I was just checking the setlist archive, and found no mention of this show. Of course, I cannot remember the date, but I remember it as my first Hip Show Ever™! It was at the Halifax Forum (not the Metro Centre) and it was beer garden style, with long tables running perpendicular to the stage. I vaugely remembering Gord saying how it reminded him of a funeral parlour....
It was for the Road Apples tour, so I'm thinking maybe somtime in '91?
Anyone else remember this?
It was in August of 1991, I believe sometime around the 16-18th. I have the ticket stub at home. It was a wild show. I had met the band earlier that year in the US and they invited me up to see them with a big crowd in Canada. We ended up meeting up in Halifax (what a great party town!). My wife and I were on stage with them at the soundcheck and looked out at the floor of the arena covered with long rows of banquet tables running perpendicular away from the stage. Gord D. told us that they had to have the tables to meet some law about serving beer and that the band was really nervous about the arrangement and told the management that they weren't responsible for what would happen. I understood their concern a lot better when the show started.
We had tickets on the floor about halfway back and during the opening act (I forget who) everything was fairly mellow, except for the mad rush to get beer from the walking vendors. There was no "stand", you had to buy it from one of the "waiters" and the poor bastards were getting mugged. Everyone stood around and waited for them to come out of the passageway and they never got as far as 10 feet before their beer was gone. A little out of control ... but that was nothing compared to the show.
The lights go down and the band starts walking out. Looking toward the stage, I start seeing people climbing onto their chairs and then the tables. Of course, the tables started collapsing, people are falling and the band is jamming. Then I see these 8 foot long tables start flying through the air. After the tables collapsed, the crowd picked them up and threw them out of the way. I saw one cartwheel at least once or twice before it crashed back into the crowd. NUTS!
Great, high energy show. I remember a great version of "On the Verge" that kept building up speed and the crowd got more and more crazy. After the show, the Hip's old Road Manager, the sorely missed Dave Powell, took us on stage and we looked out at the floor. It looked like Dresden after the bombing, with pieces of chairs and tables everywhere all over the floor. It was my first (and only) Canadian concert crowd and it was definitely an experience to remember.
Ah, yes. I remember at various points seeing large groups of people disappearing, being sucked up by the vacum of the floor as their table collapsed.... (blown over like an old card table perhaps?)
Like the staunchest of forts, like the walls of the Halifax Citadel, our table stood firm in it's resolve, to display us proudly in the air for all the floor dwellers to see!
Being all of 15 years old, I couldn't drink, nor drive myself to the concert. And given that none of my friends had heard of them yet, it was up to my step dad to take me... you know, to drive me into town and all from Tantallon. It was sorta appropiate, since it was his smacking of a cassette tape in front of my in the sunroom while I played on the commodore 64 that probably has altered my life forever, because after all, life is for getting.
That black cassette, with 5 shaggy young guys on it, with bright yellow letters screaming..... I'm Tragically! I'm Hip! God damn it, listen to me! And listen I did, until I wore that f'ing tape out. And bought another......
The forum will always be special to me. I remeber watching Grand Prix wrestling there, Wrestlemania III on "closed circut television" and the infamous night where I gave my soul to Gord, amongst falling tables, bemused people, and overwrought beer vendors.
bigblackie Wrote:It was in August of 1991, I believe sometime around the 16-18th. I have the ticket stub at home. It was a wild show. I had met the band earlier that year in the US and they invited me up to see them with a big crowd in Canada. We ended up meeting up in Halifax (what a great party town!). My wife and I were on stage with them at the soundcheck and looked out at the floor of the arena covered with long rows of banquet tables running perpendicular away from the stage. Gord D. told us that they had to have the tables to meet some law about serving beer and that the band was really nervous about the arrangement and told the management that they weren't responsible for what would happen. I understood their concern a lot better when the show started.
We had tickets on the floor about halfway back and during the opening act (I forget who) everything was fairly mellow, except for the mad rush to get beer from the walking vendors. There was no "stand", you had to buy it from one of the "waiters" and the poor bastards were getting mugged. Everyone stood around and waited for them to come out of the passageway and they never got as far as 10 feet before their beer was gone. A little out of control ... but that was nothing compared to the show.
The lights go down and the band starts walking out. Looking toward the stage, I start seeing people climbing onto their chairs and then the tables. Of course, the tables started collapsing, people are falling and the band is jamming. Then I see these 8 foot long tables start flying through the air. After the tables collapsed, the crowd picked them up and threw them out of the way. I saw one cartwheel at least once or twice before it crashed back into the crowd. NUTS!
Great, high energy show. I remember a great version of "On the Verge" that kept building up speed and the crowd got more and more crazy. After the show, the Hip's old Road Manager, the sorely missed Dave Powell, took us on stage and we looked out at the floor. It looked like Dresden after the bombing, with pieces of chairs and tables everywhere all over the floor. It was my first (and only) Canadian concert crowd and it was definitely an experience to remember.
If you know the exact date please let me know and I will add it to the DB.