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So many great shows, impossible to pick one, my first was the Diamond Club for the E.P. release cannot remember date (there is/was video of this somewhere CityTv showed it back in day). But WOWest was Oakland California sitting front row D.F.C. for Page Plant 95 tour. The played the lead-up to Daredevil and Daredevil (my favorite to this day) great show and my ticket only cost $53.00 us. The list goes on and on. Great Band.
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Never met them, but aside from seeing them live,
the Salt Lake City broadcast in 2000,
the MM I&I when they let the fan pick a song, but made him sing it with them lol (excellent choice tho, Cordelia!),
Men With Brooms,
Gord D as Ken Dryden,
THC rolling papers,
my old TTH NHL logo toque (I really wish i still had that),
getting a poster from Home Hardware for the Sudbury evening with tour, and also, winning tix to the show from Q92 before they were on sale by being the right number caller and answering how many albums the hip had released to that point (even though i sold those ones and still slept outside for front row)
my buddy sneaking into see Gord solo at Northern Lights festival in Sudbury one year (he got backstage, but then security chased him out lol, meanwhile, we had arrived so late in the day that the people at the gate thought my other buddy and i had already paid to enter and just let us waltz right in for free)
listening to World Container and k-OS' Atlantis: Hymns For Disco non-stop for a couple months after buying them both on the same day in Winnipeg
not listening to Blow at High Dough all summer in 2004 as some sort of superstition or good luck charm once i had a ticket to the world cup of hockey finals (which landed on my 19th birthday), except for when they played it at Sudbury Bluesfest, and I touched a Canadian flag that was being passed around as they played it...next time I heard that song we were all partying downtown outside the ACC celebrating Canada's win!
Getting a second copy of R.E.M.'s Monster for Christmas one year, and then trading it to my older cousin for a second copy of Up To Here that he had recieved, my first Hip album, the moment that really started it all for me.
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direwolf74 - yes indeed. I also remember being nervous, kind of star-struck, and speaking kind of low in consequence. Gord had to strain to hear me and I wondered whether I was just 'low talking' or whether his ears were a bit damaged from all the years of rocking. Maybe both.
He seemed to have an infinite patience and really no sign of Rock Star Ego at all.
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Summer of 1998, The Hip played a series of surprise gigs around Ontario as a fundraiser for Camp Trillium. I got tipped off that they'd be playing my hometown of Peterborough...in a small theatre that only held a couple hundred people. So, my friends and I were first in line and waited outside on the sidewalk all night to get in. We were first in line and I was front and centre...standing right in front of Gord. When he flubbed a line to New Orleans is Sinking, he held the mic in front of me and said, "Here, you give it a try..." So, for a very brief moment, I was singing for The Hip. My young Hip-obsessed mind was blown.
This mini-tour was aired as a special on MuchMusic called "Something On...The Tragically Hip." I still have it on VHS...but no way to play it. Maybe I should get it converted to digital. I'm in the special a few times talking to the camera professing my love for The Hip. I was only 18, so I probably sounded like an idiot, lol.
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bunch of them for sure...
Took the wife and two kids on a road trip to Eria Pa ( Warner theatre) after soundcheck got the band to autograph my Woodstock print
Contest wiiners gig at Audio Magic studio in Buffalo. Could not beleive how samll that place was... 40 people maybe . Band took the time to mingle and chat with everyone after the set
Work zone passes to front of the stage in Buffalo ( just for bringing canned food donation) leaning on the stage for the whole show
Hooked up for the CBC's taping for The Hour with Strombo ( thanks again to Mav for the last minute tickets) My daughte Rachel got a setlist and autographs and a pic with Rob , Paul and Gord S.
and many more
no to mention the music and the impact it's had on myself and my family ( no way I could put that into words)
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I love reading these! Awesome memories.
Out of several top Hip experiences (including meeting the band), it's hard to nail down a fave. One that always sticks in my mind though is in the summer of 2000. The band was arguably at their peak of just about everything. Sire was throwing some serious money their way for the release of Music At Work here in the states and I for one certainly thought this was the album that would make them big here...finally.
The day the album was released my younger brother and I were there standing in line at Harmony House Record Store in Canton Michigan with a few other Hip fans....and several Bon Jovi fans, as that band had a new album coming out that day as well. I remember the ratio was like 25 for Bon Jovi and like 8 for the Hip. One of the attractions to standing in line for the new cd was that each person would get a free ticket to a special "club" performance of the Hip in a few weeks in Pontiac at the 7th House (which seats 300). The last few shows by the Hip in the Detroit area were at the Palace (giant arena 15k+) and DTE/Pine Knob Music Theater (outdoor shed 10K+). So the opportunity to see these guys in a small venue.....well you all know!
