I am still in complete and utter shock, not to mention quite lieterally speechless.  I just got home from seeing The Tragically Hip in MY town on the campus of MY university, 10 minutes from MY house (anyone who drives great distances to see The Hip because they don't play your town will know what I mean), and it's ALL thanks to the astounding generosity of a fellow
henhouser and a member of Team Canada. What an absolutely amazing, incredible, awesome night.

 Ok . . . . for starters, the setlist, complete and in order:

 fireworks
 poets
 NewO
 Grace
 fully
 wheat
 courage
 use it up
 Gift
 abac
 all tore up
 puttin down
 meridian
 bobc
 nautical
 music

 encore:
 fever
 50mc (patriotic button-pushing gets the crowd going at a fever pitch)
 blow (bodies flying everywhere by this point)

    How do I know this is accurate? because I am looking at the setlist that the soundboard engineer was reading off of. he gave me it after the show was completed.  The sound, incidentally, was phenomenal.  Gord's rants came thru loud and clear, and he had some absolute gems. My personal fave was during the quieter part of courage.  Gord is addressing Courage and trying to get
him psyched for the big game - "It's only two, maybe two and a half hours; a few face-offs...I know you can do it, courage - I KNOW you can do it, and I am here for you, courage.  I am HERE for YOU, courage!  There's no simple explanation ..."  The new songs sounded fantastic, and 50 mission cap was simply epic.  The first three songs were the three played on the air, but
the entire show was professionally filmed with a four- or five-camera crew. there were numerous video hand-helds in the crowd, and i spotted a few nice-looking taping rigs set up in front of the sound board as well.  no doubt, the show will get out somehow.

 The show was amazing, but the true hilight of the night was the demonstration of generosity by several Canadians.  A camper from alberta had a nice little party going before the concert, and the fellas that were drinking were offering us beer, soda, food, etc.  then, we go to the front of the building where the main entrance is, and lo and behold, there's Jamie Sale and her skating partner.  We stole a few seconds of their time and got some photos with them, and they were very nice about things.  After all the
media crush that's been on those two the last few weeks, to agree to photos at a party where they were probably trying to get away from that stuff was nice.  Then, Rohit hands me an extra pass that he had scored earlier in the day.  I know he had to do some serious sniffing around to get that pass (thanks again rohit!).  Then, to top things off, a guy whose last name is Anderson who is on Team Canada's Alpine Skiing team gives us, free of charge, his two extra passes.  My wife was in tears, she was so grateful. we both gave him a big hug and thanked him profusely, and in the door we went.  Labbatt had a great spread of food and beverages for the partygoers, and everyone had a fantastic time.  I'm an American, and very proud to be one, and i will definitely be rooting for team USA tomorrow.  But after tonight, after being reminded of how flat-out amazing Canadians are, I will not be the slightest bit disapointed if Team Canada takes the gold.  I will be ecstatic for all of the wonderful people I have met over the last two weeks who have come to town from Canada.  I'm hoping for a classic game, but the more I think about it, the less the outcome of the game matters to me. Afterall, Canada's gold medal drought in men's hockey is ALOT longer than
the USA's.  :)

Brian mc
salt lake city, UT

If you see a guy with an inflatable Stanley Cup on the telecast, that's me.

Very hard to make out the Gord rants.

A lot of crowd surfing at the very end; I don't like crowd surfing.  Plus the people going up didn't know to take off their boots.  All that went out with acid wash, though.

All in all, seeing them in a venue with the Canadian Olympians was awesome.  I'm glad my gracious host to Salt Lake City, Brian McCabe, was able to get in.

As for the rest of the Olympic experience, it was the awesomest.

* Met Sale and Pelletier and Marc Gagnon at the Hip show.
* Got to meet the Edmonton Mercury.  They won the gold medal in men's hockey for Canada in 1952 -- 50 years ago today, in Oslo, against the US.  Much like the 50 year anniversary party today.
* Got to wear a Stanley Cup ring from a late 70s Montreal Canadiens dynasty player.
* Earned the instant respect of virtually every Canadian I saw with my inflatable Stanley Cup (now autographed by most of the above)

There's more, but I'm sleepy and tired.  Thanks to Labatt's for sending me, and for putting on such an awesome party.

-The Rohit, hallucinating with lack of sleep.