The band was awesome as usual, Gord was into his zone....but the place was just sooo packed!Ý The beer ticket sales, the beer line, the bathrooms, even the coca-cola lines were backed up for at least 2 songs.Ý Bluesfest claims to have sold 30,000 tickets for the show, but I think it was much, much more.

Sarah Harmer was good, but was not really recognized until Gord came out to sing Silver Road along side her.

"Use it Up" was the obvious opener, but Blow and N.O. were switched positions.Ý Encores were cool; Are you Ready, Long Time Running, N.O.Ý The show finished at 10:15pm.Ý Plenty of time to do a second encore.

Show note:Ý Gord seemed to enjoy the plane flying overhead.Ý Had a porn website on it's tail, which he made reference to.

Andre


Just got back from the show.  Aside from the fact that I was too far back and couldn't see a damn thing (I'm a small person), the show was great!  It was an absolute treat to hear Long Time Running in the encore.  That made my night.  The new songs sounded fatastic--specifically The Dire Wolf, Use It Up, Weaken, and Are You Ready. I'm really looking forward to Boston on the 27th.  I've got 4th row centre, so this time I'll actually be able to SEE the band.  I can't wait!
-Casey

Hey gang,

 just got back from the Ottawa Bluesfest show, and it was drop-your-beers fantastic. Sarah was joined by Gord for Silver Road,
and she reciprocated by adding her beautiful voice to Wheat Kings and Dire Wolf.
 We were about 20 feet from Gord, forty-five degrees to his left. He added "you'll be photographed" into one of his ad-libs, looking right at me and my 200mm f/2.8 lens.
 The sound was poor, but pretty much par for the course when it comes to outdoor shows. The weather was perfect in every sense, and the crowd was mostly great. I was nailed in the head by a surfer, and I had beer spilled on me a few times, but I was happy. At one point, though, I was left "in charge" of the phenominally drunk "Nathan" while his unhappy girlfriend used the port-a-potty.
 Other than freelance babysitting, and boots to the head, I was thrilled. I met some great people, and they played a fantastic set. Long Time Running and Springtime in Vienna were killers, along with the usual awesome song suspects.

Now - it's time to sleep this off before work tomorrow.

Sterker Door Strijd;
         - Ren -


                                                      By ANN MARIE McQUEEN -- Ottawa Sun

                                                      TRAGICALLY HIP
                                                      Bluesfest, Ottawa
                                                      Thursday, July 11, 2002
 

                                                         OTTAWA -- At first I was perplexed when Tragically Hip
                                                      frontman Gord Downie greeted a teeming throng of fans at the
                                                      Bluesfest last night with "Happy Canada Day."

                                                      It seemed to make a little more sense about 45 minutes later, as
                                                      Downie introduced a song off the band's ninth release, In Violet
                                                      Light, which was recorded last fall in the Bahamas and released
                                                      June 11.

                                                      "It's called The Dire Wolf," said Downie, chuckling. "It's a
                                                      Grateful Dead song."

                                                      Just maybe he was making veiled references to the massive
                                                      turnout, a sellout crowd of 26,000 who came to see Canada's
                                                      favourite band.

                                                      There wasn't a lawn chair in sight last night, and it was a good
                                                      thing. Those who crammed, crushed and clustered their way onto
                                                      the Festival Plaza lawn -- many well-refreshed by cans of well,
                                                      what else, Canadian -- became very well acquainted with one
                                                      another.

                                                      The Hip took the stage promptly at 8:30 p.m., starting off with
                                                      another new tune, Use It Up, before moving into more familiar
                                                      fan favourites like My Music At Work.

                                                      It was only at the third song, a rousing rendition of Blow At
                                                      High Dough that I felt myself begin to lift up and down with the
                                                      jumping, close-knit crowd. Though uncommonly cramped, it was
                                                      the beginning of a fantastic show by the Kingston boys: Robby
                                                      Baker and Paul Langlois on guitar, Gord Sinclair on bass and
                                                      Johnny Fay on drums. As Downie's raspy voice stretched into a
                                                      wail 15 minutes in, the body surfing began and never stopped.

                                                      "A lot of drunk people," Paul Kerluke astutely observed over my
                                                      shoulder.

