Lothar>>
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The boys had a lot more energy than last night -- I think it's because there was a lot less crowd-surfing/people shoving and such that goes along with general admission. During Courage, someone tossed a beach ball into the crowd, and Gordie said something along the lines of "...that beach ball...it's really relieving the tension...we could have used some of that last night...". Altogether it was a really excellent show.

Lothar, I agree with you about the duet. I was uncertain whether or not it would be as good as the "original" but it definitely carried an electric feeling with it. The crowd loved it too -- they were really into the whole show; it was a really enthusiastic audience in general. :)

Here's the setlist (in order tonight, I had room/freedom to move my arms and jot it all down quickly), and a few notes:

____first set____

My Music at Work
Grace, Too
Fully Completely
Tiger the Lion  - really killer, I loved the green lighting during the quieter synthy bits
Twist My Arm
Puttin' Down
Gift Shop
Titanic Terrarium - one of my fave tunes, really glad to hear it
Fireworks
Completists
Springtime in Vienna - introduced as "Springtime in Gastown" to much applause
Greasy Jungle
Ahead by a Century
Something On

____second set____

Wheat Kings
Train Overnight  - introed as "the idea of a train" or something
Boots or Hearts
Emperor Penguin
Courage - beach ball as described above
Lake Fever
Daredevil - long instrumental jam before and after, very cool
100th Meridian - "get Fred Durst to sing my eulogy" (limp bizkit, eminem, and other associated junk were also playing in Vancouver tonight...)
Long Time Running - Gordie in a big spotlight, crowd quiet & really into it, very very good
Poets
Flamenco - killer duet w/ Kate, I really surprised myself liking it
Nautical Disaster
Stay
New Orleans... - brought out possible new song in the middle (repeated line "can you feeeeel it?")
Fire in the Hole - burning church rant in beginning

____encore____

Inch an Hour
Bobcaygeon - introed as "it's weird, the life of a cop"
Little Bones

32 (!!!) songs total. Hope someone recorded, I wasn't able to get ahold of the recorder myself in time... I'll try for tomorrow though. I might try to bring a video camera as well... :)

All in all, very very good. Can't wait for tomorrow, when I'll be FRONT ROW! Getting pumped just thinking about it -- my multi-variable calculus midterm Friday morning is looking less and less successful. Oh well. ;)

-Cam-
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                             The Hip @ work

                             Cross-country tour kickoff far from
                             tragic

                                         By MIKE BELL
                                           Calgary Sun

                             THE TRAGICALLY HIP
                             Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver
                             Wednesday, November 15, 2000
 

                                VANCOUVER -- The evening before The
                             Tragically Hip kicked off their Canadian tour in
                             Vancouver for their latest album Music @ Work,
                             they were anxious to get things going.

                             And not, as you would assume, because the
                             five-piece rock band are eager to play in front of
                             decidedly partisan and patriotic crowds.

                             It's rather because of the size of those audiences
                             and, maybe even more importantly, the size of the
                             venues, such as Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum,
                             the Saddledome in Calgary and Toronto's Air
                             Canada Centre.

                             "It's still really exciting for us," said Hip bassist
                             Gord Sinclair. "It's great being on a bigger stage
                             -- it's easier to play off of each other because,
                             overall, it's not as loud.

                             "Musically, it's kind of fun. We've been working
                             towards making the bigger rooms as intimate as
                             we can, duplicating what we're trying to do in the
                             smaller theatres. It's going to be fun. I'm looking
                             forward to it."

                             Last night at a sold-out Pacific Coliseum, Sinclair
                             and the rest of The Tragically Hip returned to the
                             comfort zone.

                             Stepping onstage to thunderous applause,
                             enigmatic vocalist Gord Downie kicked off their 2
                             1/2 hour show and their cross-Canada tour by
                             uttering the words: "It's time to get to work."

                             At least, that's what it sounded like -- with
                             Downie mumbling like a well-dressed though still
                             crazed street preacher, it's often hard to tell.

                             Nonetheless, get to work the quintet did.

                             Supplemented by keyboardist Chris Brown and
                             tambourine player-backup singer Kate Fenner
                             (both formerly of The Bourbon Tabernacle
                             Choir), and in the middle of a crop semicircle
                             etched into a prairie wheat-field stage set, the
                             band launched into an evening of hits with the
                             lead-off single, My Music at Work, from Music
                             @ Work.

