[The Darkest Canuck]

Honestly, I don't see the Hip using the same setlist night in and night out as part of their creative process. They're not playing 90% of IBE because that represents the mood they're in that night or anything... it's not creativity, it's marketing the album so that they can make more money.

Then when they play NOIS, Nautical, Grace Too, M@W, Poets, etc, they're not doing it because they have a strong urge to... they're doing it because they know 90% of the audience wants to hear them. Then they pick a couple others that might reflect their mood and thus will change from night to night. So instead of playing those staple songs, since they're just being played because they're the biggest singles and the audience wants to hear them, play the top 5 songs the audience wants to hear from a vote.

first: if you think the hip are in it just for the money and to sell a ton of records you need to give your head a shake.

second: did you ever stop to think that they're playing all those new songs because, oh, i dunno, maybe...IT'S FUN! you gotta know the hip absolutely love playing this new batch of tunes for their legions for the first timel, and hearing the crowds sing along with them word for word even though the album has only been out for just under a month.

third: the people voting still wouldn't make up the majority of the people in attendance at the show, so it wouldn't really be fair to all of the people with favourites of their own that they'd like to hear that didn't/couldn't vote.

fourth: if i was in a band and i got an email like that it would most likely piss me off, so i don't think it'd be very wise to send the hip an email telling them their sets are boring, the only reason that anyone would think they were boring, would be if they'd already been to a number of shows on the tour, and that's not who the hip design the sets for. in all honesty, the people following the band around from city to city are probably the last fans on their mind when they're writing out the setlist. the hip write their setlists to try to make it a really special show for the people who haven't seen them in a long time, or for the people seeing them for the first time, those are the people they're out to impress, and those people are the majority. if you like them enough to follow them around from city to city then they've already done their job, the've got you locked down .