Fireworks
Gift
Fully
Chagrin
ABAC
Luxury
Planet
We'll Go
BobC
Courage
Yawning
Something On
Daddy
Inch
Nautical
Escape
New O

Poets
Member
50 MC

Grace Too
100th

Definetly a few gems dug out from the trenches (Inch and 50MC). When did they last play Yawning? I was amazed to hear that. Meridian was very strong and there seems to be a song developping during NOIS. Gord sung Insomniacs again but I forget during which song. Also, I got a setlist from a roadie and ENGAGED was suppost to be played during the first
encore, but they obviously switched Member with it and didn't play it at all. I would've liked to see that one. Ah well...

We met the boys again after the show. Had to wait a little longer this time. Superbowl I guess, I dunno. Gord was really funny tonight. Alot of jokes. He signed the back of my Tales from the hip shirt with the bullseye on it. "Lucas Power....Crossbows Only".

Time for some food and sleep. Later all.

--
Later,
Lucas J. Fowler

we (me and my g/f wendy) got the arena around 7:20, so we had to sit through By Divine Right Again.  neither one of us liked them too much, so i won't write about them.

the setlist has been posted, so i won't post it again. bascially the setlist rocked.  highlights:  Yawning and Snarling, inch an hour, and 50 mission cap.

gord was in a great mood and very animated.  but, the after show part is the best part of the night.

there was 8 or 10 of us standing in one group and about 7 or 8 in another waiting for the band to come back out.  it was FREEZING outside, too.  i had my car parked close to us, and kept in running so we could get in it to keep warm.  i had the trunk open and was blasting the Saint John show from friday through the back speakers.

we got outside around 11:00 or so, but the band didn't arrive until around 1:00 or so.  paul some aout first was seemed to be surprised that we were waiting the cold.  he signed out stuff and got on the bus.  we waited for another 1/2 hour or so, then this HUGE security dude comes up to us and says "go wait inside that door right there.  it is too damn cold to be out here".

cool.  so now we are inside the doors  he tells us that he will go find the rest of the band for us.  soon, bobby and gord S. some out.  they are signing stuff and joking around.  while bobby was signing case liner i made up for the SJ show, i thanked him for allowing us to tape:

ME: bobby, thank you for letting us tape the shows this tour.  it made a lot of people quite pleased.

BOBBY: no problem.  we don't mind at all.  it is just the people who think they can get plugged into the board.

ME: so tape from our seats?

BOBBY: yeah.

then.  i go over to gord s. and i asked him if he did the setlist:

ME: Gord.  did you write the setlist for tonight?

GORD: yeah, i did.

ME: thank you.  it kicked some major ass.  it was really good to hear yawning and inch an hour. (scott pipes up and agrees with me)

GORD: yeah, we haven't played yawning in a while.  i am glad you liked it.

we wished them good luck on the rest of the tour, and they were gone.

the bouncer went off in searc of Johnny... eventually he came out and signed some stuff for us, and quickly left.
that only leaves gord.  we had to wait about 20 or so minutes before he came out.  he signed some stuff, and then turned in my direction, so i handed my tape case liner (that paul singed earlier):

GORD (looking at it): is this yours?

ME: no, it the show from friday night in saint john.

GORD: No shit!

ME: yeah.  i saw a sign that told me i could record, so i did.

GORD: did you get good sound?

ME: yeah. not bad at all.

GORD: cool.

then a few minutes later, i asked him if he had a cold on friday (on friday night, his voice sounded a little more high pitched than usualy, but was fine by the end of the night.... it turns out, i was just the acoustics).

ME: did you have a bit of a cold on friday night?

GORD: no, why?

ME: oh, i thiught your voice sounded a little different.  good, but different.  as if your throat was sore. then again, maybe is was just me.

GORD: one man's raspy voice is another man's sexy voice.

SCOTT: are you saying your trying to be sexy?

GORD (smiling): always.

i had my picture taken with him, and he left.  everybody got everything signed by all of the band members.  they are down to earth, friendly people.

i went to my car a screamed like a school girl.  too cool.

i got back to my aunts place around 2:00am and had to be up at 6:00am to be on the road by 7:30am to make the 2 hour drive to catch my 10am class.

it was well worth it.

off to study and catch some sleep, hopefully.

later.

