Well I rushed home from work to pick up my 2 buddies for the show. We headed to the Dublin Pub before the show and had a couple pints. They were playing Day For Night cranked pretty loud and the place was just packed. I didnít see any henhousers I recognized but I did see a lot of hip shirts and people most likely heading to the show. We left Dublin around 720ish to head over to see Sammy. We went into Hummingbird and the place is just outstanding. Itís mostly use for ballets and opera and stuff like that but who cares, thehip are here and itís time to party. We took a look at the merchandise table and my buddy bought the IVL toque and my other friend bought the tour shirt with the elephants on the front. I kept telling them, ìBuy them off the website through thehipclub because itís cheaper but they wouldnít listen. Anyways, we got the stuff and headed down to our seats, ROW CC 1-3 I might addÖÖÖWE WERE SOOOOO CLOSE IT WAS JUST AMAZING!!!!!!!!!Ý Sean Eaggs was actually sitting right behind us so we introduced ourselves and chatted a little bit before the show. Sammy came on and he once again had the crowd going nuts. People were on their feet for a few songs and he kept thanking thehip for this awesome tour. Sammy was rolling all over the floor on the last song and they had the crowd going pretty good. Probably the best Sam Roberts performance Iíve seen on the tour.

SHOWTIME:
Now Iíve seen a whole lot of hip shows but Iíve never seen Gord rant and dance more then this show. I think every song had at least some ranting, maybe except for Good Life but at the end of every song, it had me looking at my friends and Sean with my jaw dropped thinking, ìI hope this recording turns out because this is best show EVER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!î My buddy Scott (hipbond) was dancing around like a madman like he does at every show. At one point I elbowed him right in the nose but life went on because thehip were playing and we canít pay attention to pain when thereís a show to be watched. Once again Gord was wearing has famous green shirt and by the end of the show the thing was plastered right to his body because of all the sweat. A few highlights for me were IOD, Escape, Gems into Dire Wolf, Locked, Poets rant where he sat on the stage and sang to someone front row and the Meridian ìforgettingî rant is really evolving and is really sticking in my head that Iím every singing everything he says and lastly Fire in the Hole to end the show. Iím going to thank thehipclub for this show because without it, I most likely wouldnít have been able to sit pretty much on the stage, HAHA!! WelpÖ.and so ends another hip showÖ..BUT not just another hip show. This for me was the show of all shows. If thereís one recording you should get a hold of, itís this night. Gord must have said the F word about 20 times during the show and he was probably the most in tune with the music then Iíve ever seen him. Just an outstanding performance!! If tomorrow night is half as good, Iíll be darn happy.

Jamie Innes
Thehip_11@hotmail.com

Use it up
M@W
NOIS
Grace
Escape
Courage
Jet
Putting Down
Weaken
Poets
IOD
Beauty
100th
Locked
ABAC
Gems/Dire
Bones

encore
Lake Fever
Are you ready
Fire in the hole

Real good show, Gord was really into tonight, he did some classic rants. Was hoping for the Gem we asked for but locked, escape, IOD and Gems in one show was enough for me, I am previewing my recording now, it sounds good, from the third row on the left. Got to meet Jamie and his buddy Hipbond (sorry your real name escapes me). Gord had a little potty mouth tonight must have used the f word 15 times. Thats all for now, enjoy night 2, my hip tour is over for now.

Some quotes that stick out from last night!

"You can lead a courage to water, but can't make it wear pantyhose"
"Looked up to the Lord above and said hey Paul Langlois thanks.......I swear to Rob he said. OHHHH Fuck no, You imagine Paul saying that NOOOO fuck that."
"let's go to down the bloodbank, I was going down to the recruiting office right after the show and sign up, and if they didn't have one I was gonna say you should have one in Toronto"
 "Where do you think your going, your a microphone, where do you think your going, you got a microphone stand and nothing else, just shut up I'll do the talking."

