as the opener, and Use It Up as the middle song in the encore.
MY MUSIC AT WORK: A huge crowd-pleaser, with a super-extended outro.
NEW ORLEANS: I'm so glad they've decided to include this song in the first three of the night. Still, the boys still put everything into it. Gord Sinclair still bobs his head with his bass, and Robby's fingers still dance enthusiastically.
FULLY COMPLETELY: This is where Gord first bemoans the crowd down front for crowd-surfing, which had been happening since the very beginning of the day. He mentions something about the premier of Ontario and what he thinks a society should be, comparing it somehow with a crowd-surfing society. Very funny stuff.
BOBCAYGEON: The stars were out last night, and this was such a perfect outdoor-show-in-the-summer tune.
SILVER JET: "This is a song about being cut off, in mid-conversation." I was chomping at the bit to hear this one live, and they didn't disappoint. More scolding the crowd-surfers.
COURAGE: "You guys are totally taking care of each other down there, right?" ... then, in the middle of the song..."I'm sorry, Courage. You're late. But, come on in."
FIREWORKS: A certain crowd-pleaser so close to Canada day. Speaking of which, I was pleased that there weren't any huge flags being waved around. Not to say there weren't any flags at ALL. Many Captain Canada's roamed the crowd, using the flag as a cape.
GOOD LIFE: Beautiful song when played live, but it occured to me that this song might have disrupted the flow of the concert a bit. Still, the crowd loved it, and Gord's voice soared over the throbbing masses.
LOCKED: Took awhile for the fans to recognize this one, it seemed. But once they started into the guitar intro, a huge ovation arose. Probably the best live version of Locked I've ever witnessed!
ALL TORE UP: Maybe the funniest moment of the night. Gord forgot the words to the first verse, so the band kept playing as Gord looked at Paul and Gord S. and shrugged his shoulders with a sheepish grin. Then Billy Ray ran onstage with what appeared to be a lyric shet and dropped it at Gord's feet... "we were a blowout..."
MERIDIAN: Explosive. Plain and simple. Sounded like there could have been a new song forming in the middle. You can faintly hear mine and Jake Gold's conversation during the opening few minutes, but it doesn't really disrupt the recording.
ABAC: A beautiful version, and the first appearances of lighters.
THE DIRE WOLF: Personally, my favorite song on IVL. "Any fisherman here tonight? Fisherwomen? If I were a woman, I'd still want to be called a fisherMAN. Sounds better" Not a direct quote, but I'll get it :) The mention of Newfoundland got a massive roar of approval.
GIFTSHOP: Nothing special about this song last night, but the light show was great.
DARKEST ONE: Blistering! Right at the end of the last verse, Gord yelled out, "You win! You're the darkest one" Priceless.
NAUTICAL: Another one the crowd really loved. Gord got all the lyrics right for this one. He usually forgets a verse here and there, but a good main set closer.

ENCORE:
GRACE,TOO: This song definitely works as an encore opener. Seems that the crowd was waiting for it. A big sing-along.
BLOW: A perfect end to the perfect day.

As I said before, Use It Up was on the original setlist as being the middle song, but because of time constraints, they had to finish with Blow. It was 11:03 when they finished, over time already. I suppose it was some sort of by-law. But by no means did anyone feel short-changed :)
The boys had so much energy, and they showed it. I estimate the crowd to have been somewhere between 13000 and 15000. Can't wait for St. John's tomorrow!

Cheers, all!

Rory


just got back from the show.Ý i didn't keep a setlist, but i am sure someone did.Ý here are some of the songs i can remember.Ý they are not in order at all

blow
nois (this was 2nd or 3rd.Ý glad they got that out of the way)
silver jet
a good life
grace
fireworks
darkest one
locked (woooooo!)
100th meridian
music @ work
fully
gift shop
abac
nautical
use it up
bob c

the crowd was wild.Ý i would guess between 25,000 and 30,000 .Ý lots of crowd surfing and shit.Ý what is the attraction to that?Ý fuck it is annoying.

anyway....

rory... did you get it on tape?Ý e-mail me off list

need more beer and then need sleep.Ý gotta drive home tomorrow

mark


What a concert, I've been to the last 5 Halifax Dates and this one I enjoyed the most. Great atmosphere.