                                                      Kerluke and his friends, like many other fans, helpfully moved
                                                      the show along by enthusiastically shrieking the words to popular
                                                      Hip tunes including Bobcaygeon and Fireworks.

                                                      The crowd seemed to already know and love the first single off
                                                      In Violet Light, the catchy It's a Good Life If You Don't
                                                      Weaken -- by which time Downie had a cool can of Heineken in
                                                      his hand, dubbing it "the Dutch 50" -- and they liked or tolerated
                                                      some of the other new tunes including Silver Jet.

                                                      But it was upon hearing perennial favourite New Orleans Is
                                                      Sinking, at the cathartic conclusion of the band's three-song
                                                      encore, that the fans finally went completely mental.

                                                      Opening act Sarah Harmer joined The Hip onstage to sing a
                                                      barely discernable back-up on Wheat Kings. Earlier in the
                                                      evening, Downie had surprised those gathered for the slight
                                                      singer's 45-minute set to sing an equally low-key contribution for
                                                      her song Silver Road.

                                                      CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

                                                      It was hard to believe I'd had the entire lawn almost to myself
                                                      during The Hip's mid-afternoon soundcheck, as drops of flying
                                                      beer landed on my jostled notebook during the 90-minute show.
                                                      And I have to salute the marketing savvy of moviemat.com,
                                                      apparently a Renfrew company which had the foresight to fly a
                                                      banner advertising $14.99 Triple-X porn to an incredibly
                                                      captive audience.

                                                      The normally unintelligible Downie -- remarkably coherent
                                                      though as bizarre a dancer as ever -- even pointed it out.

                                                      "But I'm cool with that," he said.

                                                      So were we, Gord, so were we.


Hey all,

Thought I'd take a break from my usual frenetic taping activity and setlist jotting last night and just wander in to a Hip show and enjoy myself as a regular member of the crowd. Of course, the main reason I decided not to tape was because I knew that the Ottawa Bluesfest ,while well meaning, is run by rank amateurs and I probably wouldn't be able to get my gear in and out in one piece. Good to know they didn't let me down...

The Hip put on a fantastic performance last night...too bad I could barely hear most of it. This was caused by two main factors; a piss poor sound system and my lawn neighbours, 8 fine folks who wandered over straight from the office in their IBM logo golf shirts and proceded to get drunk and talk about work for the next 4 hours. These assholes weren't even facing the stage when the band was on!!! After their frenetic babble totally drowned out "It's a Good Life..." (the 4th or 5th song if memory serves), the wife and I finally gave up and moved to the back of the crowd...the funny thing was the sound was much better in the back than in the middle so at least we got to enjoy half the show in relative peace and there was plenty of room for me to do my goofy hippy dancing and whatnot.

OK, enough of my bitchin'...as I said before the lads were absolutely ON last night. High points included an absolutely frenetic Fully Completely as the 2nd song of the night, Gord introing Dire Wolf with, "Here's a Grateful Dead song..." (My still drunken but not as annoying neighbours at the back of the crowd obviously hadn't picked up the new album yet as they kept muttering, "This doesn't sound like the Dead". My guess is they don't own any Dead albums either... ;-)), and a super high energy 100th Meridian with a funky chicken scratch jam in the middle...the band was really starting to cook and my wife and I were just beaming at each other when Gordie suddenly cut in with "If I die of vanity..." Too bad, since they really seemed to be working up to something and they haven't really had a new song come out of a 100th jam since Poets that I can recall. Oh yeah, last night's version of Wheat Kings was absolutely transcendant...Gord was hitting all the right buttons with his delivery and the addition of Sarah Harmer on backup vocals (not that you could hear her that well) was nice.

The quality of the performance made up for the muddy, under-amped sound but I really have to question whether I'll be attending any Bluesfest events in the future. The crowd was simply way too big for the venue and all the festival infrastructure. Here's hoping the boys make it back to Ottawa in the fall or winter for a stadium show...at least I know I'll be able to hear them at the Corel Centre...

Peace out,

Sean


This was absolutely the worst Hip show I've seen out of 14!!!

