Ha ha, direwolf74, I had EXACTLY that experience in the Montreal iteration of the '93 ARA. Midnight Oil comes on and kicks ass...and you're thinking, 'how can the Hip match that?' And they come out and just destroy. AWESOME.
I liked the '95 ARA even better, though. They had 'Day for Night' behind them at that point and, and that night I remember thinking, 'holy shit, this is the best f**king band on the face. of. the. earth." I don't think I've ever felt more visceral excitement at a show than when Gord came out wearing a straw hat that the wind swept off his head as the band kicked into an ear-blasting "Blow" as set-opener. Unbelievable.
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:Ha ha, direwolf74, I had EXACTLY that experience in the Montreal iteration of the '93 ARA. Midnight Oil comes on and kicks ass...and you're thinking, 'how can the Hip match that?' And they come out and just destroy. AWESOME.
I liked the '95 ARA even better, though. They had 'Day for Night' behind them at that point and, and that night I remember thinking, 'holy shit, this is the best f**king band on the face. of. the. earth." I don't think I've ever felt more visceral excitement at a show than when Gord came out wearing a straw hat that the wind swept off his head as the band kicked into an ear-blasting "Blow" as set-opener. Unbelievable.
Yea, I think '95 was my favorite ARA as well. At the Calgary show they opened with NOIS, which at the time I had never seen them do before. They also played two new songs that night, Gift Shop and Springtime, which blew me away. Hearing brand new Hip material live for the first time was always a special treat.
The loosely defined parameters of the poll have given rise to some interesting interpretations of "weakest link". Some are voting with their head, some with their heart. If I was voting between 1991-1998, I would be voting for NOIS to win the poll, with Blow a close second. It's the Hip's most iconic riff and as has been mentioned, it was a barn burner during the 90's. I loved the mosh pits back then. The floor of the venue would explode when that riff kicked in. Like Blow, it was a very physical song. If my shirt was going to get ripped that night or someone was going to step on my shoes, it was during this song. And there is nothing like bruises and a bucket of sweat to heighten the intensity of a show. That physical contact made the music transcendent and was why I loved NOIS so much back then. It was consistently the apex of energy in the building at any given Hip concert during that era, when the show red-lined and got even better than you ever thought would be possible; when you lost your head. I would always go home and write down anything Gordie said/sang during the intrasong jam, saving it on a piece of paper to compare to the lyrics of the next album, wondering if I had heard any "firsts".
In 2017, if I'm voting with my heart, it's Opiated for the win. I'm striving to be more objective and consider how I heard those songs the first 10 times I heard 'em back in the day, but it's tough. My head might explode on the final vote.
Such a great thread. Thanks to all the folks sharing their stories. I wonder what it must have been like for Rob because he knew what was coming, lol. He knew he was the one who would pull the trigger on the beautiful chaos. God they're an amazing band live.
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:everything but the unfortunately banal drumming
Ya think? I would agree that JF's drumming wasn't what it is now until FC, but I think his understated performance on NOIS is intentional. Any flashy playing would have gotten in the way of the riff...which is the star of the song. Even at his best, JF is more Ringo than Bonzo, a time keeper and solid base for the band to build on. He provides the canvas for GD and RB to paint.
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:The Hip in the 1990s were among the best live acts in the history of rock and roll - maybe even the best. They absolutely blew the skull off my head.
I'll back this. I have seen many great bands (Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Stones, Slayer) and I would rank the best Hip shows I've seen higher.
potsie Wrote:I would always go home and write down anything Gordie said/sang during the intrasong jam, saving it on a piece of paper to compare to the lyrics of the next album, wondering if I had heard any "firsts".
That's so great. True fan there.
potsie Wrote:In 2017, if I'm voting with my heart, it's Opiated for the win.
Can't argue, and glad to hear others appreciate the song as much as I do. I really can't choose between NOIS/Blow/Opiated. They're all 10/10 for me.
chagrinfalls Wrote:Such a great thread. Thanks to all the folks sharing their stories. I wonder what it must have been like for Rob because he knew what was coming, lol. He knew he was the one who would pull the trigger on the beautiful chaos. God they're an amazing band live.
I think Paul kicks it off but I get what you're saying. To be honest I didn't love the Kingston show but I did like that NOIS got a good sendoff. "I think they want another song, Paul."