-Mark

I gained a new respect for Johnny Fay, you really haven't experienced his talent until you see him live.  Earlier discussions on this newsgroup debating his talent were laid to rest in my mind.  In Moncton he lost a couple sticks while drumming, but grabbed another one without missing a beat.  It's funny to see them fly out of his hand and yet he keeps going like nothing happened.

Bobby Baker was wearing pink pants in Moncton...enough said.

The Bananna made an appearance during the Luxury (Moncton), which I was very happy to see.  In Halifax they seemed to play a lot of Road Apples, adding On the Verge and Cordelia, a personal favourite of mine.

Gord Sinclair had the tightest pants in the band.  In Halifax, during NOIS, he rocked out like I have never seen him before, jumping around and loving it.  Bobby was more reserved in this show compared to Moncton.  Gord D was still pretty whacked.  Paul played it cool as usual.

The best song of the two concerts was At the Hundredth Meridian (Moncton).  Honourable mention goes to Little Bones (Halifax), Poets (Moncton), Escape is At Hand (both), and Cordelia (Halifax).  I was also pleasantly surprised to hear both Emperor Penguin and The Rules in Halifax.

All in all, it was an experience of a lifetime.  I never thought they could top the Day For Night tour (last time I saw them), but they did.

Enjoy the rest of the tour,

Andrew

PS At the end of the Halifax show, Gord D said "See you in March."  I assume he was kidding, but can anyone elaborate on this?

8:20
The light go out.  I am not taping this show so i am free to scream and sing  until my heart is content.  i stand up and let out a big "wooooohooooooo!!". Gord D. picks up the guitar (gt from now on) and i turn to wendy and say "they are going to play fireworks".  sure enough....

FIREWORKS - "hello".... fireworks is a great opener.  we were near the back, but when the venue only hold 5000 people, you are still close.  People were sitting down, but i was singing along with all my might.  the song ends and gord keeps the gt.
GIFT SHOP - this is a cool song.  i like the spot light that shines on the crowd during the opening.  nothing too special out it.  gord puts the gt down.
FULLY COMPLETELY -"YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS" I yell.  i can't
believe it!  fully f**king competely.  this is one of the BEST live hip songs.  the song kicks my ass all over the place.  i am shitting.  i can feel this is going to be a good show.  gord picks up the gt at the end.
CHAGRIN FALLS - cool song live.  gord keeps the gt.
ABAC - nothing special.  gord puts the gt down.  bobby is having a good time you can tell.  the crowd is starting to get into it now, but they are still sitting down.
LUXURY - wendy didn't know this song.  "holy shit!!".  gord changed a line to "pay me to remind you of your mother by the hour".  he had a bananna out during this song.  i turn to wendy and say "we may atually get so hard done by tonite" (it turns out taht we didn't. they played it the night before and the night after.  d'oh!)
SAVE THE PLANET - wendy love this song.  it was very cool.  it is better live than on PP.  gord put the gt down.
WE'LL GO TOO - holy crap.  by now in am just about dead.  my throat is sore and i am so pumped that i think my head is going to explode.  i made wendy a tape about 2 months before the shows so she would recognize the songs.  at the end of the tape, i put a section called "i will shit my pants if they play any of these songs".  WGT was there, so was inch an hour, boots, thugs and a
few others.
BOBCAYGEON - this song ALWAYS impresses me live.  very cool.  good jam at the end.
COURAGE - woooo!  another great live song.  gord is prowling the stage, and the lights are cool.  then the lights go out, and there is a very little bit of light on the stage.  we hear this low bass line playing.
me: "holy shit... holy shit.... holy fucking shit!"
wendy: "what song is this?  i don't recognize it"
me: "oh my god..."
then gord sings... "one day in elpaso..."
me: "yawning and snarling"
YAWNING AND SNARLING - wow.  this one totally blew me away.  it was great. i can't think of the right words to help me describe it.  they hadn't played this song since ARA in '95.  friggin' awesome!
SOMETHING ON - always a rocking tune.
DON'T WAKE DADDY -  i like this song, but it didn't go over well with the crowd.  just as the song was ending i turned to wendy and said "wow... can you imagine if they played inch an hour (this was the one song that i REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to hear, but figured i didn't have a hope in hell)". and then, i no sooner finished that sentence when BOOOOOM.
INCH AN HOUR - "you were saying?", wendy said.  i shit.  i was so excited by this point, i didn't know what to do with myself.  i was beside myself.. i screamed, i sang, i dance, i did it all. i could go home right now and be totally happy.  little did i know what would happen after the show.  oh, by this time gord had his balzer off, and had a red shirt on.  i found out after the show that it was a "return of the jedi" shirt. hehe.
NAUTICAL DISASTER - another great live song.  the lights are really cool on this song.  the crowd was singing along, but still sitting down.
ESCAPE... - lost the crowd a bit.  nothing special.
NOIS - got the crowd going.  little bit of insomniacs and a bit of lofty pines, and a bit of elaborate.

