Hip play surprise Toronto gig

                               By PAUL CANTIN
                       Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz
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   THE TRAGICALLY HIP
   Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto
   Wednesday, December 29, 1999
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   [storymark.gif] TORONTO - Santa may have been tardy with his holiday
   delivery to 500 lucky fans of The Tragically Hip, but it's doubtful
   anyone is going to gripe.
    Wednesday night a packed Horseshoe Tavern was treated not only to an
   intimate 20-song, nearly two-hour set by the Kingston rockers, but
   also a sneak preview of songs from the group's pending album (which
   currently is without a title or release date).
    The show was hastily publicized via Toronto radio stations just
   before 6 p.m. and within minutes, a line was forming outside the Queen
   St. W. venue. The $20 admission was to benefit the Our Millennium
   campaign, a project initiated by the family of actor Dan Aykroyd -- a
   longtime pal of The Hip's.
    To give an idea of what kind of night it was, one only needed to look
   at the number of cell phones being held aloft, as sweaty fans called
   friends to validate their presence at the hush-hush show, or flashed
   instamatic cameras -- not at the band, but back at themselves to
   provide photographic proof of their good fortune. You had to be there,
   and if you were lucky enough to get a foot in the Horseshoe door,
   apparently you wanted everyone to know about it.
    The strongest of seven new tunes aired during the set was the night's
   kickoff number, a rollicking ditty apparently called "Music At Work,"
   with lyrics that seemed to co-opt the slogan used by easy-listening
   radio stations. With its soaring chorus, it's as natural a single as
   the group has ever recorded.
    The other new ones -- the winning "Puttin' Down" and "Stay," the
   trippy "I Saw You/Birdseye View," the ominous "Lake Fever" ("We can
   skip to the next fury ... you whispered hurry," go the lyrics) and
   "Overnight Train," (all titles unofficial and based on what could be
   grabbed from the lyrics) -- won't be considered a radical departure
   from the style of 1998's "Phantom Power," but neither will any of the
   new stuff trotted out this night concede any of the ground The Hip has
   staked out for itself. "People In The Water," with lyrics that
   appeared to innumerate the nationalities most likely to suffer shark
   attacks, may have upped singer Gord Downie's penchant for strange
   subject matter to new, previously unimagined heights.
    The balance of the set provided many delights and few surprises
   (beyond Downie apparently forgetting the words to "Something On"), but
   yielded the rare pleasure of seeing the group in close quarters,
   obviously feeding on the audience's ardour. The crowd's vocal
   participation on "Poets" and "Springtime In Vienna" literally
   overwhelmed Downie's delivery, which only seemed to spur the singer on
   to greater improvisational heights.
    "One hundred Super Bowls, and we're all playing. Do you feel the
   tension," he freestyled during "Ahead By A Century." "At The Hundredth
   Meridian" evolved from the familiar chugging rocker into a bizarre
   funk workout with added allusions to Y2K jitters: "How safe ARE our
   airports," Downie intoned rhetorically. Likewise, Downie dedicated
   "Grace, Too" to Canadian soldiers on standby during millennium
   celebrations, then peppered the lyrics with references to "rocking the
   bass" and "ruptured spleens."
    The response to a set-closing run at "New Orleans Is Sinking" was so
   fervent, the Horseshoe's owners would have been forgiven for worrying
   whether the venue would make it to its 53rd birthday in the new year.
   Despite the best efforts of a keyed-up, sweaty mob of Hip fanatics,
   though, the club maintained structural integrity.
    Any concern that the group needed to work out some musical kinks
   before their back-to-back millennium concerts at the Air Canada Centre
   on new year's eve and new year's day should be dismissed, too. The
   Tragically Hip is ready to rumble. [storymark.gif]
 
Set List

   The Set List (question marks denote new material, with presumed title)
    1. Music At Work (?)
    2. Poets
    3. Gift Shop
    4. Puttin' Down (?)
    5. Springtime In Vienna
    6. I Saw You/Birdseye View (?)
    7. Something On
    8. Ahead By A Century
    9. Stay (?)
    10. Fireworks
    11. Lake Fever (?)
    12. Vapour Trails
    13. At The Hundredth Meridian
    14. People In The Water (?)
    15. New Orleans Is Sinking
    (encore)
    16. Grace, Too
    17. Overnight Train (?)
    18. Save The Planet
    (second encore)
    19. Bobcaygeon
    20. Courage