Wait until you see my video...I was four rows off the balconey rail and had a perfect vantage point the whole show.
Three tapers along the rail in front of me also had two Digital recorders and video cameras strapped to the rail so they must have some awesome tapes.

I hung ot at the Joshua Tree Bar and Grill with my wife before the show drinking many Sam Adams lights (I am from Boston, you know)..
Many Good Canucks filled the room...

On the way in, I ran into Johnny Fay and Gord Sinclair by
the backtsage door.

I talked at length to Johnny about how underappreciated he is on the new album by the reviewers. I told him I thought he did a bombastic job on "Wolf" during the listeners party version. Johnny told me he was disapointed w/ the drums on the album version of 'Wolf" and even wanted to "change skins" for that one ...but never did.

I told Gord S. we hadn't heard "Locked" in a Boston show since Bill's Bar in 1998. He smiled and said "You never know what can happen?" (You know me and "locked" Rory!)

Onward to the show, the boys hit the stage at 9 sharp...
I don't have the exact setlist but I will once I play the tape all the way through but here's my best recall:

1) Jet (great set starter)
2) Music
3) Grace (Tragically Hip version, tough to hear Gords rants but powerhouse delivery!)
4) Darkest One (Great crooning by Gord)
5) Good LifeÝ(Devastatingly dramatic in concert)
6) Bobcaygeon
7) Nautical (classic rendition)
8) Meridian (meaty, big and bouncy!)
9) A Beautiful thing
10) 50 MC (crowd went nuts!...place was rocking, Gord mentioned something about the Bruins at the end of the song..couldn't quite make it out..)Ý
11) Throwing Glass
12) Locked (dark and stormy version with Gord doing behind the back pistol draws)Ý
13) All tore up (Jonny Fay just dominated this song beating the shit out of his drumset!)
14) Bones (Gord's "skeleton dancing on his grave" moves, "back to pass" and "cheers! drink dumped over his shoulder" mannerisms...)

Encore:
Are you ready
Long Time Running (I've never seen this and it was a dead on perfromance with the crowd singing some of the chorus)
Fire in the holeÝ(metallic with some of the "reporter in the buring church" segments)

Off the stage by 11pm

There were too many people vying for backstage passes last night so I'm hoping my buddy will get me in tonght..

Summary:
Amazing setlist full of Fully Completely favorites especially!...
Band sound was awesome, only a couple of instances of lost lights this night but the crew recovered each time in a matter of seconds..
Gord's vocals and Johhny Fay's drumming took center stage throughout the night (Johnny was on fire the whole show!!!!!)

I thought they could've miked Gord's rants a little higher in volume and turned up Robby guitar a little more but this show
was one for the record books...

I'm 12th row center ailse tonight so more to come...

Your Killer Whale tank club video/ concert correspondant
in Boston,
Scott

Are U Ready
Long Time Running!!
Fire In The Hole.....

Heading back for round 3 tonight!!!

The Bananna Shaking Mainiacs

Bob, Fran, Dave and Sonny

The band started (& finished) a couple of minutes earlier tonight... looks like they just started late on Friday night...

Started with Silver jet.. and redeemed it, in my eyes. Didn't like it at the first Boston show... but this was the way I expected to hear it. Got to hear Darkest One... probably one of my favourite songs off the new album... all in all, a good mix of tunes with only 4 or 5 songs repeated between the two night! And I think between these two night, we'd heard pretty much all the songs off IVL!

Good Life was great this night, and Meridian was played just as furiously again, with Johnny hitting warp speed on the drums again mid-song.

I thought Beautiful Thing came off real well live... as did Throwing off Glass... after those two, I was almost hoping to hear Leave (even though those 3 songs are collectively my least fave on the new album).

50 MC was as good as always.... Long Time running in the encore was a highlight... (love that song!). Gord let the audience take over for a line or two during one of the chorus, which was cool....

Great show... although, I was surprised to see it end at 20 minutes to 11... figured they'd play right 'till 11... but then they did start earlier than night 1....
-Ian B

Just got back from Beantown. Here's my belated reviews of the two shows we saw. It's a little long, so brace yourself.

7/27/02, Boston, Somerville Theatre:

My buddy and I drove down Friday night from Ottawa and arrived in Boston around 6 AM Saturday morning. After a short nap at the hostel to get our internal clocks back to normal, we went for a walk and checked out the sights and sounds of Beantown.Ý What a great city! If you're ever in Boston, make sure you spend some money on a good seafood meal. The lobster down
there is fantastic!

Around 5 p.m. we took the subway (or Red Line as it's called)over to Somerville to check out the venue and have some dinner before the show. Somerville Theatre is much smaller than I expected. The guy working the door told us it only holds about 900.Ý We had tix for 4th row centre, so our view of the action was perfect. I just hope my photos turn out.

The opener, Marc Copely, was pretty damn good I thought. Kind of a mixture of 70's Zeppelin-esque psychedelia and 90's alterna-rock. His guitar prowess is something else! Unfortunately he played to a relatively empty theatre, but those who saw him seemed to enjoy the performance. After Copely finished his set, the place finally started to fill up, and by the time the Hip hit the stage at 9, the place was going crazy.
They opened with Silver Jet, which is a fantastic opener in my opinion. Gord was very lively and animated and really seemed to be enjoying himself throughout the whole show, while the band sounded tight as ever.Ý
Highlights included a mind-blowing version of Nautical Disaster, A Beautiful Thing (absolutely gorgeous!), Throwing Off Glass (also gorgeous!), It's a Good Life (awesome!) and two exceptionally rocking renditions of Locked and 50 Mission Cap which blew the roof off the place.Ý
Another highlight was Gord letting the crowd sing the entire first chorus to Long Time Running during the encore.
The Darkest One seems to be emerging as a real crowd favorite. People were singing their lungs out during the chorus-- quite unusual for such a new song. Johnny was an absolute monster all night (as usual). I thought he was gonna burst a blood vessel during Fire in the Hole. As Dave Bidini said in his book: "Johnny plays with an unflagging confidence-- with propulsion, rather than flair."
Also, there seems to be a new song developing in the middle of Meridian, with Gord singing the line "Life is forgetting" over and over. It sounded like he had a couple of verses worked out as well, but I couldn't quite make them out.
-Casey R.