Some thoughts from Pittsburgh:
The show was not held on
the IC light main stage, but on a secondary stage built under a tent. That
turned out to be huge because a constant rain fell pretty much all night.
But everyone stayed high and dry inside.
Best guess on the crowd
size would be around 1,000, maybe a little less, but I didn't get a good
look. No crowd-surfing and no real pushing to speak of. We headed to the
front, right-side, about halfway through Damnations,TX set. They sounded
pretty good last night, joking that all of their songs were about Canada.
My set-list recollection
is shaky at best, they opened with Grace. Fully was in there as well. About
a third of the way in, Gord took off that suit coat to reveal a red "Return
of the Jedi" t-shirt during the intro to Eldorado. Actually, the eldorado
into had three cool things:the t-shirt (which looked to be as old as the
movie), the banana, and a couple of quick lines from that work -in-progress,
Lofty Pines.
As for other songs in flux,
Elaborate moved from NOIS to At the 100th Meridian. It's still my favorite
new one. The best part of the night for me though, was I believe in 100th
meridian, where Gord started singing Bowie's "Major Tom". We had been watching
Bowie on VH-1 Legends before we hit the road that afternoon, they had a
long segment on Major Tom. Afterwards, we all thought that he MUST have
been watching that in the hotel or something. I know he's thrown-in Bowie
lyrics before, but it was definitely the stuff goosebumps are made of.
He also belted out some
lines from Blond Solid in NOIS. I wonder if this song ever has a chance
of making it onto a record. Anyway, this has ran way long, back to your
regular program.
Mark
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Review by Dana via alt.music.tragically-hip
Just got back in town from last nights show - damn, sorry you all missed
it.
Grace,too
Fully Completely
Vapor Trails
Giftshop
Bobcaygeon
Nautical
Poets
Eldorado
Fireworks
ABAC
Springtime
Escape
100th Meridian
Encore:
Chagrin Falls
New Orleans
Fire in the Hole
Damn - What other word could possibly describe the show. It was held
under a tent with only four hundred people and no stupid crowd surfing.
From Gord's opening monologue (sp?) about no shadows under the tent, you
could tell that he was in a great mood. Every single song was made extra
long by the constant "Gordisms". During Something On he fell down and just
decided to stay there for the rest of the song. He had a constant smile
on his face. Met a ton of great people from everywhere - the furthest being
Carolina and Detroit both 8 hrs - not counting the Canadians. Raining outside
on top of the tent just added to the atmosphere. About the halfway point,
Gord just
decided to sing the lyrics when he wanted to - not along with the music.
Played to interesting songs in 100th and NOIS, but not sure what they were
yet - something new again. Anyway, not to write to much, but a great show.
Three DAT recorders there whose tapes are probably alot better than mine
- wait till you here it. Until then...
"I've seen more blurry lights than starry nights"
Dana
PS - IC LIGHT TENT stands for Iron City Beer, which is what they served.
Not
too good.
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Review by Doug Radwanski via alt.music.tragically-hip
Here’s my Pittsburgh review, for those who care to read…what a road
trip…the limo ride to the show was great …(there were eight in our entourage,
and we were gonna take two cabs from our hotel but a bored driver who was
waiting on teeny-boppers at a prom offered to limo us to the show for $12….hmm…lemme
think about that, sir…whats 12 divided by 8?)…look at all those bridges
….Rainy night in Pissburgh (as the locals pronounce it) so the show is
inside the tent…my traveling party sucks a couple two, tree hefty drafts
(at least 22 oz.) as we scan the venue… had no problem setting up shop
in the front… many fellow Buffalonians and Torontonians, abound…opening
band
(Damnations TX) played some folksy rocking numbers…sounded good but
can’t review what I didn’t really pay attention to…opening drumbeat suggests
Grace is the opener – yes!…what a great way to meet the crowd…Gord looks
possessed as he walks to the mike wearing a fashionable sportcoat and a
red ‘Return of the Jedi’ tee underneath…he rambles on about the Boy Scouts
during the extended drum intro and smiles as he says “the uniform will
cost me half”…many are laughing hysterically…not as funny as what happened
during the second number…as Something On was jamming, Gord grooved closer
to the edge of the stage…and as he was lost in the moment… HE FELL OFF
THE STAGE…bewildered security guy comes over to see what’s going on…Gord
says something to the effect of…“I thought you were looking out for me…I
trusted you”…sings some more down low as perplexed security guard looks
on a few feet away…crawls back up like a rock-climber as he is singing
a verse…much laughter…rest of the set included Fully Completely, Vapor
Trails, Giftshop, Bobcaygeon, Nautical, Poets, Eldorado, Fireworks, ABAC,
Springtime, Escape, 100th Meridian, (encore) Chagrin, New Orleans, Fire
in the Hole…during beginning of Gift Shop, Gord says the line “under the
big top” in place of ‘becomes a gift shop’…Bobcaygeon was the best version
I’ve heard yet in person…Gord was especially fired up during New Orleans…man,
I’d love to hear this show again…Gord had so much to say - he was behind
in the lyrics a few
times but of course as savvy as the others are the adjustments are
made so seamlessly you’d think maybe it was planned…Great show…called our
limo driver and he is able to pick us up!…uh oh, the price went up to $20…ah,
I don’t blame the guy…went out for some nightlife and couldn’t believe
the poor tunes…people were cutting the rug to the cheesiest tunes at every
bar we went to in ‘the strip’ area…much to our chagrin we heard the opening
drums of “Cum On Feel the Noise” at one place and THE BAR ABSOLUTELY ERUPTED…uh,
we gotta get out of here guys…one Pittsburgh female then had the audacity
to call us losers as she banged her head to Kevin DuBrow…what was the next
track you ask?…no, not Twisted Sister…how about Runaround Sue?
TAXI!!!………………………...................an american doug