The show was not your typical show formula. The band was highlighting songs from their new album and Kelly Brown from our local 89X radio station, took Q&A between songs. Most questions were about older songs (the new album was barely out). The band took it in stride and played requests and Gord told stories about the songs (one particular was the Nautical Disaster/Bismark story). About mid show, someone asked them why they didn't play Wheat Kings too much anymore (it was rarely played on the PP tour) and the band simply launched into it....I can't remember a crowd....anywhere....singing that loudly with a band....it was amazing! That set the tone for the rest of the show...lots of Q&A until the MC (Kelly Brown) let them go it on their own...got lots of rockin' tunes....incredibly powerful in that small setting...The way that band was loved at that point was absolutely something to see. That show gave me chills... no cell phones, nobody doing anything except locked and I mean LOCKED into everything the band was doing....
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Mine would have to be the June 24th, 2006 Fort York Show. That show featured the best setlist of any of the 20 Hip shows I've seen and was also the night they pulled out 38 Years Old after a 12 year hiatus. Several members of the base were there, and can attest to that moment, but as soon as Gord said "This next story's true... and it isn't, true" I knew exactly what was coming from listening to numerous early nineties bootlegs. Then Paul launched into those iconic acoustic chords and the place went nuts. I got full body chills instantly. 38 Years Old was my first favourite Hip song. In high school I would write out all of the lyrics to pass the time during class so getting to hear it at all, especially so unexpectedly, is a moment I'll never ever forget.
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So many memories, some band related and some personal.
My wife and I pretty much dated over Hip shows. In her younger days, she was feisty and would not put up with pushing and shoving in front of the stage. Road Apples tour show in Ottawa (Congress center) we were maybe 10 feet back, and before the Hip takes to the stage a biker shoves by us with beers in both hands. Really plows us over. My then relatively new girlfriend punches in the back. He turns pissed, sees it's a girl, and see she's with me. Snarls something, but he's sort of hand tied with all the beer. So he kicks me in the shins and leaves.
Canada Day show at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa. Great show, with a huge Canada flag as a backdrop on the closed off south side stands. A fan gets up there, and as the Hip are playing leads security on a 10 minutes chase under the flag, where you could see figures moving under the flag and heads popping out occasionally.
Richardson Stadium in Kingston -- poured rain through Andrew Cash and Headstones, and sun came out as the Hip hit the stage. Rivaling that was a Roadside show at the Stittsville Speedway, where I don't remember the sun every coming out and leaving just caked in mud. We ended up walking down Highway 7 (towards Cemetery Sideroad) in a line of mud covered fans. A car pulled over and a lady asked, with a bit of fear in her voice, what was going on ahead. Must have looked like they were driving into the apocalypse.
Memorial Center in Kingston, skipping work to get tickets. Same era, buying Day for Night at a record store on Princess Street and driving around that night listening to it a few times.
Seeing the band for the first time in the states, Trouble tour in NYC. Drove down from southern Ontario via a stop in Ottawa in a car that overheated like a geyser. Not map, not direction, no clue and end up driving through Times Square as steam poured out the car. A homeless guy looking for change on the corner made fun of my car. Cool show at Irving Plaza, explaining to some US fans that just a few weeks before had seen the band play a football stadium in Canada.
An In Violet Light show in Syracuse. Guys near us had driven from Thunder Bay for the show. Would have been a long drive anyways, but they got lost and turned into a 40-odd hour drive. I think there were four guys -- Sam Roberts was opener and they broke out these massive joints -- by the time The Hip hit the stage at least two of them were passed out cold in their seats. I felt much older and wiser then.
Had some personal encounters with the band over the years. My wife got a Gord hankie at one of the NAC shows -- it was pretty funny as he made eye contact, pointed and made the perfect toss. We ate breakfast beside Gord last year after the FC show in Kingston, and I quickly let him know how much their music had meant to me going on three decades.
This will sound a bit strange, but it's also funny to see the family of the band members get older. I recall going to see shows around Trouble era in smaller US venues, and the band would have their then young kids/toddlers there with earphones on. Last show in Kingston we ended up just in front of a section with the family and friends of the band -- same kids are there now in their late teens, early 20s, most spending a large portion of the show on their cell phones...just another day watching dad work.
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May 99 at a show in Grand Rapids Michigan on a College campus. Being from Southern Ontario, it was nothing to rally 50+ buddies together for a bus trip to the states to catch a show in a smaller venue. We pull into the venue on a packed school bus lined with coolers and the odd mini keg (cheap american beer from party stores along the way) only to be flanked by college security and told in no uncertain terms that arrests would be made should any alcohol leave the bus. We clearly were not aware that Calvin College was a Christian school with a no liquor policy. Needless to say, they really did not know what to do with us at that point and pretty much made the decision to pretend we did not exist. It was a great show, in a very interesting environment. later that night, I had a pretty cool conversation with Gord and Rob about the merits of mexican food.
Favorite show will always be Edenfest - Clarington 96.
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