Well folks... Here's my take on the War Child benefit concert.
First off, there was a palpable sense in the crowd that we were all there for two main reasons, the first being for War Child Canada. A great cause, we were all there because there are children all around the world, suffering, dying, because of war. Millions of children have died in the last decade alone, because of war. Ten million have suffered psychological trauma. The horrible statistics go on and on.
The second reason, was for the great music.
Maestro started off the show with a bang! He was in a fantastic mood, and that certainly jumped over to the crowd. The crowd was well aware of his songs, and sang (rapped?) along with him without missing a beat. His smile never left his face. He joked about how he brought a winter parka, and how surprised he was that it was so hot. After a smoking "Backbone", he stepped off stage.
Next up was Chantal Kreviazuk. Now, I must admit, I have never been a big fan. I picked up her first album, Under These Rocks and Stones, when it came out because I had heard good things about it. While I wasn't disappoined in the album, it never took with me. She came on stage, and sat at her piano. What an amazing voice, and vocal range, this young lady has!! I was impressed at her level of talent. She ran through her bevy of hits, including Wayne, Surrounded, Before You, and she ended off her set with a formidable rendition of Joni Mitchell's Leaving on a Jet Plane, letting the crowd sing the chorus. A great set, by a wonderful talent!
Third on the bill was Angelique Kidjo, from West Africa. All of her songs were in a language other than English, but that didn't stop the crowd from enjoying her groovy, full-of-energy sound. Of all the performers, save for the Hip, she put the most into it!
And finally, the Tragically Hip.
Another incredibly energetic by our boys, accompanied by Chris Brown and Kate Fenner, as it will be for the Fall and Winter tours. Gord Downie was very talkative between songs, commenting on the benefit, and encouraging the crowd to donate money for the cause. Robby, Johnny, and Paul were wearing sunglasses to temper the glaring sun. Many smiles were exchanged between the band throughout the set, and they definitely enjoyed themselves on stage. I suppose 80000 fans can put you in a good mood. They started with Grace, Too, and ended the entire show, in the second encore, with a blistering Little Bones. Here's the entire setlist:

Grace, Too
My Music at Work
Giftshop
Putting Down
Ahead by a Century
Fully Completely
Bobcaygeon
Nautical Disaster
Tiger the Lion
Poets
Lake Fever
Fireworks
Springtime in Vienna
The Completists
Courage
Wheat Kings
New Orleans Sinking
E1:
Something On
Scared
At the Hundredth Meridian
E2:
Little Bones

Like I said above, 80000 people were there, and all seemed to enjoy themselves, some a little bit too much.

Rory Young
Winnipeg


Hi Rory et al,

Just to add to what Rory wrote...
- Shea (my girlfriend) and I slept in on Saturday after a late night Friday so our plan to go early was immediately shot to hell
- got to the Forks at 1pm, just missing Fred Penner apparently.  Damn!
- Maestro was good but more in a "nostalgia" kind of way for me.  "Let Your Backbone Slide" was hugely popular when I was in Grade Nine.  Funny
seeing the guy is still around and name-checking his old glories (ie. "Can someone tell me the name of the first ever video I had on MuchMusic straight up and down?")  "Straight up and down" is apparently what rappers say where the rest of us would simply interject an "eh".
- were about mid-way back in the park then move up fairly close to the stage on the left side because there were people standing on the walkway in front of where we were.  Paramedics had to push to get through the pass it was so thick with people and even after the police showed up on horseback to clear away the people, it filled right in behind them!
- managed to grab a little corner of the grass (not that kind!) near the front and sit for Chantal Kreviazuk. Like Rory, I had thought she was okay but had never been a huge fan.  But she put on a great show, especially for the hometown crowd.  Rumours of surprise guests had circulated - everyone from U2 to Sting to "Raiiiiinnnne" (Maida, lead singer of Our Lady Peace and apparently Ms. Kreviazuk's husband our youthful waitress breathlessly informed us on Friday night).  No such luck for any guest appearances though.  (Oh, and a teeny correction to Rory's report - "Leaving On A Jet Plane" is originally a John Denver
tune though Joni Mitchell may have covered it.)
- Angelique Kidjo was a pleasant surprise as the only artist I hadn't heard announced, very energetic with songs in six different languages as we were informed in her intro.
- And then the Hip...
- Gord began with the words "Maybe we can't stop war" which I thought was a little counter to the message of the concert.  But if you've read the Canoe review (http://www.canoe.ca/JamConcertsR2Z/warchild2000_000917.html), you'll see that this was the beginning of a logical syllogism (okay, I don't actually know what it's called) that wove in and out of the songs. As
reported in Canoe:
"Perhaps we can't stop war."
"War is the death of imagination."
"Imagination has no enemies."
"Children have no enemies."
"Children are the birth of imagination"
"So maybe we have something here." (except I think Gord eventually concluded with a different line, "so maybe we can stop war?")  Perfect!