[youtube]JMd9v-mPj7g[/youtube]
The guitar interplay on NOIS is a fine example of how motherfucking tight this band is. At times it's hard to tell who's playing, Paul or Bobby...until Bobby starts rippin. The riff is so great, but to me the real strength of the song is how the band elevates it. They play behind instead of on top of it. Bobby weaves in and out of Paul. Great song. I demand that the two people that voted against it change their vote. Democracy always loses.
andrew sharpe Wrote:Killer Whale Tank Wrote:everything but the unfortunately banal drumming
Ya think? I would agree that JF's drumming wasn't what it is now until FC, but I think his understated performance on NOIS is intentional. Any flashy playing would have gotten in the way of the riff...which is the star of the song. Even at his best, JF is more Ringo than Bonzo, a time keeper and solid base for the band to build on. He provides the canvas for GD and RB to paint.
Ringo is simply a fantastic drummer whose work is loaded with imagination, creativity, and delightful fills. This is simply not true of JF's work, at least on the early records, which amounts to mechanical timekeeping in many cases. I think it was Dave Bidini who said he 'always hears more fills on Hip records,' although he also conceded a certain admirable solidity in Fay's 'Teutonic' drumming. I basically agree with that.
I don't want spectacular soloistic drumming on NOIS (or ever, really; Ringo is right about that); the guitars and incredible vocals are the stars and Fay rightly stays out of the way, but there's a difference between being discreet and being a boring plodder. I fear that he's too close to the latter pole for my liking on that track.
andrew sharpe Wrote:potsie Wrote:In 2017, if I'm voting with my heart, it's Opiated for the win.
Can't argue, and glad to hear others appreciate the song as much as I do. I really can't choose between NOIS/Blow/Opiated. They're all 10/10 for me.
Opiated started my love affair with the last song on Hip albums; a great closer and because of Opiated, I've always been excited to see what they offer to finish an album.
Shane
andrew sharpe Wrote:chagrinfalls Wrote:Such a great thread. Thanks to all the folks sharing their stories. I wonder what it must have been like for Rob because he knew what was coming, lol. He knew he was the one who would pull the trigger on the beautiful chaos. God they're an amazing band live.
I think Paul kicks it off but I get what you're saying. To be honest I didn't love the Kingston show but I did like that NOIS got a good sendoff. "I think they want another song, Paul."
[youtube]JMd9v-mPj7g[/youtube]
The guitar interplay on NOIS is a fine example of how motherfucking tight this band is. At times it's hard to tell who's playing, Paul or Bobby...until Bobby starts rippin. The riff is so great, but to me the real strength of the song is how the band elevates it. They play behind instead of on top of it. Bobby weaves in and out of Paul. Great song. I demand that the two people that voted against it change their vote. Democracy always loses.
Cheers, andrew sharpe, for the correct info. I hesitated before I posted that Rob attribution, because someone else attributed it to Paul as well, but I knew someone would provide me with the right info one way or the other. So turns out it's not the mild-mannered guitarist but the
even more mild-mannered other guitarist who starts the engine, lol.
A small coda on "38 Years Old." Several posters have assumed that it's the father who calls the cops. Presumably the grounds for this is that he says to the cops, earlier in the song, that he'll "tell them if he saw anything." But that doesn't mean a whole lot; a father who was sheltering his convict son would say whatever he thought necessary to reassure the police. For my part, I always assumed that the cops worked out on their own where Michael was staying, and that their reappearance in the last two lines catches the family by surprise.
But another possibility concerns the role of the narrator.
He is clearly a fairly young fellow, still living at home in an era where men left home young. The whole imagery of him holding back the curtain for his older brother reinforces his "child" role, as, perhaps, does the preoccupation with the family table, where, presumably, he eats his meals. I find it hard to credit that he'd be more than 20 years old. This raises two thoughts. One concerns a question raised earlier in our discussion, which is why Michael chose to come back home at all, when clearly this would be strategically foolish ("the last thing they wanna do is hang around here..."). Could it be that Michael broke out and went home BECAUSE he wanted to "meet" a younger brother who might not have been more than two years old when the murder went down? Maybe he wanted to explain himself, being desperate not to be villainized in his brother's eyes.
The other thought is that it's actually the narrator who turns him in. "Same pattern on the table..." The whole family's life has been frozen, the whole family has been ostracized within the town, because of what happened. Maybe the kid harbours resentment - either of the brother for what he did, or for the radical disruption that his return signifies. Or maybe the kid things turning Michael in will redeem the family in the town's eyes.
These are the kind of possibilities that the vagueness of Gord's narrative makes possible. It's a song that keeps on giving IMHO.