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