[FourPistols]

I'm sure others have thought about this years ago but this only came to me recently. Despite the miraculous nature of the final tour, it's actually kind of sad that the old rambling Gord was pretty much not there. The Hip were obviously famous for developing new songs out of their riffing and Gord's rants and poems and asides. And I don't think that happened on this tour, right? The miracle was that they nailed the songs as well as they did. They didn't really stray far from them. At least from what I saw in Toronto or on TV in Kingston. Now Gord had to focus on the songs. I totally get that. I still can't believe he and the band pulled it off so splendidly. But beyond the lack of Gord's between-song banter, that also signified that there weren't any new songs in development. At least nothing they were obviously trying to work out on stage. We know they were working on Hip songs together after the final tour. But we have no evidence that they were working on these ideas on the MMP tour. So the tour is an anomaly in that way. The one time they weren't playing live with an eye toward what's next. Sad in itself. But again, thank God we had that last tour. Imagine if Gord announced his illness and the band was just done. That would be worlds worse. They landed the balloon. Cheers to that.