Caught the show on the 15th at Mulcahy's on Long Island.  UNBELIEVABLE show. The best of the 5 shows I have seen.  It was this bar that held maybe 900 max. That night there were  400-500 of which maybe 200 were Hip fans.  Gord was on that night.  They started with Grace and played Gift Shop, Long Time, Ahead, Greasy, Courage, Nautical, NOIS, Blow, Poets, Bobcagyeon, Thompson Girl, Something On, Membership,Escape, Little Bones, Inevitability, Fire in the Hole.  Belly up to the bar all night while watching the best band on the face of this earth.  What more could anyone want?

Anyway, we arrived to NYC on Thursday and spent Friday at the beach which was cleaner and more pleasant than I remember it in the past.  I guess Long Beach is always a decent place to hang out, though.

Saturday came around quickly and my sister and I took the train downtown where we went our separate ways after deciding to meet at Mulcahy's. She has never seen the Hip before and is a big Sarah McLachlan fan, so she decided to show up to the club around suppertime. I, however, got to the club on the strike of 3pm after a morning filled with anticipation and nerves and shakes, you know, the typical day-of-the-Hip-show-gitters (not new to anyone on this newsgroup).  I parked the car conveniently across the street from the club and before going in decided to take a stroll around the block and look for any sign of their arrival.
Well, sign I got.  Infact, their bus missed backing over me by mere feet.  Having almost been swallowed by the giant baby blue beast, I was quick to curse the bus driver moments before realizing that it was them; the only vehicle I would be perfectly content with being ran over by. At this point, the typical shakes resumed.  Here I was, watching the bus back in to an alley right behind the club.  No one around but me....could my day be unfolding like this?  Is it possible that I might meet them for the third time right here and now, before the show?
    Minutes later, exit Paul Langlois.  I'm standing about 75 yards in front of the bus and Paul turned and walked to the back of the bus, past the bus and up the concrete ramp to the back door of the club.  At this point, I sprint around the front and into the club where I see 4 people in the entire place, already them four are mobbing Paul and asking for photos and autographs.  "Obviously Canadians", I say to myself.  Sure enough, the four of them, three guys and a girl, made the trip from Montreal for the show and I ended up spending the day with them in the club sucking back shitty American pints.
    As we decided to leave Paul alone after getting our photos taken with him, he disappeared to the other side of the bar and started preparing his equipment.  The drummer from the opening band jumped on his kit, Paul grabbed his guitar and began singing and playing Membership.  At this point, our gitches are wet.....we have never seen anything like Paul jamming live, alone, in front of us, roadies and nobody else.  He is an awesome guitarist, he sounded so great.  I couldn't take my eyes off him.  He was magic.  Not only that.....his voice is more remarkable than you'd notice when he's singing backup to Gord.
    Minutes later, the rest of the band came into the club from the back, except for Johnny Fay who strolled in the front, refused all
autographs and photos, with his chin and nose pointing up jumped on stage with the rest of the band as we were treated to the soundcheck consisting of "Escape is At Hand....", "The Luxury" and "Chagrin Falls".  It was like a little private show just for us.
    When the sound check ended, the band left and boarded the bus where they, no doubt, resumed their naps (or drinking sessions).  I got anxious not seeing them and took another stroll through the alley.  As I passed the bus, I quickly took another look back...as I was turning my head away, I heard the door open.......guess who came out.....none other......
...Mr. Downie himself.  He walked passed me and as he did, he looked at me holding my disposable camera as I said "Hey Gord, just one photo and I'll leave you alone....what do you say???"  He replied, "What, you wanna take a picture of me?", I responded "Yes".....
...he shrugged his shoulders, walked over and draped his right arm around me.....not wanting to waste time in finding someone to take our picture for fear that he might get impatient and leave, put my left arm around him, stretched out my right arm and turned the camera towards us.....I asked, "You think this'll work?", he said "I think so"....I snapped the picture, he patted me on the shoulder twice and said "See you inside".....I said "For sure".....he turned around and disappeared into the darkness of the club.  By this point......I can't think straight anymore, I feel numb and shaky and at the same time very responsive and mellow....kinda like the best weed I've ever smoked.....the thought that I got my photo taken with Gord has not sunk in yet.......I had this same opportunity in Ottawa in '96 only to realize my last photo was used to have my picture taken with Paul.....not this time....this time I had film!!!
    The show was unbelieveable.......club capacity was 1000.  500 tickets went on sale, 300 of which were purchased, 200 of which by Canadians.  The Hip hit the stage after a 30 minute wait following the opening act Grinspoon.  Start time, 12:15am.  By 12:15 am when they came on, I'd been in the bar for 9 hours and had, pretty much, chatted with a lot of people there, 2 out of 3 were from Ontario.  The Canadians filtered away from the Americans by pushing to the front of the stage as we always do, leaving the silly unappreciative Yankees in the back where they were content.  The biggest act that had played at that club to date
was Weezer, they had no idea what was to come. The band hit the stage and opened with Grace, too. The set list, with maybe some errors of order was as follows:

Grace, too
Fireworks
Gift Shop
Poets
Twist My Arm
Thompson Girl
Something On
Courage
Emperor Penguin
Meridian
Escape is At Hand
Nautical

New Orleans
Membership

Fire In the Hole
Bobcaygeon
Daredevil
Little Bones

The order of the primary set is not completely accurate, the encores are right on. I might have missed a song or two, the whole set was 125 minutes long. Gordie briefly fucked up "Twist my Arm" and opted to start over, and after Courage, he said "Alright, we're having fun now!", at which point he began smiling and after this point seemed like he was really enjoying himself.
    He began Meridian with "Read a book on Canadian myth...." which complemented the pre-show flag-waving and "O Canada" singing quite nicely.

I couldn't have imagined a better show, the first six didn't quite match this one.  For seeing this show I am richer.

Can't wait 'till the three next week.

See you all at the camp ground in Sugarbush.

Hope the write-up was okay.

P.S.  A word to the wise.  "Willie Nelson" was nowhere to be found in the club for good reason.  It is a bad, bad idea to try and bring it across customs.  Those going down to the New Hampshire / Maine / Vermont shows....don't risk it...we'll be able to score some down there no prob.