its late, im tired but hopefully this will be a little indicator of what a great show TTH put on tonight.the highlites were grace, greasy jungle, in the first set which had kind of a rough start(timing wise)but the second set was nothing short of incredible.ill give the complete setlist in a minute....man, wheat kings sent chills down my back with rob b flat acoustic slide...un fucking real!  the piano in boots was too much...wild mtn honey and meridian were also incredible....gord d was very animated as usual....thumbs up all around!!       heres the setlist;
M@W,GRACE,LAKE FEVER,BONES,IOD,TIGER,TWIST,SPRINGTIME,COMPLETIST,FIREWORKS,ABAC, GREASY, SOMTHING,NOIS,    SET 2...WHEAT,WILD MTN HONEY,BOOTS,COURAGE,PUTTIN DOWN,GIFT,GEMS,POETS,TO#4,100 MERIDIAN,PENGUIN,BOBCAYGEON, NAUTICAL........ENCORE... FIRE,FREAK,BLOW........HOPE TO HEAR 50 MISSION CAP AND LONG TIME RUNNING TOMMOROW IN MONCTON!        GOOD NIGHT ALL           BIG D
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SAINT JOHN

The crowd was good.  99% of the floor was standing.  After the opener Gord D found that his mic stopped working.  He grabbed Paul's and started joking that "after two years in this business" he deserved his own microphone.  He continued the rant into Grace, Too.

Boots or Hearts was quite a nice surprise.  I disagree strongly with those who say Chris and Kate don't add anything to the show.  Sure, you can't hear them during every tune, but when you can, I find it really rounds out the sound quite nicely.

Gord played around with the microphone stand a lot (dogding and making faces at it) but he never acknowledged the crowd, which I missed.

Bobby was wearing his trademark pink pants.

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MONCTON

Once again, the crowd were good.  No sitters on the floor.  That surprised me considering there were plenty at the last tour.  I hate it when people start trying to get people in front of them to sit down.  IT'S A ROCK CONCERT PEOPLE.  Anyway, there was none of that last night.

Bobby was wearing blue jeans.  I hope he breaks out the paisley pants for Halifax.

Titanic Terrarium was fantastic.  The crowd ruined Sherpa and Long Time Running by yelling and screaming.  I'm all for doing that between songs or during a loud song, but the slow songs are so much better when you can actually HEAR them.

During Courage, Gord intentially delayed one of his lines.  The crowd of course sang with it on time.  Gord, joking around, apologized that he had "missed his mark" and that it "wasn't very professional."  He then let the crowd sing the second verse.

Very short rant during NOIS about a coffee house shutting down.

Opiated!  On the Verge!  Train Overnight!  Great setlist.

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All in all my favourite part of the shows is it appears that they boys still enjoy themselves.  Does anyone else think that Gord Sinclaire enjoys The Tragically Hip the most?  He is always rockin out.  During Three Pistols he was singing the words to most of the song (though not into the mic), and not just his background vocals.  To me this indicates that he's enjoying himself.  Oh and the band seems to joke around with each other a lot.  Gord D must have said or did something because he looked over at Bobby with a smile and Bobby was laughing. This happened several times during the two shows between different band members.  They seem to share a lot of inside jokes.

I will say that I think this should be the end of the arena tours. The band is not selling as well, and I for one would love to see them revert to smaller venues.  Sure it would be harder to get tickets, but that's kinda the point.  It would weed out a lot of the "arena folk"; people who shout out requests during slow songs, push and shove, etc.

I remember one time last year when this drunken moron tapped me on the shoulder and said he and his buddies wanted everyone to chant "New Orleans is Sinking" with them so the band would play it.  This despite the fact that they already HAD played it.  It's obvious that many of the people there are not even paying attention to the show.

Anyway the shows were great, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's show in Halifax.

On and Gord D was on the front page of the Times & Transcript (Moncton newspaper) this morning.  It seems he and the band were dropping off thousands of dollars in music equipment to a local high school.  Is there a classier band in Canada?  The world?

Enjoy the boolegs,

Andrew
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- Just saw the hip in Saint John, and although I had average seats, still not a bad show...They played Last of the Unplucked Gems which was sweet, and Boots or Hearts as well, which was really improved with Chris on the keys...

- Starting to like Tiger the Lion more and more after seeing it live..Very nice work on the lights..for that matter, it was probably the best display of lighting i've seen at a hip show....

- I don't find Kate adds too much to the sound..her voice is usually drowned out, although I can hear her tamborine, and well, I don't mind staring at her either!

- Some girl after the concert was screaming because she caught Gord D's coat...When she put it on, it was a army green type of jacket, and the name on it said Gordon..any truth to this? Her friends had the drumsticks, so who knows?

Later
-Matt