                             From there it was a Hip-trip through the band's
                             eight-album, 15-year career, yielding few
                             surprises and instead sticking mainly to the
                             established theme of work.

                             Tight, full-sounding and competent, the band
                             hunched over songs like Fully Completely, Tiger
                             the Lion and Ahead By a

                             Century and delivered them on time and with no
                             hassles.

                             And maybe that's how people like the job done
                             these days, because even though there was little
                             or no connection made between band and
                             audience -- save for the songs themselves, which
                             most could sing word-for-word -- there were no
                             complaints and no refunds demanded.

                             The Tragically Hip did what their fans expected:
                             Musically, the band played well, while Downie
                             sung and gesticulated to himself like a
                             lobotomized cross between Hunter S. Thompson
                             and David Byrne.

                             With the first show of their Canadian tour, all the
                             Hip did was prove that preaching, even if it's on a
                             street-corner, is always easy when it's to the
                             converted.
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           The Hip parade
            They are Canadian: Gordon Downie and The Tragically Hip prove to be the best ticket in town
           By Mike Roberts The Province
            They came by air, land and
            limo. They came in their
            Maple Leafs hockey jerseys
            and their most rock patriotic
            frame of mind for an
            evening with The Tragically
            Hip, the band that continues
            to give Canadian fans the
            maximum rush for their
            concert buck.

            Many of the Hip-sters who
            came out to the Pacific
            Coliseum last night were still
            working off their hangovers
            from the biggest concert
            surprise of the year -- an
            impromptu benefit gig at the
            Commodore Ballroom
            Tuesday night in support of
            the Greg Moore
            Foundation.

            The show wasn't even announced until that morning and drew a rush
            crowd of Hip fans who lined up around the block all day for a chance to
            see Gordon Downie and the boys from Kingston.

            The Commodore couldn't hold the crowd and many were turned away.
            Those lucky enough to make it in passed through the doors did so beaming
            and screaming with the same sort of jubilant expressions of elation you'd
            expect from multi-million dollar lottery winners.

            The crowd at the Commodore beckoned the Tragically Hip to the stage
            with a rousing chorus of "O Canada."

            Last night, the Coliseum seemed alarmingly empty at 8 p.m. But when the
            Hip took the stage at 8:26 p.m., the floor and bleaches were packed.

            Sure, the Americans couldn't make it to town last night for lack of throat
            lozenges but Canada's most popular band proved what all the true fans of
            rock already knew -- the Hip was the best ticket in town from the get go.
            The poets can take the potty mouths any day of the year.

            The band plays its second Vancouver date tonight at the same venue.
            Yesterday, the Hip's record label announced the release of an additional
            150 tickets, on the floor. As any fan last night would tell you, well worth
            the call to TicketMaster.
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           A night to sing along
            Mike Roberts The Province
            The Tragically Hip hit the
            stage in a smart and timely
            manner last night, just before
            8:30 p.m. The evening
            would later unfold in to two
            15-song sets, making for a
            bonus-long night with
            Canada's favourite
            homegrown rockers.

            The Hip opened with "My
            Music at Work," the title
            track from the group's latest
            album, Music@Work.

            The crowd ate up the readily-recognizable, radio-ready new hit.

            Frontman Gordon Downie dove right in to the mix, skipping over the usual
            "Hello Vancouver!" obligatories.

            By song three, Downie's suit jacket was gone and the band was
            well-primed -- Robby Baker and Paul Langlois rocking the guitars, Gord
            Sinclair head-bobbing over his bass and Johnny Fay tapping out the
            group's glue back behind the drum riser.

            Two new guest members greeted the Vancouver audience last night -- a
            female back-up singer and a touqued mystery on the keyboards. Nice
            additions -- sonically and visually-- unlike the stage design, which was a
            low-tech, canvas representation of a prairie wheat field. It was
            beige-brown. It was ugly. It looked like a skateboard ramp after a brush
            fire. Thankfully, the superb lighting tech distracted the audience from this
            broken down idea of a subtle touch.