To kick it off Gord came on with Sarah Harmer to duet on the song from Men With Brooms (excuse me for not knowing the title). Her set was ok, nothing spectacular. Next up was OLP and it was painful, I loved Naveed but ever since I can't stand Maida's voice.

Thank god the hip came, Gord starts off by stating "this is a john entwistle" tune and kicks it into Use it Up which sounds a LOT better live then on the album. Another highlight was Silver Jet, it sounded awesome live, and the other regulars were done to perfection as always too.

Also during Hundredth Meridian (could be wrong) Gord keeps repating "Its like a dream to be with you again" which is from A Quick One while he's away by the Who in a reference to the passing of Entwistle, it was subtle yet beautiful and it made my night.

Other then that it was a great outdoor (Almost) Canada Day show. The boys were in fine form, my main regret is not hearing Are You Ready, I was hoping that would be a "fire me up" warmup song to the night.

I took a few pictures but only a couple turned out decent, I'll pass them to rory to put on his site.

- andy


I am a fairly new fan so this was my first show and they did not disappoint.
The first band I truly liked there was Sarah Harmer as she made me a fan of hers last night with a good performance. Iíll never forget Gord D coming out to sing Silver Road, though he was having some Mic Problems.
As far as a comment on the crowd surfing/moshing, I think it has gone too far. During Crush there was a mosh circle going 3 feet in front of me. Youíd figure we were at a Slayer Concert or something. OLP had a fairly rough pit as well as with plenty of young girls getting squished and whatnot. Iím a big guy myself so I was helping block a lot of people. A friend of mine somehow made her way far up and she was starting to get crushed.
As far as the hip go ,they were amazing.
Before they came on there were constant chants of ìHIP HIP HIP HIPî and we were getting hosed down with water. When they finally hit the whole hill was going crazy.
Im pretty sure that before ìUse It Upî Gord said it was a John Entwistle Song in reference to the passing of the Whoís legendary bassist.. I managed to stay down front until Bobcaygeon when I saw what was probably my best chance to get out of the pit. I had been down there since Sarah Harmer and I hadnít had any water in a few hours so I was near dead, especially with a partial hangover from the night before.
One of the more memorable moments was Gord continually trying to calm the crowd down front and when he pointed out that there was an ambulance on the ridgeÖÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ î Theres an ambulance on the ridge. Itís not part of our light show. If you happen to need the ambulance, we would like to say we are sorry. We hope its not too serious and that you have a happy Canada dayî
Overall I was highly impressed and I will definitely go see the hip again

-Stevo


After a few beers and a delicious meal on the Halifax waterfront at the Sheraton Hotel patio, we headed up to Citadel Hill to catch the Canada Day show featuring Sarah Harmer, Crush, Our Lady Peace, and the Hip.  Just caught the end of Crush but I do like them and enjoyed the final two songs. Sarah Harmer was awesome but only a handful of people seemed into her.  No booing or Hipping or anything though so that's cool.  That's the third time I've seen her.  Gord D joined her for Silver Road, much to the enjoyment of the crowd.  It was a pretty nice day, overcast, but no raining and occasional breaks of nice hot sunshine.  We headed up the hill to sit and watch OLP.  They are a good band but I wanted to save my standing energy for the Hip.  OLP were very grateful and Raine said they were proud to share the stage with a fine band like the Hip, as well as all the people of Halifax. He climbed the scaffold to retrieve a Canada flag and then displayed it on the drum kit.  So after a pretty solid set, they said goodbye with no encore.

