Review: Zoo Amphitheatre, Toledo, Ohio August 22nd, 1998. Written by Kari Chweiczak

WHAT A WICKED CONCERT IN TOLEDO! Swear to God, it was one of theBEST live shows I have ever seen. Rory and Mike - you would have been amazed, Gordie was VINTAGE, and in such a wicked good mood! From the moment he stepped on stage, he was rambling endlessly at anything off the top of his head - there must have been 10 monologues EASILY! RORY - I DEFINITELY want a bootleg of this when you get your paws on one! :) Gordie was in an "animal" theme big time - well, that really goes without saying though, since it was at the Toledo Zoo! And for those of you who know my obsession with turtles - it was great to hear Gordie carry on about turtles for a bit! :)

Anyway, we had great seats (thanks Mike!!!!), but it was a great venue no matter where you were sitting - maybe 2000 people there, tops. And everyone had a SEAT. The crowd was AMAZINGLY tame, but I overheard some of the people there say they were only familiar with one or two Hip songs (guess those are the people living in their closets every day, LOL)...so that might explain it. But it was a beaut - no crowd surfing, no rushing the stage. Talk about wicked!!!!

Hmmmm, what else can I say?! Gordie sang many of their new songs, but tons of their older stuff - NOIS, ABAC, Little Bones (my personal fave Hip song), 100th Meridian, and so on.

The band came on for TWO encores, which was amazing! Tons of people left after the first encore. We all sat there and screamed our heads off and after about 6 or 7 minutes, the boys came back out for a second encore.

AND...get this one Rory and Mike...Gordie was even poking fun, in a humourous way, at the flags in the crowd. There were tons of obnoxious drunk Canadians (I can say this, I am Canadian, haha) waving flags and singing the anthem, and Gordie was cool about it - talking to the crowd about flag
waving, and he pointed out a couple American flags in the crowd, making sure that the Amerks got just credit as well! And then he proceeded to ramble on ENDLESSLY (I lost him half way through, I swear) about Canada's latest debate - how Quebec might become it's own independent country. It was amazing!

But a long drive, four hours from Brantford...but tack on another 80 minutes on the drive home, since we came right back to Niagara. And traffic along the 401 was ONE LANE for most of the way (damn construction), so we didn't roll home until 5:30am! I am beat, so I'm signing off to get some zzzz's!

All I can say is that it was simply one of the best live performances I have seen yet. Can't wait for the next one! :) Again, thanks Mike!

Kari
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Zoo Amphitheatre, Toledo, Ohio  August 22nd, 1998 review by Bruce Richardson via Henhouse
mailing list

Boy I had fun at the Toledo Show.  I flew in from Minneapolis.  I was three rows from the back and thought the audio was excellent (with earplugs).  What a great setting for a show.  Met lots of nice folks.

You've already seen the setlist.
Comments:
Gift Shop seemed slower than original (somewhat legato?)
Hundredth Meridian--never heard it played so fast and peppy.  Loved the long funky jam.
Nautical Disaster seemed slower (somewhat legato) than studio.
Two encores of two songs each.  Before NOIS, he was talking about a gorge or a scourge, then he seemed to be talking about Canadian Politics.  In the song "Georgie baby I know exactly what you mean".  Who is this?  The Quebec leader?

Whoever bumped up Rob's guitar in the mix for all the encore songs--keep it up.  It was a great mix!

Seemed to me only about 20 crowd surfers all night.    Apparently there were again some crushing of people up front that chapped Gord.  Will I ever see a show where the crowd doesn't piss him off? (and I'm implying he's justified)

Great Fun!  I look forward to Grand Rapids and Minny!
Bruno


i loved the show in toledo.  i loved the fact that i saw a ton
of canadian flags, and i loved the fact that i saw a ton of american
flags.  i loved the fact that i saw people from both countries draped
in their own flags, and that everybody was getting along so well.
        the only violence that i saw was when that idiot threw the
bottle of rye at gordie, but i think gordie handled himself just fine.
he's a big boy.  and if you really think he couldn't hold his own in
that situation, i think that any one of the other 3,999 audience
members left, would have been prepared to throw that asshole out
themselves.
         crowd surfing and moshing makes the entire show for some
people.  i have never done it, but to some, they get into the music so
much, it is like a release to them.  in my opinion, if you want to
mosh or surf to the hip, more power to you.  some of us dance and
scream along with the boys, some of us jump into one another to show
our appreciation to the best band in the world.  this doesn't make a
show "skin-head like".

        my guy friends were in the moshpit, and they said it was
nothing like any other concert they had been to- green day, tea party,
etc...they said that the moshers were almost polite in a sense.
helping one another up, giving high fives, helping to pass the chairs
over to the bouncers so that no one would get hurt, and so on, and so
on...

it was a great show, better than any roadside i've attended.  "hey" to
everybody else that stayed at the Hilton, i've never seen such a more
lenient hotel!  Thanks to the Domino's Pizza girl who drove the 12 of
us back in her pick-up truck, and thanks to the band for another great
memory.  see you this winter in ontario.
 

jami muller