As it was a pretty typical day in mid-April
in Denver, we got hammered with a foot of snow. I remember this day
quite distinctly because it was also the day Gretzky announced his retirement.
I met Lenny (fellow CDN originally from Winnipeg) at the local sports bar
and we were debating whether we should make the 1 hour trek down to the
Springs. On top of that, I had a wicked cold and also sort of wanted
to preserve myself for the Boulder show the following night. We decided
to make the trip down the Interstate in my Honda Civic and it was deadly.
We barely moved and the snow kept coming down. As we got near the
Springs, another typical CO weather thing happened. The snow had
stopped, the sun appeared and the Springs only got a light dusting compared
to Denver. We took it as sign and found the place where the Hip were
going to play. Basically, it was an old movie theatre that was a
little (and I mean a little) revamped for concerts. It seated about 500.
It probably was built in the early 70's as it had this beige disco-dome
look to it from the outside. I thought it was pathetic the Hip have
to play in venues like this down here, but hey, it's great for us Canucks
living in the U.S. We ate dinner at a diner next door and then
cruised to the theatre. When we got there, there were maybe 100
people but the place swelled to 400 by the time the show started.
It was a great concert and the setlist was pretty consistent with other
shows: 6 tracks off PP, the first 3 from Henhouse (Giftshop, Vienna, ABAC),
Fully Completely, Grace, that bad song they play from Day For Night "...you
had immunity to
kill..." - I have no idea why they play this song so much (I love Titanic
Terrarium and wish they'd play it in concert). One great thing about
the show was that most of the Colorado Gold Kings minor pro hockey team
showed up. Most were Canucks and were waving the CDN flag throughout
the show. During the entire concert they kept shouting out requests for
Wheat Kings.
TTH ended up performing it during the encore. Lenny and I befriended
the group and it turned out they had some passes to allow them to hang
around after the show. They gave us two and we hung out with them.
Only 2 band members came out (the 2 guitarists, ie not the bassist).
We chatted with both of them and they were totally engaging and down-to-earth.
We wanted to see Gordon Downie but he was nowhere to be found. We
headed back to Denver after the show and grabbed a few pops for the trip
home. We cranked the Hip on the drive and talked about how great
a night it was having front-row seats and meeting the band. As you
can guess, I got sicker the next day but still went to the Hip show in
Boulder. That one was rocking and me and my gal warmed up at the
margarita bar. They have a 3-drink limit there. If you're ever
in CO, visit the Rio Grande. These things knock you on your ass.
I was so sick Sunday I was forced to miss 2 days of work that week.
Oh well, the Hip are worth it!
-Stewart