The band was as good as ever, but I'm telling you straight, Ottawa has the lamest crowds I've ever seen. If I was in a band, I would hate playing Ottawa. Very little crowd response at all. The sound sucked! I'm guessing the venue had to abide by all the downtown
bylaws, so the sound was turned right down, and show was done at 10:30. The tickets were all General Admission, or 10 day tickets, so most of the crowd I would say, was composed of non-hip fans. People that really didn't give a shit to be there, they just had 10 day tickets to Bluesfest. I managed to push my way through the wooden people, and get to the front.

The sound was better up front, but the whole night had been dulled by that point by the poor response from the crowd.
This is supposed to "Canada's best band" but it may as well have been Dayglo Abortions. Nobody seemed to care. I've never seen so many people just standing around talking at a Hip show. I did run into a few rabid Hip fans while trying to push my way to the
front, but they were scarce and far between. But then this is Conservative Ottawa, and everyone had to go to work the next day! Lights out at 11:00.
Being from the Toronto area, I'm still not used to this Ottawa thing. What I mean is, showing appreciation by remaining quiet. I don't get it??? The crowd did it for The Dave Matthews Band also.

But enough of the bitching... The band was bang on. To bad the crowd wasn't.
 

Livi


Here's the setlist from last night.Ý I know the first 5 songs on it are in order and from nautical on, however, like always, the order is a little sketchy in the middle.Ý I was in the front row and took a load of pictures, so, I'll let you guys know where to see them once I upload them somewhere.

7/11/02 - Bluesfest, Ottawa ON

Use It Up
Music at Work
Blow at High Dough
Fully Completely
Bobcaygeon
Silver Jet
Fireworks
It's a Good Life if You Don't Weaken
All Tore Up
Wheat Kings*
The Dire Wolf*
Poets
Gift Shop
100th Meridian
Springtime in Vienna
The Darkest One
Nautical Disaster

Encore:
Are You Ready
Long Time Running
New Orleans is Sinking

K. McD


Hi Rory,
I've never submitted a review before although I've been to 17 shows now and I check your site all the time (I'm a set-list fanatic and sometimes you get reviews up before the hip post theirs).
I thought I'd send you the set-list from last night since no-one had already.
----------
The Ottawa Bluesfest was my 17th (or 18th) Tragically Hip show (I drove in from Montreal). I tend to get REALLY excited about certain songs (50MC, Inevitability of Death, Locked, Wherewithal, 3 pistols) and really un-excited about songs I've seen too many times (Fully, Fireworks, Springtime).
The last time I saw the Hip was 2 night in a row during their 'Evening With' tour. This tour was a dream come true for me, 30 songs a night! I don't think any show will ever top those 2 nights (some highlights were: 3 pistols!, IOD!!!, Titanic, Sherpa, Long Time, Locked, Wherewithal). Plus they played 50MC, Wheat and Locked at the Toronto New Years Day show so I was very satisfied.

This being said, I wasn't expecting much at the Ottawa show.
'Blow' third was definitely a highlight because I don't think they've EVER dome that, the crowd loved it, the sound was good, I was about '30 rows' back in front of Paul.
I love 'Silver Jet' which was cool, I was expecting 7 new songs and I liked the ones they played, 'Dire Wolf' is really great.
I thought they might do the Wheat Kings/Dire Wolf combo with Sarah Harmer Which they did but I couldn't hear her voice.
The only other surprise was 'Long Time Running' in the encore which they haven't played lately.
I really thought that since it was a 'bluesfest' that they might try a 'bluesy' song. I thought they might play 'fight' which would have been cool and then Rory said that they actually played in at soundcheck during the last show but....no 'fight'.
So, overall ok. I got the 'fully/fireworks/springtime' trio.
I thought they might play more than 20 songs since they started at 8:30 but no. I'm sure they'll play more when they do a real tour.
1)use it up
2)music
3)blow
4)fully
5)bob c
6)silver
7)fireworks
8)good life
9)poets
10)wheat
11)wolf
12)spring
13)tore up
14)gift
15)meridian
16)darkest
17)nautical
---
18)ready
19)long time
20)new o

