[eatmecompletely]

just saw the set list for last night and the night before

I don't understand why not do 2 sets with a break and make it more of a spread out evening

like the evening with the tragically hip ?

at over $100 a ticket
the short shows seems like a let down

but story of my life with the hip nothing but letting down not putting down!

[bstrauss24]

I was thinking about this tour... and I am interested to know what you all think. I went to the Toronto show, and was thrilled to get in, but the price tags on this tour have kept me from buying tickets anywhere else aside from home (Buffalo)

I obviously don't want to be a complainer...but, I was thinking they would tack on 2-4 songs for the actual shows.

What do most of you think about the whole album concept in general? For me, while I love that album and those songs, hearing them in order and knowing what is coming next takes a little away for me as a fan. Part of my love of The Hip (when they aren't playing outdoor big shows) is not always knowing what is coming next. That really hurt my enjoyment level.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

[thecompletist]

look back over the tours and 23 songs is very common except maybe the evening with, prices are not attractive for multiple shows and or maybe having 2 more on the end... i can see the thinking there

I quite enjoy the album in order with know stories or talk between songs, its like a celebration of their most classic album. I would have preferred a maybe DFN because of its mood maybe but after 22 years and having been at/worked at Roadside Attraction in Markham... it is cool to see Gord drop the guitar and just sing things a little more. Having said that i could do without the other radio hits like Poets, Inview etc..

He has the monitor up there for lyrics so why not dig up a few more of the deeper tracks... Marketing wise this screams out to the old time part time fans who dripped away over a decade ago, many of them older and with more money and will pay the price... i hate to see the heavy fan is not on radar... but even loving what they do in the end it's a business too

I get to bring my 12 year old daughter and have her experience this entire album the way it was created so that is a cool situation

[Dark Canuck17]

just saw the set list for last night and the night before

I don't understand why not do 2 sets with a break and make it more of a spread out evening

like the evening with the tragically hip ?

at over $100 a ticket
the short shows seems like a let down

but story of my life with the hip nothing but letting down not putting down!

Letting down cratch: This band has been producing great music since 1983 :roll:

[eatmecompletely]

just saw the set list for last night and the night before

I don't understand why not do 2 sets with a break and make it more of a spread out evening

like the evening with the tragically hip ?

at over $100 a ticket
the short shows seems like a let down

but story of my life with the hip nothing but letting down not putting down!

Letting down cratch: This band has been producing great music since 1983 :roll:

have you seen them post 2004
each show gets worse to worst

its has become gord just screaming and dancing

I love the band and what they do but come on ! stop shitting on the fans and give them what they want

no one wants a signed puzzle or yoga pants

we want 2.5 hours + of music and an encore

[thecompletist]

2.5 hours plus an encore ? they've never made that a habit nor do many other bands except Springsteen and some jam bands maybe

we can tell by your posts you gave up on the band long ago. how many shows have you seen since 2004 ?

[eatmecompletely]

2.5 hours plus an encore ? they've never made that a habit nor do many other bands except Springsteen and some jam bands maybe

we can tell by your posts you gave up on the band long ago. how many shows have you seen since 2004 ?

think I have seen around 10 since 2004

I still like going to the shows
just lowered my expectations

and have seen a ton of phish shows since with are all 3 hours +

I just would love them to do an evening with

[Escape@Hand]

2.5 hours plus an encore ? they've never made that a habit nor do many other bands except Springsteen and some jam bands maybe

we can tell by your posts you gave up on the band long ago. how many shows have you seen since 2004 ?

think I have seen around 10 since 2004

I still like going to the shows
just lowered my expectations

and have seen a ton of phish shows since with are all 3 hours +

I just would love them to do an evening with

I'm curious as to what shows/venues you've been to since 2004. I've seen them on every tour since TATH (1996), and the FC show next month will be my 19th total, with most of them coming post 2004 (13). I have seen a couple of "Yer Favourites" shows for sure, but those are few and far between, and usually occur at festival type shows/venues. The WATS tour was outstanding, I saw 2 of the club shows in Calgary when WC was released, along with 6 other shows on that tour (including 2008 shows in Belleville and opening the K-Rock Centre in Kingston), among others. I've yet to witness a "bad" show from them. Obviously some are better than others, but I think they've done a good job of changing things up over the years (random club gigs, the Theatre tour for WATS, now the FC tour) to keep things interesting and varied.

