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With all the griping about the setlist and Gord's "bored" delivery, I've wondered if this was simply the easiest solution and one the band has ever truly considered?
With the Hip's sizeable fanbase, surely there's enough interest to hit the road for a few dates and reconnect with the hardcore fans without the pressure of pandering to the casual fan as long as it's made clear what the expectations are.
Literally call the thing the "Rarities and Unplucked Gems" Tour or something, a small tour between albums, do some interviews to get the word out and put it in the press release that this is a small-scale gig for the diehards to enjoy the band's favourite deep cuts and that the expectations of "hits" should be checked at the door.
Just a simple tour, 3 weeks at most, hit small theatres in the major cities, keep production costs low - basic lights, no video screens, no openers - just a band and their fans re-establishing some goodwill with one another and allowing the band to really unleash all their old favourites to reignite the passion and creativity without fear of "boring" the casual fan.
It just seems like such a no-brainer at this point in their career that I have to wonder if it's just not economically viable but man, it sure seems like it should be and the setlists would be something... ah well
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They need to do another "Summer Fling" type tour and play small "fan club" theatre shows. Some of those shows were fantastic and they pulled out a few rarities
Seems economically viable..........I would gladly pay $150 a ticket for a show in say a 700 seat venue theatre. Sell the tickets through their fan club, have to show ID to pick the tickets up. Its not a huge money maker for them, but its not like they would be losing money either. No opening act, no elaborate stage set up, just them. Have two sets, maybe a little Q&A type thing in between sets.....
Would love to see a "Spring Fling 2014".........
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They came extremely close to touring Phantom Power before deciding to finish Now For Plan A.
2004-12-03 - Saint John/2005-09-03 - Moncton/2006-06-30 - Charlottetown/2006-11-09/10 - Montreal/2007-09-11 - Fredericton/2007-09-13 - Halifax/2007-09-14 - Sydney/2007-09-15 - Charlottetown/2008-06-30 - Charlottetown/2009-05-01/02 - Montreal/2011-06-28 - Moncton/2011-06-30 - Charlottetown/2012-06-30 - Niagara-on-the-Lake/2013-02-01 - Moncton/2013-02-02 - Halifax/2015-01-10 - Toronto/2015-02-20 - Montreal/2015-07-17 - Ottawa/2016-08-18 - Ottawa/2016-08-20 - Kingston
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I'd kill to see a tour like that. Sadly I don't think it'll happen, but you never know. If Gord didn't have to sing the hits every night, I'll bet he'd sing perfectly with very little screaming...and it would be glorious.
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sean.bonner Wrote:They came extremely close to touring Phantom Power before deciding to finish Now For Plan A.
Please elaborate?
9 Hip shows in 6 different venues
2007-01-20 - Winnipeg - MTS Centre
2009-09-10 - Winnipeg - Centennial Concert Hall
2011-07-07 - Winnipeg - Shaw Park
2012-12-01 - Fargo - Fargo Theatre
2013-01-26 - Winnipeg - MTS Centre
2013-01-28 - Brandon - Keystone Centre
2013-09-06 - Moose Jaw - Mosaic Place
2015-02-14 - Winnipeg - MTS Centre
2016-08-05 - Winnipeg - MTS Centre
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i would come out of my self imposed hip show strike for a tour like that :thumb:
7/17/95-Craven
11/18/96-Saskatoon
7/21/97-Saskatoon
9/16/00-Winnipeg
11/24/00-Red Deer
07/14/02-Camrose
9/26/02-Edmonton
9/27/02-Edmonton
8/1/03-Kelowna
6/22/04-Edmonton
11/17/04-Edmonton
11/20/04-Saskatoon
10/28/06-Calgary
1/19/07-Regina
7/18/07-Saskatoon
6/22/08-Calgary
8/4/09-Saskatoon
9/14/09-Edmonton
9/19/09-Banff
7/14/11-Edmonton
1/23/13-Edmonton
7/6/13-Saskatoon
10/10/15-Houston
7/28/16-Edmonton
7/30/16-Edmonton
8/01/16-Calgary