This will probably be blasphemy to the Henhouse but I must admit that I didn't stay for the whole show.  Maybe because it was a free show? Maybe because I knew I'd eventually get a copy of the show on CD?  Maybe because the crowd surfers were starting to launch from behind us and the thought of getting an unexpected boot in the head just doesn't appeal like it did when I was 18?

I don't know - I guess I feel like I missed the show but if I think about it, we just went and watched from way at the back when being up close got too much (did you get crushed up front Rory?).  And with the amazing size of the crowd (80 000 - someone said this was one of the biggest concerts ever in Canada?  Is that true?  How big was the first Edgefest outside Toronto?), this was a great perspective.

Went to the canopy in the Forks afterward but with the number of people milling about, didn't bump into any other Henhousers. Oh well, next time!

Just one other comment.  War Child apparently only raised $150 000 for the day when they were hoping for $500 000.  Must be very disappointing.  I know that my girlfriend and I put in $10 each and what's more, the people I saw putting cash in were
all putting bills ($5's, $10's, $20's).  So there must have been A LOT of people who didn't give anything if the average donation worked out to less than $2 per person.  They pointed out from the stage that a movie costs $10 and a beer is $5 so giving up just one of these things for one week would take care of a nice donation on your behalf.  I don't know - I would've also mentioned that tickets to a Hip concert are what $35? This was a free Hip concert PLUS a few other major acts including one multiple-Juno nominee.  So giving a portion of that price would be a good gesture.  This comparison might've made $5 or $10 seem like the little amount of money it really is.

Anyhow, those are some of my thoughts and impressions...

Jason

PS - Rory, how soon till we get a tape tree of the show?  And did you get a video tape?  Are you able to duplicate?  Peter, we've never tried a VHS tree but if it's available, now might be the time to try it!  I know I'd be willing to dub copies for 4-5 people.

PPS - a funny aside.  I subscribe to another mailing list called "Link of the Day" where they send you to a "useful/informative site of the day" type thing.  Saturday's link?  www.ticketmaster.com!

--
Jason Hammond


Like Rory said early, some people were enjoying themselves a little too much.  There was grass all over the grass, many people stumbling around in a daze, and just plain getting carried away.  This is where the crowd-surfing and the moshing comes into the equation.  Having lived in several others areas in Canada, I have seen firsthand how far we are behind the times in many aspects.  A lot of young kids take ANY excuse they can find to crowd surf.  While this might still go over fairly well at a Dayglo Abortions show, it certainly isn't cool at the Hip, at a Skydiggers show,  etc... But in Winnipeg, it happens.  I guess we're too slow... Did Gord say anything about it? No.  But sometimes you could see he was a little pissed about it.  He shot quite a few nasty glances, but I don't think even the crowd-surfing could take away from the time they were having. The crowd was huge, we were all really jazzed about seeing them, and they looked really jazzed about playing up there before all of us.  I think it was Glen Murray, our mayor, who said that the heavens were aligned perfectly on that day to make the conditions what they turned out to be.  Other than the crowd-surfing, it was a perfect day.  Well, I guess if they had played Thompson Girl, and Membership, and 700ft. and Emperor, and there had been no crowd-surfing, then it would have been a perfect day.
On another note, I like Kate.  I know, I know.  Although alot of the time she's inaudible, I think she has ALOT to bring to the stage with the boys. At War Child, she and Gord traded lines in the last couple verses of scared. You know when you're thinkin'/singin' the lyrics along with Gord and then something truly unexpected happens, and you hear a woman's voice?  Well, it
sent shivers up my spine and I loved it.  She just hit these notes in such a beautiful, perfect way.  I think that, if it's done properly, she has a lot to bring to the stage with the band.  There, I said it.  I like Kate. Sorry for ramblin' on.  Consider this my belated concert review.  Oh yeah, and one more thing... my dad (54) came to the show... it was his first Hip experience after repeated insistence on my part over the years.  When I asked him what he thought of it the next day (I wasn't with him at the show) he said, "I think I'm finally starting to get it."  When I asked him to elaborate he said that they don't just go up on stage and perform, they think as they go, and it just adds a different dynamic to the show for everyone involved.  Like Gord D. says, the best part of their job is to be able to make 'careers of their imaginations'.  Nice job.