ENCORE #1
POETS - ooooh...ya.  the best live PP song.  gord had a gourd out during this one.  gord picks up the gt.
MEMBERSHIP - another great live song. i love how low gords voice is.
50 MISSION CAP - oh my god. i got all my songs tonite!!  this is another great song. i love it when the whole arena lights up as he yells "..i keep tucked up underrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...".  the corwd are on their feet for the whole encore.

ENCORE #2
GRACE TOO - "he said i'm tragically hip...."  the crowd was singing along to the first verse.  gord rode the mic stand like a horse across the stage.
100TH - not he closer i was hoping for (i wanted On the Verge, or Bones) but a good one none-the-less.  not a fantastic version... the one in Saint John was better.  but still a good closer.

after the show ended, wendy and i met up with a few friends of mine, and we ventured out into the -20C cold to wait for the hip to come out. there was 8 or 10 of us standing in one group and about 7 or 8 in another waiting for the band to come back out. i had my car parked close to us, and
kept in running so we could get in it to keep warm.  i had the trunk open and was blasting the Saint John show from friday through the back speakers. we got outside around 11:00 or so, but the band didn't arrive until around 1:00 or so.  paul came out first was seemed to be surprised that we were
waiting the cold.  he signed out stuff and got on the bus.  we waited for another 1/2 hour or so, then this HUGE security dude comes up to us and says "go wait inside that door right there.  it is too damn cold to be out here".
cool.  so now we are inside the doors  he tells us that he will go find the rest of the band for us.  soon, bobby and gord S. some out.  they are signing stuff and joking around.  while bobby was signing case liner i made up for the SJ show, i thanked him for allowing us to tape:
ME: bobby, thank you for letting us tape the shows this tour.  it made a lot of people quite pleased.
BOBBY: no problem.  we don't mind at all.  it is just the people who think they can get plugged into the board.
ME: so tape from our seats?
BOBBY: yeah.
then.  i go over to gord s. and i asked him if he did the setlist:
ME: Gord.  did you write the setlist for tonight?
GORD S.: yeah, i did.
ME: thank you.  it kicked ass.  it was really good to hear yawning and inch an hour. (my buddy scott pipes up and agrees with me)
GORD S.: yeah, we haven't played yawning in a while.  i am glad you liked it.
we wished them good luck on the rest of the tour, and they were gone. the bouncer went off in search of Johnny... eventually he came out and signed some stuff for us, and quickly left. (he had on the same winter hat that he wears during the bobcaygeon video).
that only leaves gord.  we had to wait about 20 or so minutes before he came out.  he signed some stuff, and then turned in my direction, so i handed my tape case liner (that paul singed earlier):
GORD (looking at it): is this yours?
ME: yeah, it is the show from friday night in saint john.
GORD: No shit!
ME: yeah.  i saw a sign that told me i could record, so i did.
GORD: did you get good sound?
ME: yeah. not bad at all.
GORD: cool.
then a few minutes later, i asked him if he had a cold on friday (on friday night, his voice sounded a little more high pitched than usualy, but was fine bythe end of the night.... it turns out, i was just the
acoustics).
ME: did you have a bit of a cold on friday night?
GORD: no, why?
ME: oh, i thiught your voice sounded a little different.  good, but different.  as if your throat was sore. then again, maybe is was just me.
GORD: one man's cold is another man's husky, sexy voice.
SCOTT: are you saying your trying to be sexy?
GORD (smiling): always.
i had my picture taken with him, and he left.  everybody got everything signed by all of the band members.  they are down to earth, friendly people. i went to my car a screamed like a school girl.  too cool. i got back to my aunts place around 2:30am and had to be up at 6:00am to be on the road by 7:30am to make the 2 hour drive to catch my 10am class.
it was well worth it.
so that is the moncton show. it was well worth losing sleep and freezing my ass off.

later.

-Mark