Sean

Get off the train and meet my friend at Union and we make our way down to the Hummer. It's 7pm now as we stop and hang out near the corner where the scalpers were selling. My friends go and talk to a cop about something interesting and I start to talk to another guy beside me smoking. We start a conversation and I ask him how many shows he's been to in his lifetime, he said "600, maybe a 1000."
I assumed with a number like that, he's been to a lot of shows but not 600. I told him it was my 5th show and I laughed. He then told me he was the Hip's tour manager or something like that I forget......IT'S JAKE GOLD!!!! I was in shock!
We talk for a little while longer now about stuff and he asked me if I got "first-in-line" ticket sales through the Hip Club. I told him I did but I was with two other friends and they didn't want to pay a lot for our seats (my seats were up in row Z, left of centre in the balcony). He said, "oh alright, here take these...." He reaches in his pocket and pulls out two complmentary tickets in row G, centre!!!! Now I was really shocked!! I was literally speachless. I said thanks so much and he left. So I told my friends and they were speachless but only one could sit with me. So my one friend attends U of T and he goes off to find two more friends who wanted to go.
7:20pm - So me and my friend go into the Hummer to look around and we go to our seats and wait for Sam Roberts to appear.
7:32pm - Sam hits the stage. He did a terrific job encouraging a good size crowd to stand and sing along. Sam and his band played some really good jams that got the crowd moving a bit more. Great performance!
8:17pm - Sam Roberts finishes up and we leave to find my other friend with another girl. My original seats were way up where the spotlight was shining, far from the stage. We then head down to the lobby and hang out there. On my way back to my seat, I look at the sound/light board and the hip's setlist is sitting right on the table. I force myself not to look as I wanted to be surprised with each song. I sit down and start talking with some fellow hipsters and ask how they got their tickets. One of them said he got it free from Gord Sinclair! It turns out that they both went to high school with the Hip back in Kingston! I was speachless again!! He wasn't very talkative so I decided to mind my own business.
8:39pm - The crowd is getting excited and chanting "Hip Hip Hip Hip" here and there. Suddenly the lights go out and everyone jumps to their feet as the Hip enter!
My review from what I remember:
The band walks on stage as Gord is wearing his green shirt and a Bruin hat. They start off with Use It Up and right away I'm dancing on the spot waving my hands in the air (by the way, I was the one in the white hip jersey and orange hat).
M@W was next and they had an extended version to the song that blew me away!
NOIS was played at its best with Paul's stellar guitar riff at the start. Also when gord sang, "Looked up to the lord above and said hey Paul Langlois thanks....." (look at Eags' quote's from the show).
Grace, Too "he said I'm Tragically Hip!" Gord sits on one of the speakers.
Escape is at hand was one of my fav's from the night and I was really happy to hear it. Great jam at the start.
Great lighting as well for the whole show.....
IOD, escape, weaken, meridian, locked....
Nice little rant before and in the middle of 100th meridian as well but didn't catch it and Robby's nice "picking" of his guitar in the middle too (you know what I mean?). Also when gord sang "....an american myth" and looked at the crowd maybe trying to see our reaction to him not saying canadian myth, that was a good laugh. Gord sitting down on the stage talking with the crowd during Poets about his ssssssssssound.
By the way, anyone know who was filming down in row DD I think, he was right near GD when he sat on the stage.
The Gems/Dire Wolf feature was well played with them blending into dire wolf. And hearing Little Bones for the first time since the Phantom Power 1999 tour was a treat with gord's dancing. What was really funny during Bones was near the end of the song when gord would sing "baby eat this chicken slow....", he decided to save it for later in his rant I think. But Gord Sinclair missed that and did the backup to where GD would have sung it, you know. Right away I looked at Paul and he had a big smile on his face, then when GD finally sang the words, Paul and GSinclair looked at each other and laughed. Anyone else see that?
During the break before the encore, it was awesome to hear the entire crowd chant HIP HIP HIP HIP.....that was great! I waved my hat in circles when the hip came back for the encore.
I agree that the encore was kinda disappointing but it was still awesome!
When gord said 1,2,3 Are You Ready!!! to the crowd. Gord lying on the stage at the end of fire in the hole.

Anyways, superb show guys thanks a lot. Also thanx to Jake for the tickets, awesome!!! Can't wait to hear how the recording sounded like!

 (Wow is it already "3 o'clock in the morning") hehe
The Wheat King

Anyways... setlist has been posted, but here's some thoughts....

Use it up... M@W... NOIS...
- pretty much the standard opener here... between Use It Up & Silver Jet, they've pretty much been opening every show up with some combination (ok, not EVERY show, but you know what I mean).... Crowd seemed to LOVE M@W... which I found funny... I don't remember the song getting such a strong reaction on the M@W tour... NOIS seemed a little revitalized. I know it's early in the setlist so they can get it over & done with, but Gord was actually doing a little bit of a rant there... first time I've seen him do that here on this whole tour....
Grace... Gord was off his rocker! Bobby was REALLY getting into this song...
Escape... was a pleasant surprise. First time I've seen the song on this tour (12th show for me?), and one of my faves... nice long lead in to the song, and a great performance, though it seemed like Gord did mess up a line or two (but that could've been my imagination).
Courage...Ý Jet....
- and Gord was off his rocker again... jumping around all over the stage. Crowd was nuts.
Putting Down... this calmed the crowd down, but I love this song.
Weaken
Poets... IOD...
- wow... these two songs back to back was just insane. The energy level was thru the roof. During Poets, Gord sat down on one of the monitors and 'ranted' to some guy in the front row... and I heard Gord yelling about laminar flow at the end of Poets....
Beauty
100th... this 'life is forgetting' thing is coming along nicely... it's been pretty cool to see the whole progression thru the tour..."How could you forget? Something has to happen. How could you forget? Every little thing. I remember everything (10x)... Is life just forgetting?"... And everytime they launch into this bit, I'm just in awe at Johnny's drumming...
Locked
ABAC
Gems/Dire... a pleasure to hear Gems again... took me totally by surprise in Walkerton, but I was little more ready for it here, and got more of a chance to enjoy it... here the progression from the one song into the other. Sounds great. Awesome lights on Johnny... 5 spotlights across the top of the stage all trained on him, creating a star-like effect.
Bones