Thanks for watching, and good day.
Andy
Winnipeg


Live: The Hip War Child Concert

                                                                     By JOHN KENDLE
                                                                          Winnipeg Sun

                                               TRAGICALLY HIP, ANGELIQUE KIDJO,
                                               CHANTAL KREVIAZUK, MAESTRO
                                               The Forks Festival Stage, Winnipeg
                                               Saturday, September 16, 2000
 

                                                 The cause was good. The show was free.

                                                Consequently, 80,000 people showed up at
                                               Winnipeg's traditional meeting place to make
                                               yesterday's War Child 2000 concert the biggest show
                                               this city has seen.

                                                Whether all those folks gathered at the city's
                                               favourite rendezvous to see Canada's most popular
                                               band or to support War Child is debatable.

                                                By the end of the concert, an estimated $150,000
                                               had been raised in cash donations for War Child, a
                                               non-governmental relief organization which
                                               provides aid to children in war-afflicted areas
                                               around the globe.

                                                 Also, all the costs of staging the concert -- about
                                               $150,000 -- were donated. That brought the total
                                               short of, but within a respectable distance of the
                                               group's $500,000 goal.

                                                What was undeniable, though, was the incredible
                                               spirit generated at this gathering.

                                                Free shows and benefits can be nebulous things,
                                               crowded by curious folks and bargain-seekers,
                                               unsure of the entertainment they're there to enjoy.

                                                But this show was something else, a gathering of
                                               the masses which seemed to understand something
                                               special was happening here.

                                                In his introduction to The Tragically Hip, Foreign
                                               Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy said "We're
                                               starting a movement in Winnipeg that's going to go
                                               around the world and help free these war children."

                                                Axworthy may have been optimistic, but if the
                                               enthusiasm and goodwill generated by The Hip can
                                               be bottled and spread, then his prediction may well
                                               come true.

                                                From the opening chords of Grace, Too it was
                                               apparent the Kingston quartet -- augmented by
                                               keyboardist Chris Brown and singer Kate Fenner --
                                               could do no wrong on this day.

                                                It was apparent, too, that Hip singer Gord Downie
                                               was in tune with the spirit of the moment. Between
                                               the first six songs of his band's set, Downie read a
                                               line from something he'd written before the show.

                                                What we ended up with was this:

                                                "Perhaps we can't stop war, war is the death of
                                               imagination.

                                                Imagination has no enemies, children have no
                                               enemies.

                                                Children are the birth of imagination ...

                                                So maybe we have something here."

                                                Indeed we did. For the moshers up front, it was the
                                               sheer exhilaration of physical expression. For the
                                               band onstage, it was undoubtedly the energy
                                               generated by one of the largest Canadian crowds it's
                                               seen. For those of us observing with a jaundiced eye,
                                               it was a heartwarming sense of togetherness.

                                                The Hip played all the hits and more. During
                                               Hundredth Meridian, Downie name-checked
                                               Brandon, the Canadian city which sits on that line of
                                               longitude. Wheat Kings, about David Milgaard,
                                               became a paean to this gathering in the so-called
                                               "Paris of the Prairies."

                                                Topless

                                                Such was the crowd that the one young woman who
                                               went topless -- during Nautical Disaster -- was
                                               neither harassed nor cheered exuberantly. People just
                                               let her do her thing.

                                                In the end, the Hip played nearly 20 songs. Two
                                               encores. And Downie left stage with the reminder
                                               that this show was not all about the band, it was
                                               about War Child.

                                                Hopefully, everyone got the message.

                                                Angelique Kidjo offered the global perspective to
                                               the event. With a six-piece, rhythmically intense
                                               group behind, the singer from Benin -- who has
                                               been billed as the "James Brown of West Africa" --
                                               offered up an incredibly sensual, hard-driving set of
                                               funk and traditional rhythms that served to set the
                                               crowd up for more.

                                                Singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk provided a
                                               rather more ethereal set. The native Winnipegger
                                               spoke of her connection to the War Child cause and
                                               even sang a new song, G.I. Joe, inspired, she said,
                                               by "the horrific statistics I've learned about."

                                                Written from the perspective of an eight-year-old
                                               boy serving as a soldier in a civil conflict, the tune
                                               and it's lament-filled refrain summed up the spirit of
                                               the day beautifully and was rewarded with
                                               enthusiastic response.

                                                Toronto hip-hopper Maestro dropped the needle on
                                               proceedings rather quickly with an energetic set.
                                               Mixing old and new with a master MC's aplomb, the
                                               veteran rapper played some of his earliest material,
                                               such as Conducting Things, and some of his newest,
                                               including Stick to Your Vision, his remake of the
                                               Guess Who's These Eyes, featuring Burton
                                               Cummings' vocal refrain underneath Maestro's lyrics
                                               of affirmation.