Completely different show last night, as expected, but there was no second encore. I was disappointed at first, but I guess it serves me right for examining all the other setlists and getting my hopes up! It was all forgotten after the show, tho', as Bobby, the Gords and Paul came over for autographs and pictures for the 10 or so fans waiting by their bus.

Here's the setlist:

Silver Jet
NOIS
Fully Completely (oh yeah)
Darkest One
Lake Fever  "...gonna break the hearts of everyone! (That's a lotta hearts)"
Puttin' Down
Courage  (Gord pretended to piss his name in the snow ("...piss on all your surroundings") - tooooo funny!)
Vapour Trails
Good Life
Poets
Inevitability of Death
Beautiful Thing
50 MC
ABAC
Dire Wolf
Gift Shop
Little Bones

Encore
Are You Ready
Wheat Kings
The Wherewithal

Monday night the slower songs stole the show, but last night it was the more upbeat ones - FC, IOD, 50MC, LB - that really rocked. At one point, Gord starts going on about how every good rock show needs a disappearance, then says "50 Mission Cap!" - the crowd goes nuts but Paul and Gord S. look totally confused. Turns out Gord skipped ahead and was supposed to sing A Beautiful Thing first, so he starts laughing and says, "Did you see his face???!" (referring to Paul) and makes a shocked face and just laughs again. hehe...

To the rest of the people who have tix for upcoming shows - enjoy the evening for what it brings. It's a totally different atmosphere than a big arena... and be sure to check out the shadows on the walls.

K.


I saw the 2nd Calgary show last night and, maybe it was just me who picked up on it, but it was seriously weird. Gord Downie was pissed off and he directed a lot of his anger at the audience throughout the night. The entire show was a big joke to him and he played up the "I'm your monkey boy - I'll dance for you" act against his own wishes from opening to encore. He was pissed when people didn't know the new tunes, he was even more pissed when they only sang along to their old favourites, and he was extremely agitated by one guy in the second row left who video taped the show (... again, only select songs that he really wanted on tape - probably only those offÝof the 2 Hip cd's this guy owns) with his little red record light blinking on and off to show it.Ý That really seemed to make Gordie mad and he couldn't shake it off. It put a whole new context on every lyric he sung, and totally changed the dynamic of the entire show. It actually made for my worst Hip concert experience ever and made me seriously think what the heck is Gord Downie's problem. It totally rubbed off on members of the band too. Unless the rest of the audience was star struck blind to the obvious, they probably didn't even notice that Gord was fully sarcastic and completely displaying his obvious disgust at having to trot out New Orleans Is Sinking yet again for song #2 when they'd just done that the night before (song #3... but you know what I mean). He found no joy whatsoever in singing any of his own material last night. Even his "rants" were self-absorbed and spiteful. There was nothing quirky and idiosyncratic about his performance - it was just plain mean to the people who are regular fans. Not die-hard, memorized every lyric, fans. But fans who still care about The Hip, own all the albums, but are not freak worshippers (... a personal pet peeve). I still dished out $70 to see the band from the 3rd row and I did not think a shitty attitude like Gord's should have been on as open a display as he let through last night. There was other obvious tension with the boys in the band too. He was mad at Johnny when the timing fell through at the beginning of another song and he used the lyrics ("pendulum swings") to add context to his obvious displeasure (... adding additional spite to his delivery of "I'm tired of waiting for you"). Something weird was definitely up last night. I got the sense that the band had an argument eariler in the day and it lingered and crept onstage somehow. Try as they might, the issues were not resolved and Gordie took his frustration out on the audience. I, for one, did not appreciate it. Maybe that makes it special because I got to see an out-of-the-ordinary show, but that's not the feeling it gave. If you (webmaster Rory) have the power, post a review like this one that tells the real story of a real show with real issues. Not just another glowing "they were gods" spew by some fanboy with blinders on. I AM a fan. I HAVE seen the Hip 6 or 7 times. I know it's not 60 or 70, but it's enough because I truly love the band. But Gord's performance and his inability to get out of his own head last night seriously left a sour taste in my, and I'm sure many others who took the effort to watch what was going on, mouths. Kudos to the band (musicians) themselves for putting their heads down and rocking with their own focused intensity. That ended up being the only way I took any pleasure from last night's show - appreciating the music.Ý Anytime the focus drifted back to Gordie, he wrecked it. If you happen to read this Mr. Downie, I hope you smoked a big fat one after the show, seriously reflected on what went wrong, and make it up to the casual fans in the next city (Edmonton tonight).Ý They deserve better thanÝbitterness.
Ý
Not afraid to post my name and even phone number,
Miles Krowicki
Calgary, AB

This was my ninth hip show not counting the two times I've seen Mr. Downie with the Dinner is Ruined. The show at the Jubilee on Tuesday was by far the best hip show I've ever been to. The venue was perfect for them, I was in the front row just to the left of center in front of Paul but from any seat in that place you can clearly see the stage and more importantly everything and everyone on it. The sound was also amazing in the Jubilee.
Sam Roberts opened up with a great set and got everyone pumped up for the big show. Don't be late to the show!! It's well worth it to get there on time to see Sam Roberts. There were cameras and recorders everywhere in the crowd. One guy had a camera set up on a tripod about 4 rows back in the center. I'd love to get a copy of that if I could. I took about 36 pictures on my 35mm and about half of them turned out. First time taking pictures at a show so I didn't know what to expect.
Anyway, the show itself was amazing. The guys seemed to be having a great time, smiling and feeding off each other. Gord S. was really rocking it out more than I've seen him before. Gord Downie was up to his usual antics dancing around like only Gord can. At one point he Gord skipped ahead a bit and started saying something like "it wouldn't be a hip show whithout a disapearance... this is 50 - mission cap." Paul had this really confused look on his face and Gord just started laughing and said "did you see the look on his face!? Hahaha...beautiful" or something along those lines and then they went into beautiful thing. Classic Gord. Inevitability of Death was a highlight for me as was Beautiful thing, Dire Wolf, Vapor trails, Wheat Kings was beautiful with the backdrop of stars, and the Wherewithal was a great closer.
All in all it was an amazing show. Those of you that are going to the upcoming shows are in for a treat. These smaller venues were made for hip shows. You people south of the border that are used to seeing them in such venues are extremly lucky. I'd be completely content to only see hip shows in these small venues from now on.
-rw

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