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something just tells me there is no way they can do this, there are just so many songs they havent played in forever and unless someone convinces them that mostly every single one of their songs are gold I just don't see anything like this happening. Here would be an amazing back to back setlist in a format like this but once again this would require them to be like a pearl jam. I would try to be somewhat realistic but it's tough!! I guess i am going to see if a hardcorde fans would truly die for a setlist like this. Yes, I am leaving out realistic hits that would be played and I do know some have these songs have been played in the last ten years or so. I will do format based on last tour 18 song set with 6 encore
Set 1
Last of Unplucked Gems
Emperor Penguin
Radio Show
Fight
She Didn't Know
Inch an Hour
On The Verge
The Bear
New Orleans is Beat
Another Midnight
Killing Time
Everytime you Go
Opiated
Membership
Lake Fever
Sherpa
Blonde Solid
The Luxury
Thompson Girl
Coffee Girl
Highway Girl
Small Town Bringdown
Get Back Again
Cordelia
Set 2
Save The Planet
As Makeshift as we are
The Bastard
We'll Go Too
Last Night I Dreamed You Didn't Love me
Ultra Mundane
The Darkest One
Vapour Trails
Last American Exit
Montreal
Scathed
When The Weight Comes Down
Stay
If You Lived Here
Boots or Hearts
Lookin For A Place To Happen
Goodnight Josephine
Depression Suite
Emergency
I'll Believe In You
So Hard Done By
Trickle Down
Pigeon Camera
38 Years Old
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Such a thing is impossible, methinks. But I would pay many much monies to hear a set like that.
Jeff
June 21, 2003 Toronto, ON: SkyDome
July 1, 2004 Toronto, ON: Molson Amphitheatre
November 26, 2004 Toronto, ON: Air Canada Centre
June 24, 2006 Toronto, ON: Historic Fort York
May 10, 2007 Indianapolis, IN: The Vogue
July 14, 2011 Edmonton, AB: Northlands Festival Site
June 30, 2012 Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON: The Commons at Butler's Barracks
January 23, 2013 Edmonton, AB: Rexall Place
July 28, 2016 Edmonton, AB: Rexall Place
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funny thing is im missing so many other good songs and there are definitely hits and new songs i still want to hear
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All Tore Up is great live. The studio version, like most of the rockers on IVL, was stifled by the production job. But when I heard the band play it live on the IVL tour, they got the whole crowd happily moshing and singing along. Singing you want an open concept? I'll give you open conceeepts.
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I worry about the Hip's business sense. I think they believe that their Canadian fanbase is basically stagnant and nostalgia-driven. This leads them to deliver setlists that are basically stagnant and nostalgia-driven - but also leads Gord to subvert that in the ways much-documented around here. This is a recipe for declining returns both artistically and financially.
The solution is either to embrace full-bore the 'nostalgia' angle (not my preference, and I deeply doubt it would be Gord's either, but it would certainly work financially) OR to go in a totally different direction. "The Hidden Gems" tour is one such direction. My own preference would be for an acoustic-based tour reinterpreting a lot of their old material in that 'hard country' format the Hip are so great at and deploy so selectively. The mistake they made with Bob Rock was to go in a different direction that somehow managed to be even more bombastic than their classic stuff. Strings and pianos won't win you new fans or make old ones rethink what you're about; retooling your material to suit a more reflective and lower-key sensibility just might.
Right now they're caught in this halfway house, catering to an aging and declining "mass audience" in terms of setlists, but then subverting that audience's expectations in delivering the material. Worst of both worlds.
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wow, so well put!! I have just said all along that someone has to convince them that pretty much everything they did early is pure gold with amazingness in their later years too, but the songs must sounds closer to the originals vocally of course