The Hip came on to a stage drenched in violet light and opened with Use It Up, which seems to be the new opener they are using.  It works.  We were standing in front of the stage, far enough back from the crowd surfers but close enough to have a great view.  The constant flow of people pushing to get closer as well as people pushing to get out were slightly annoying but I guess you have to expect that at an outdoor show.  Gord D was encouraging people to "take care of each other" and had a few rants about 185 pound guys pushing you around and of course "crowd surfing went out with acid washed jeans."  Silver Jet was wicked.  Gord forgot lyrics for Bobcaygeon but no one seemed to notice.  He really seemed into the show though, which was a treat to watch.  They played lots of Hip favourites (NOIS, Blow, Locked, etc) and the crowd sang along.  Especially enjoyable was when Gord would change the lyrics and then look around acting bewildered that the crowd did not know the lyrics he was singing.  I can't remember which song it was but during one where he was especially animated, he leaned backwards and kept going, fell right into Gord Sinclair.  Gord S didn't even see him coming, but he kept right on playing.  After the song he went up to Gord D and said
a few things.

Midway through the show an ambulance showed up at the back of Citadel Hill and Gord remarked, "That is not part of our light show folks.  On behalf of all of us I'd like to wish that person well.  I hope you're alright.  Happy Canada Day."  The last part was obviously sarcastic but the crowd erupted into cheering, obviously not getting the sarcasm.

All in all a great show.  I'd have liked to hear more new ones but I suppose an outdoor show on Canada Day is not the time.  The new albums is so wicked. Whenever I evaluate a Hip album I think about all the non-Hip fans who say that Hip fans aren't objective and would feed on any tripe that the Hip fed them.  I wonder if I'm like that.  Honestly I really do LOVE the new album
and especially the lyrics because I think Gord has continued to evolve to a higher level.  My favourite tracks are Silver Jet and Leave, with All Tore Up coming in at third because I love the line, "Play your "fuck off now"'s and don't clear the place."

Looking forward to the arena tour,

Andrew


Wow, what a night. The croud was crazy, drunk people puking on people infront of them, throughing sparklers, bottles shoe at Gord( I will get to taht in a second) and those STUPID red lazer pointers. Anyway, The show was not bad at all. Started out ruff and ABAC was really bad, probably the worst I had heard. But Gord got a Red Dot in the eye, you could tell he jumped back, and just before the song started someone through a sparkler on stage, scared Gord alittle I think. But after that all that crap, the show was AMAZING, Silver Jet sounded amazing!, use it up, darkest one, I could go on forever. I choose to take pictures instead of writing the setlist down. They played a great mix of tunes, locked, 100th meridian, music @ work, fully. A stupid person in the crowd through a show at Gord and hit his leg, he went on to rant about it, I can't remeber right know what he said, I hope a good recording is out there, it was Classic! You can see my pictures in the http://www.hipbase.com/gallery/ I have a few good ones
Over all it was a great show, I hope that the Hip do a few more outdoor shows in Eastern Canada in the future. I need some sleep, too much beer.....
-Lance

I was at the show and what a great show it was. You may have noticed me if you were there as I stuck out. I was the big guy wearing a Team Canada Jersey and a funny looking hat. I highly enjoyed the show which was my first show and they started it out very well with use it up followed by music at work and new orleans is sinking and then slamming into fully completely. It was an awesome way to start the show. The crowd was very rough up front so I decided it was time to get the hell out of there. I had been up front all day and hadnt had a drink in a while so I was fairly tired, especially after nursing a hangover. I then found my way
out onto the hill to find a friend who was watching from there and then we found a good spot on the hill. While I watched from the hill I witnessed something I had never seen in my limited concert experience. There were grown couples laying together singing loud and proud every word of the hips songs which was an amazing experience. The band played a VERY good Ahead By A Century which was followed by an equally good version of "The Dire Wolf". The Song closing out the main set was Nautical Disaster which was also done very well. I was surprised to see alot of people leaving after Nautical Disaster, only to see them turn around as they heard the opening drum beat to Grace, Too. They ended the show once and for all with Blow At High Dough which was an awesome way to close the show.
As a new hip fan, seeing my first hip show, I was VERY impressed and cant help but hope they do an arena tour in the fall.
-Steve

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