            Last night, for the first time in living memory, the Pacific Coliseum
            administration allowed beer in the seats during a rock concert.

            That may explain a few things, such as the mellowness of the crowd. No
            matter how many plastic pints they pounded, these grown-up college kids
            were not going to start tearing at the seats and each other. Kind of
            comforting. But maybe a little sad.

            It also explained the 20-minute break between the Hip's two sets last night.
            Buy beer. Buy $125 Maple Leafs jersey. Buy more beer. Also a little sad.

            Minor quibbles.

            The night rang out like a great shining bell of Canadiana, a la the Hip. The
            audience sang along (with obvious adulation) to all the old favourites and
            even "Lake Fever," a new addition to the band's song book.

            Downie, always the thinking person's rock star, geared down his
            trademark jerky-chicken dance last night. Unfortunately, he's still a
            mumbler.

            "We are now entering the giant moustache going from coast to coast," was
            one thing I made out during the introduction to "Train."

            Again, quibbles.

            The night rocked from top to tail, all 21/2 hours of it.

            The audience response to "Hundredth Meridian" and "Poets" were
            roof-raisers. The sing-along to "Long Time" proved, like many moments
            last night, that you're never alone in a Hip crowd.
=================================================================================
My first Hip show and what a concert it was! Enjoyed the 2nd set a little more than the first. The crowd was amazing especially during "Courage". Other highlights for me was "Long Time Running" and "100th Meridian". If I didn't have to work tonight, I would so be at the coliseum again tonight.
Cheers, Seb
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Sorry for the delay in my report on the fun I had at both shows.  It's just that, for the last couple of days, I've been speechless.  They were great shows. Particularly the Thursday night show.  I mean the lights and the sound were an absolute treat. An old soundman with a gray poneytail said it was the best sound he's ever heard in the Colosium.
    One of the big treats was being able to buy beer and take it to your seet. Although the band didn't reep any residuals from the exercise, believe me, there was a lot of beer sold.
    I gotta tell ya, I don't  know what all the wankin' was about because I absolutely loved Chris and Kate and what they added to the sound and the dimensions of the band. I was getting rushes listening to Kate and Paul sing harmony. Kate sang one stansa of a bridge and got a total roar from the house. Chris' way of playing off Johnny gives the rythme the extra fewwhacks it takes to lay everyone right down onto the groove. Rob was absolute magic and I think it's because Chris has taken over some of the rythme duties. Our Mr. Baker  took advantage of the freedom and just flew. I thought his hair was going to lift him right off the stage. Gord Downie seemed to feel relaxed and in good humor and of course Mr Sinclair was his solid self, boppin' into each tune with the same vigor. And Downie is singing with such great pitch and power these days that I can't see anything but better albums and songs comming our way for quite a while yet. Johnny ? What can I tell ya ? The guy works like some kind of olimpic champion. He plays like it's the most important thing in the world, and it sure comes out in the wash because my head is still awash with the sights and sounds.
  I can say a couple things about Vancouver Hip fans. I had to hang around the front waiting for tickets both nights and just watching the sworms of fans heading to the doors with sparkles in their eyes and the clasic hurried gait to get to their seets, looking around for friends, I could feel the band already.  Everyone looking happy and excited, even though it was golder than the brass end of a munkey bar. I'm sure there are more fans who know the words to their favorite songs who go the the Sadle dome than there are who go to the Colosium, but when ten or fifteen thousand people are singing together at the top of their lungs, it's hard to tell the difference. No mosh pit. No diving and now plastic bottles or shoes. Those things happened at the Thunderbird Stadium at U.B.C. but not Wednesday or Thursday night over at the PNE grounds. (That's where the Colosium is).
   I was lucky enough to make it back stage and even say hello to each of the guys in the band. There was about a hundred people in a nice banquet area with big round tables and tablecloths as well as a full bar where we caught up on our libations. As everyone can imagine, the band was very nice and accommodating, signing stuff and conversing. It took Paul 40 minutes to
go 15 feet once he was in the door.
   Mostly it's the thrill of seeing so many people in one place who are healthy and happy and off to do a fun thing together. It's great to know I'm part of that croud and, again, like the rest of us, I can't wait to see them play again.
  Th'ol'rokre