Pittsburgh, PA 5/8/99 review by Mark Soliday via Henhouse mailing list

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