07-20-2004, 04:01 PM
Hola crazies...
Wanted to know what the crazies/coolest thing you ever saw at a Hip show was?
Mine was years back when the Hip were on some sort of stealth tour across Canada, swooping into town, performing in smaller venues with all proceeds going to charity.
I'm in Montreal and on one zany morning, my buddy Christien leaves a message on my phone: "Hip were in Toronto 2 nights ago and in Ottawa last night, I know they're in Montreal today."
Course he leaves this on my phone at 4:30 in the morning, by the time I get the message it's about 10:00am and I'm at work. I call him and he tells me, I've missed the boat. That radio stations got the news around 8:00am and by 9:00am there was a line of people outside The Spectrum that far surpassed the venue's capacity.
At 9:00am they started movings down the line and placing numbered plastic wristbands on people in line. This ended, people pushing and shoving (not that much of that was happening) and they let you in to buy tickets by the number on your wrist.
You were allowed to buy 2 tickets. They took your money, cut the wristband and then took your picture. The tickets had your picture on it, or in this case, 2 tickets with the picture of the person who bought them.
Come show time, it better be your picture on the ticket or you better be with the person who's picture IS on your ticket or no can do. (wave bye bye to the scalpers Martha!).
Needless to say, only my buddy Christien made it and bought 2 tickets, 1 for him and 1 for his girlfriend.
He tells me all this on the phone when I call him and I'm rather bummed. Jokingly I tell him "Take my number at work, you never know, things change, people die..."
30 minutes before show time, he calls, girlfriend trapped at work, cannot escape. I have 30 minutes to make it, there's 3 hours left in my shift. I immediately freak out (this worked for me). My workmates were asking "what's wrong? What's wrong?" and all I managed to blurt out was " Jesus Christ! I have to go right now! " and I ran out of work like a man possessed. I later told my boss it was a HUGE personal emergency and I had no choice but to dart out (to me, this was the truth) he never batted an eye.
I made it.
It was the single greatest show I have ever born witness to for several reasons.
1) The Hip were in fine form that night.
2) They played the mysterious Mein Kampf Made Easy which still haunts me.
3) and this actually the bloody point of this thread (Jebus, I babble) The show was in full swing, and people were crowd surfing.
This wasn't sitting well with Gord.
Halfway through the show, Gord stats giving the crowd shit. Explaining to them that he's standing there singing and watching the people in the front rows trying to have a good time and suddenly they get hit in the back of the head by a human being surfing from the back of the crowd towards the front and he's not getting off on watching these people getting slammed and could they please knock it the fuck off?
Needless to say, no one at a Hip show wants Gord pissed off at them and it was quite something to see the crowd collectively apologize to Gord.
It don't end there.
They start playing again and while they're still bringing up the volume, a voice from the back is clearly heard : "Gord!! I want to surf!! PLEASE!! and I see several people reach down and hoist this man into the air, wheelchair and all. Gord smiled and waved his hand forward.
The Hip kicked it into high gear and I watched this man in his wheelchair surf around the crowd for the entire song, he looked so happy I will never forget his smile. Gord smiled too and they passed that guy around effortlessly, the whole of the crowd working as one. As the song ended, they passed him right up onto the stage where Gord moved him just off center of the stage and waved security off.
That guy sat on stage for the next 2 songs and you could see the tears on his face as he sang along. After that security helped him off stage and down into the front where he remained with a security guard keeping an eye on him for the remainder of the show.
It was awesome.
So what's the coolest thing you ever saw at a Hip show?
Sunday, crap, sorry it's so long folks...
Wanted to know what the crazies/coolest thing you ever saw at a Hip show was?
Mine was years back when the Hip were on some sort of stealth tour across Canada, swooping into town, performing in smaller venues with all proceeds going to charity.
I'm in Montreal and on one zany morning, my buddy Christien leaves a message on my phone: "Hip were in Toronto 2 nights ago and in Ottawa last night, I know they're in Montreal today."
Course he leaves this on my phone at 4:30 in the morning, by the time I get the message it's about 10:00am and I'm at work. I call him and he tells me, I've missed the boat. That radio stations got the news around 8:00am and by 9:00am there was a line of people outside The Spectrum that far surpassed the venue's capacity.
At 9:00am they started movings down the line and placing numbered plastic wristbands on people in line. This ended, people pushing and shoving (not that much of that was happening) and they let you in to buy tickets by the number on your wrist.
You were allowed to buy 2 tickets. They took your money, cut the wristband and then took your picture. The tickets had your picture on it, or in this case, 2 tickets with the picture of the person who bought them.
Come show time, it better be your picture on the ticket or you better be with the person who's picture IS on your ticket or no can do. (wave bye bye to the scalpers Martha!).
Needless to say, only my buddy Christien made it and bought 2 tickets, 1 for him and 1 for his girlfriend.
He tells me all this on the phone when I call him and I'm rather bummed. Jokingly I tell him "Take my number at work, you never know, things change, people die..."
30 minutes before show time, he calls, girlfriend trapped at work, cannot escape. I have 30 minutes to make it, there's 3 hours left in my shift. I immediately freak out (this worked for me). My workmates were asking "what's wrong? What's wrong?" and all I managed to blurt out was " Jesus Christ! I have to go right now! " and I ran out of work like a man possessed. I later told my boss it was a HUGE personal emergency and I had no choice but to dart out (to me, this was the truth) he never batted an eye.
I made it.
It was the single greatest show I have ever born witness to for several reasons.
1) The Hip were in fine form that night.
2) They played the mysterious Mein Kampf Made Easy which still haunts me.
3) and this actually the bloody point of this thread (Jebus, I babble) The show was in full swing, and people were crowd surfing.
This wasn't sitting well with Gord.
Halfway through the show, Gord stats giving the crowd shit. Explaining to them that he's standing there singing and watching the people in the front rows trying to have a good time and suddenly they get hit in the back of the head by a human being surfing from the back of the crowd towards the front and he's not getting off on watching these people getting slammed and could they please knock it the fuck off?
Needless to say, no one at a Hip show wants Gord pissed off at them and it was quite something to see the crowd collectively apologize to Gord.
It don't end there.
They start playing again and while they're still bringing up the volume, a voice from the back is clearly heard : "Gord!! I want to surf!! PLEASE!! and I see several people reach down and hoist this man into the air, wheelchair and all. Gord smiled and waved his hand forward.
The Hip kicked it into high gear and I watched this man in his wheelchair surf around the crowd for the entire song, he looked so happy I will never forget his smile. Gord smiled too and they passed that guy around effortlessly, the whole of the crowd working as one. As the song ended, they passed him right up onto the stage where Gord moved him just off center of the stage and waved security off.
That guy sat on stage for the next 2 songs and you could see the tears on his face as he sang along. After that security helped him off stage and down into the front where he remained with a security guard keeping an eye on him for the remainder of the show.
It was awesome.
So what's the coolest thing you ever saw at a Hip show?
Sunday, crap, sorry it's so long folks...