encore
Lake Fever... love this song... always love to hear it. I just love Paul in this song... and Gord chiming in with "That's a whole lot of hearts".. after the 'gonna break the hearts of everyone'....
Are you ready
Fire in the hole... just tore thru this song.... awesome.

Great show.... just fantastic. Every time I start to question why I have the need to see this band so much, we get a show like that, and it answers that question... can't wait 'till tomorrow night!
-Ian B.

Would I have liked a second encore. or...a gem?....Sure...but we got tonight babe!

Jeffro

Gord D was very animated, and I was really hooked on watching him.

He did a bit of the laminar flow, as well as the ssssshhhhhhhhhhhh sound, and life is for getting. He argued/battled the mic a  couple of times, and he looked for his cat Little Bones. Great rants all evening.

 I can't wait for tomorrow night.

chris

PS -> I saw at least 4 people making audio recordings, and 2 video cameras. I certainly hope this show becomes available.

                                                       Hip-synching along

                                                       Fans delighted with band's up-close-and-personal tour

                                                                                By DEREK TSE
                                                                                    Toronto Sun

                                                       THE TRAGICALLY HIP
                                                       Hummingbird Centre, Toronto
                                                       Tuesday, October 15, 2002
 

                                                          TORONTO -- If the Hummingbird Centre sounds like an odd
                                                       place for the Tragically Hip to perform a sold-out concert, well,
                                                       you're right.

                                                       But don't let that mislead you -- last night, the pride of
                                                       Kingston, Ont. confidently rocked out the erstwhile home of the
                                                       National Ballet of Canada and other fine arts anyway, in the first
                                                       of two sold-out shows in the band's so-called "Theatrical
                                                       Extravagnza," a cross-Canada tour of intimate concert venues.

                                                       Although the stage was a little smaller and the surroundings a
                                                       little more reserved than what the Hip are used to, Gord Downie
                                                       and the rest of the band put on an energetic show that delighted
                                                       the thousands of noisy, raucous fans. Nobody sat down for a
                                                       single minute of the Hip's hour-and-a-half set -- least of all
                                                       Downie, whose bizarre mannerisms are part and parcel of any
                                                       Hip show's entertainment.

                                                       The spastic frontman was at his animated best last night -- he
                                                       was like a manic puppet, as he kicked his legs, pointed and
                                                       gestured, struck poses and flopped around the stage, dancing to
                                                       the music. He may well possess the most energetic stage
                                                       presence this side of Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong.

                                                       The band's setlist was a well-chosen mix of the old and new.
                                                       Receiving the loudest ovations were, of course, old favourites
                                                       like Courage, New Orleans Is Sinking, Poets, Grace, Too, Little
                                                       Bones, Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man, My Music At
                                                       Work and At The Hundredth Meridian.

                                                       But the newer material from their most recent album, In Violet
                                                       Light, such as Silver Jet, Use It Up, A Beautiful Thing and Are
                                                       You Ready, matched up well. Perhaps the best song of the night
                                                       was another one of their fresher singles, the lovely It's A Good
                                                       Life If You Don't Weaken. If there was anything that was
                                                       perfectly performed last night, it was this startlingly beautiful
                                                       ballad. It's the kind of song that makes Hip-haters take pause and
                                                       marvel that these are the same guys who gave us the grating My
                                                       Music At Work and Poets.

                                                       Meanwhile, Montreal singer-songwriter Sam Roberts performed a
                                                       lively opening set. And, perhaps as part of the Theatrical
                                                       Extravaganza conceit, there was even entertainment between
                                                       the two acts -- a juggler on stilts and a fire-eater kept patrons
                                                       amused in the lobby. And even recently re-signed Hockey Night
                                                       In Canada host Ron MacLean -- who is, presumably, a Tragically
                                                       Hip fan -- affably signed autographs and posed for pictures with
                                                       fans during the intermission.