-M. Cheney


The band was very tight and the sound was good all night, at first I was afraid they were going to be plagued by poor sound as were for many of the main stage shows at blues fest this year, but not the Hip they always seem to come through with good sound.  We were standing far enough back on a tiny little bump in the sea of clones which gave us and the little people a great view of the band and light show, did anyone catch Downie's shadow on the side of city hall, it looked like he was aware of it himself and playing with it, very entertaining.  An Ottawa paper reported that there were 26,000 at the show, how did they cram all those people in, it seems outdoor shows are really a hit with the fans here.  I also heard on local radio that the Hip brought their families to the show and their families could be seen playing back stage on the swings.  Well I have to say apart from some asshole pissing on my friends foot (no apologies given) which almost resulted in a fight (good times!) during NOIS and the early night of 10 pm
it was a great experience, too bad if you weren't there.
-Bootes

I would have posted this when my memories were fresher, but my left hand had to be stitched back together after I blocked a projectile beer bottle with it on Elgin street. The decision was between my hand or my buddie's head; I'm happy with my choice.

The Ottawa bluesfest show was top-notch, blow-you-away, rock-and-roll. The band played a tight, practiced set, but there were plenty of surprises. Even though I was treated to Long Time Running once before, hearing it outside under the violet Ottawa sky was beautiful. And besides, the muddy soundsystem could hurt the furious songs, but the delicate ones were untouchable.
Also a treat was hearing Gord's voice mix so finely with Ms. Harmer's. We've hurd similar mixes before (with the other Sarah on that Emergency one-off, and then with Kate Fenner two years ago, as well as Julie Doiron on Music@Work), but in Sarah Harmer, I believe Gord has found his perfect vocal mate.

The weather was great that day, sunny and breezy as I ate a nice lunch on a downtown patio while what I later found out to be was the Hip's soundcheck bounced around the federal buildings. I saw the concert with a good friend of mine, vetran of a half-dozen Hip shows, and two Kingston-area girls who have never seen them (although one girl served Gord as a checkout girl near Bath. He bought paper towels and lightbulbs. He forgot to pay, then insisted, with a smirk, that "that autograph should have been payment enough".

We managed to snag a great spot, thirty feet from the mic. Close enough to see a Gord, in a yellow hat, bob his head off-stage during the Harmer set.

The crowd was mostly great, and I met some amazing people. The sense of unity is different at an outdoor show, as blankets overlap and beer passes around. What stuck me was how many gorgeous female Hip fans there were. At this point in my life, the only kind of Girl I feel like dropping everything for is a beautiful girl in a Day for Night shirt, with a can of Canadian in each hand. However, Nathan the drunk was only amusing for a while. Nathan, I am now aware you don't give a fuck about hockey. And thanks for reading every city on my buddy's Tragically Hip world tour show; one day, you'll master the name Sault Ste. Marie!!

Another thing that has struck me lately: I was wrong. I used to think that the problems I have with the albums Phantom Power and Music @ Work is because the band didn't spend enough time on them, releasing them before they were polished. Then the Hip pound out a killer album, leaving a few rough edges, and it blows me away! The problem with their 1998 and 2000 releases wasn't that they were built too quickly; it's that they were lingered on too long! Like a painting, a great painting, with too many brush strokes! Like wasted hours in the darkroom, dodging and burning until you lose the veracity of the image.

Again, I was wrong. I thought a more structured set would kill the energy of a Hip show. Trimming down the jams, and working from a more practiced set list would destrony the spontanious unpredictability of a Hip show, I thought. However, this tour has been based around a smaller number of songs, and even pre-set transitions. And it works. The Dire Wolf/Wheat Kings (w/ Sarah Harmer) interlude is great, and the opening canon of songs gets things going just as well as a good dose of Grace, Too -- without the Grace, Too! By writing half a script, the Hip have made filling in the rest even more fun.

It's been a week, and I'm confident when I say that the Bluesfest show was the best concert I've even been too, edging out a Radiohead show in Montreal last year.
As Geddy Lee said in a recent Maxim interview, "The Hip are a fantastic Rock and Roll band, and it's frustrating that so few people know of them."
Frustrating, sure, but when there's 26,000 beer fueled people grooving behind you, it doesn't feel like the world is short on Hip fans.

       - Ren -


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