Did you know that Gord D. celebrated his birthday with us on saturday night in Quebec city! Oui monsieur! And he made it in style with his "ceinture fléchée" from the Carnaval de Québec.(Check out the pics on the power reporter) We had a great show, great setlist, great crowd (though it was probably the smallest from this tour...) The guys were very tight, they were jammin' like crazy, we had lots of new tunes during New O. and 100th. They messed up with the original setlist a little more than usual on this tour... maybe they were more into an improvisation mood last saturday night...

Hey guys I converted 7 people that night to The Hip! Not bad!! Maybe by next time they come around we'll be able to sell out the Colisée!!
 

Eric

"...those himalayas of the mind..." tth

Hope all is well... I've finally found sometime to write on how the weekend was seeing the hip over 4 days in Montreal, Quebec City (Power Reporter), and the Ottawa shows...

Montreal 02-05-99
Unfortunately I didn't manage to win Phantom Zone tickets... (though a few bastards or daddys that I told how to win got them)... I had 23rd row seats off to the left of the stage... they were pretty great seats, and the concert was unbelievable.. the crowd was really into it from the beginning to the end...  they played some classics like Lionized, On the Verge, and Luxury.... Escape is at Hand was really good as was 100th...which included Never-Ending/Lofty Pines... New Orleans was classic, with
This Flight Tonight and Insomniacs tied in there...  Gord seemed fairly lively moving around a little, and the band as a whole was great.... I didn't think it could get much better... maybe a few different songs but either way a GREAT show overall.. the recording of the show came out really nice, and will be treed fairly soon DO NOT ASK ME FOR IT BEFORE HAND unless it's for something really rare that could be treed or a NICE copy of a 99 show. at least another copy of it out there..

Quebec City 02-06-99
As some of you already know, I had won the Power Reporter contest for this one... I had to be there at about 3:30 in the afternoon.. le Colisee is a pretty small place, and it's sort of falling apart, the outside looks really nice but the inside is sort of a dump (I'm not trying to put anyone down or anything, but it's no wonder they lost the Nords, they needed a new arena and just couldn't afford it).. backstage was really small and old looking... I got to meet the band for a little bit, but I sort of expected to see them for a bit longer.. I guess since it was Gord D. bday it was hard to get a hold of anyone.. they seemed all really busy.. while I was being told what I had to do for the power reporter contest, I heard music coming from the room next to me.. I
thought it was just the radio, but as I listened more closely I could here them playing a bit of thugs and stuff like that.. it was the hip rehearsing! it was great... the rehearsed for about an hour or so, and then went out for the soundcheck... it last for about 45 minutes and they played 4 songs... Inevitability of Death, Greasy Jungle, Thompson Girl, and another one I forget (check the power reporter page for quebec if you really have to know)... after the soundcheck I had to write a small review and how everything was going.. nothing to spectacular, whatever came to mind went... when we finished we ate some great food that was catered.. nice great selection and really good.. the band ate there as well... pretty weird eating with them actually... by this time it was around 7:15, so I had to get ready with the digital camera so I went out in the phantom zone (if only everyones seats were this good, you could practically touch them)... the hip went back to rehearsing by this time, and I could hear a few new things which sounded really nice.. By Divine Right is great, though they didn't really change their setlist over the 4 shows which was sort of shitty, but either way they're pretty good to see, if you get the chance don't skip them out, atleast for the first time or so you see them.. afterwards it could get a little annoying to know what's coming next every time... in between BDR and the hip (8:05) we had to go in the back and check the pics of BDR out and choose which were going on the web.. at around 8:40 the hip came on, and the crowd just went nuts, there was probably only about 4000 people there.. the top level was totally empty, but of the 4 concerts they were definitely the wildest and loudest... they started singing the song they sing at european soccer games, the oooooooh waaaaaaaay oooooh way oh way ooooohh whatever... either way it was a riot... something i'll definitely never forget... after the concert I had to write my review, which by this time I really didn't feel like doing cause I was so tired from the past few days (unfortunately I had exams the week before all this so I had like zero hours of sleep all week)... after the review we got to meet the band a little more.. Gord D. was totally blasted out of his mind... he was pretty funny, like a little kid, someone asked him what was written on his shirt, and he said pointing at it Nordiclict (a bar in netherlands they play).. he started spelling it out, "Noooordiclict, nnoooooorthhherrrn star.. iiiitt meaaans norrrrrthern star, nnoooooordiclict, nordiclict" it's sort of hard to explain but it was REALLY funny.. Johnny was after the girls as usual, and everyone else sort of was just sitting around talking... unfortunately we couldn't stay too too long afterwards since we had to drive back to Montreal that night...when I was first introduced to Gord d., I was wearing my Croatian soccer jersey and he actually knew what it was and some of the players on the team.. evidentally Gord D. is a big Dutch soccer fan.. I was pretty impressed by that.. the set itself was REALLY nice... 100th meridian was TERRIFIC, they played Blond solid/Never-Ending/(I'll try)/Every Irrelevance.. truly amazing.. Grace and Poets went off really well as well.. the original setlist had IOD and Rules but they were cancelled out for 100th.. Little Bones ended it off nicely..Unfortunately I didn't get to really talk to the band as much as I had wished for.. it was basically a hi-bye type thing with maybe a few words exchanged... nothign too drastic, but either way they're super nice, they came up to me to say hi and stuff, and they gave me a poster with their signatures etc.... truly an AMAZING night... the travel back was
pretty shitty, I only got in at like 4:30am.. my girlfriend and I were dying on our way home the recording of the show was a little messed up at the beginning but after a few songs it sounds REALLY nice.. again, it'll be treed soonI will put all the pics from the digital camera up soon on my site, I was lucky enough to keep the shots I took..

Ottawa #1 02-07-99
I woke up at like 8:30 to play a hockey game (yes crazy) and afterwards my friend & I was picked up by Rob who already had Matt and another friend with him... this was at about 2pm... we got into ottawa, ate some, and then went to the show.. my seats were pretty shitty, 48th row floors (LAST ROW FLOORS)... the view was so so, and of the 4 concerts it was the worst, yet really good in itself. the setlist was very dull though, nothing spectacular, they played Flamenco which was nice, Yawning or Snarling & Let's Stay Engaged were the rare highlights or older songs, they also played Daredevil... it was a good night, but definitely a bit of a downer since I was in the front the night before, the recording is probably the best of the 4... really nice.. there was atleast 1 other good recording of the show..

Ottawa #2 02-08-99
I was picked up at around 5:00 by Rob once again (thanks for the driving Rob!) with Trevor and Dan.. we got there while BDR was playing... the seats WERE AWESOME.. 9th row centre.. really great seats... the concert may have been the best of the bunch.. they seemed to play EVERYTHING.. Cordelia, 50 MISSION CAP!, Rules, Emperor was nice (sorry sili it's a
great song especially live), 700 ft, Little Bones, Locked and a few others... it was really great.. Gord D. was going nuts the entire show walking all over the place and bobby baker was doing some great work... the crowd was a lot smaller than the night before.. the top level was curtained off so I'd say there was maybe about 4-5000 less people than the night before... it was also a lot older crowd, the crowd for the first show was REALLY young, I must have seen atleast 10 people under 10, and I didn't even really look around... this was a great show, and will make for a great tree.. the recording came out fairly nice, and will be a nice one to add to anyone's collection... there was atleast 2 people recording at the show, and both copies seemed pretty good..

hopefully I didn't forget anything
take care
Peter