                                                       But make no mistake -- the Hip put on an excellent show. As
                                                       Mac-Lean's blustering colleague on Coach's Corner would say,
                                                       "Good ol' Kingston boys."

it's 1:07 a.m. in the 'shwa and my ears are still ringing from toronto #1.Ý the setlist, in order*:

USE IT UP
MY MUSIC AT WORK
NEW ORLEANS IS SINKING
GRACE, TOO
ESCAPE IS AT HAND FOR THE TRAVELLIN' MAN
COURAGE*
SILVER JET*
PUTTIN' DOWN* (*--these last three MIGHT be out of order, but i don't
think so)
IT'S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON'T WEAKEN
POETS
INEVITABILITY OF DEATH
A BEAUTIFUL THING
AT THE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN
LOCKED IN THE TRUNK OF A CAR
AHEAD BY A CENTURY
THE LAST OF THE UNPLUCKED GEMS/THE DIRE WOLF
LITTLE BONES
---
LAKE FEVER
ARE YOU READY?
FIRE IN THE HOLE

it was a great show, far better than the ottawa bluesfest in july. crowd was raucaus: both toronto shows were almost sold out on thc alone, and it was an incredible experience seeing the band surrounded almost exclusively by fans. gord was more animated than i've ever seen him before; lots of great rants, including one (in iod, i think) about a girl in a school cafeteria (sorry, that was weak detail, but i can never remember gordrants after the fact). i was also surprised at the VISIBILITY of taping equipment...like camcorders on tripods and boom mic's suspended over the crowd. what else? highlights for me were 'escape', 'iod', 'a beautiful thing' (a beautiful live song), 'locked' for the first time ever, the incredible 'gems' into 'wolf', 'are you ready?' and (i can't believe i'm saying this) 'fire in the hole'. excellent show; i won't be there tomorrow (stupid rolling stones), but man, do i ever wish i could be!
steve

Use It Up - Everyone jumped to their feet as soon as the Hip came out
Music @ Work - Got the crowd going a little more
NOIS - Gord did the rant that he did in Poets when he played for the Queen (with a few little changes.) Had the whole baby blue canoe & 25 foot pole of bamboo bit.
Grace - Gord talked about going to enlist right after the show, that is if Toronto has a recruitment office, and if they don't he's going to go down there and tell 'em to get one (something along those lines leading into the song)
Escape - Sounded good, first time hearing it live
Courage - Gord said something about "If ya can't be good looking, you could at least be on time" (talking to his friend Courage, I think)
Silver Jet - Great song, can't remember what he said for an intro
Puttin' Down - Another one I hadn't heard live, sounded good, no rants that I can remember in this one
Good Life - I had to go to the bathroom real bad, so I wentÝjust afterÝthis song started
Poets - Got back just in time for the start of this one (good thing the washrooms were close to the Orchestra seats). Gord did the "sssssound" rant about the sound of the bottom of our boots on the top of the grass as the empty hay wagon rolled past. Sounded really good. I was wondering if he'd do the baby blue canoe rant again since he usually does it in Poets, but he didn't.
IOD - First time hearing this live and it was awesome. Talked about sitting in a cafeteria, playing with his spoon while listening to someone talk (something along those lines)
Beautiful thing - Opened up saying "It's like a beautiful thing, you know like a beautiful thing..." and ended up saying beautiful thing about 4 or 5 times before the song started. A good mellow tune to hear live.
Meridian - Always an awesome song live - Did the "life is forgetting" rant thenÝasked us to do him a favour and remember one thing "If I die of vanity..."
Locked In The Trunk - It was awesome to hear theseÝ2 back-to-back.ÝAfter eachÝ"let me out", he would add thing about a gun.Ý "Let me out" said the bullet to the gun, "let me out" said the bullet to the chamber,... "let me out" said the bullet to the trigger and once that trigger's ready the finger is sure to follow. (something like that)
ABAC - Sounded good (as always)
Gems/Dire Wolf - Great hearing the Gems lead-in to Dire Wolf again. The start of Gems got a really good reaction from the crowd.
Little Bones - did the "Has anyone seen my cat? Little Bones where are you?" Near the end of the song he started to act like he was crying cuz he couldn't find Little Bones.

Encore:
Lake Fever - I love this song live, it sounds great
Are You Ready - Gord shouted "Are You Ready?" 3 times before they broke into this one.
Fire In The Hole - Awesome closer. At the "that kid's a fuckin' goof" part Gord acted like he was grabbing someone in a headlock and giving them a noogie.

Great show. There were a couple other good rants, but I forget which songs they were in. There was were he was telling his mic stand that he was only a mic stand and was nothing without Gord. And there was another were Gord said he had Night Terror. Amazing show, with awesome sound and the best seats I've ever had for a concert.

Hope someone sends a copy of this one to Rory, cuz it was really good and I'd love a copy.

Jay Schiestel