While most people have complained about the NFPA tour, the two shows I saw in Rochester and Syracuse were easily in my top 5 shows ever, with the Rochester show in the running for #1. I'm not saying those people are wrong to complain - the reviews and setlists I've seen from the Canadian leg seemed to be uninspired - I've found if you avoid the festival shows (like Bluesfest in Ottawa), and can catch them in smaller venues you are likely to get an excellent show.

The FC show will be my first arena Hip show in a while, as I've tended to avoid those and go for smaller ones in the States (can't really do that now that I'm on Vancouver Island), but I'm excited for it. While some of the criticism that I've read on the board over the last few years is deserved, I think some people are just being too hard on them. Sure we'd all love them to play only album cuts, but that's just not reality. If you go to the FC tour you're still going to hear a lot of songs that don't get played much, if at all anymore, and that's something to appreciate.

[eatmecompletely]

here is what I have seen
2005 GM place (fun show)
2006 fan club show dicks on dicks (great show but all IBE played)
2007 commodore fan show (was amazing great show) very good
2007 2 nyc shows at irving plaza (both were excellent)
2007 commodore show (was a little boring)
2007 or 08 manhattan ballroom (horrible show bad venue bad from what I remember)
2009 best buy theater in nyc (ok show always fun but nothing too exciting)
2011 terminal 5 show (just a lot of screaming)

I guess their downfall was around 2007 right after world container came out in my opinion

maybe I have seen them too much and have gotten bored?

not sure but I continue to go and have a good a time, a bad hip show is still better than 90% of other shows

I am only being critical because this is the net and that's what we do!

overall I shouldn't be too hard on them

[WesleyC.]

just saw the set list for last night and the night before

I don't understand why not do 2 sets with a break and make it more of a spread out evening

like the evening with the tragically hip ?

at over $100 a ticket
the short shows seems like a let down

but story of my life with the hip nothing but letting down not putting down!

Letting down cratch: This band has been producing great music since 1983 :roll:

have you seen them post 2004
each show gets worse to worst

its has become gord just screaming and dancing

I love the band and what they do but come on ! stop shitting on the fans and give them what they want

no one wants a signed puzzle or yoga pants

we want 2.5 hours + of music and an encore

Hey now!!! I got the puzzle and my wife got the yoga pants, I take offence, I guess you must be going to the wrong shows, I have seen quite a few where Gord screamed and many more where he didn't. If your looking for NON screaming Gord then I have to say if the Danforth show was any indication, this is the tour you need to go see.

[sherpa]

They are still good but nothing like what they were from 92-2000 IMO - The Music @ Work tour was the first one they did An Evening With and for me was the last time they really seemed to go out on a limb and embrace their rich past - and that was before they had an even richer one. Even the last evening with was only sort of out on a limb for me. I love all the albums - NFPA is one of my favourites as is M@W. I think a lot of long time fans don't like the band simply because of the hits though they are probably what caught our ears to begin with. I think FC is kind of an almost greatest hits kind of album to begin with. I'd rather see Phantom Power or M@W but that's me. If they had only ever been a band that played their hits I would have less of a hard time with the fact that they play almost entirely greatest hits shows now but they didn't used to rely so heavily on them. I would love to see a show where 50MC, NOIS, Blow, Courage, Little Bones, Poets, M@W etc
I just randomly picked a show from the last tour
At Transformation
Grace, Too
Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man
Love Is A First
Man Machine Poem
Gift Shop
The Lookahead
Ahead By A Century
Streets Ahead
Poets
We Want To Be It
In View
Fully Completely
Bobcaygeon
New Orleans Is Sinking
My Music At Work
Blow At High Dough
Encore:
Scared
At The Hundredth Meridian
Courage (For Hugh Maclennan)
Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
Little Bones
That's a greatest hits show with some new songs thrown in as far as I can see. I guess if they can sell out every arena in canada every time with this kind of setlist then maybe it really doesn't matter to them. Maybe they aren't interested in their back catalog as much as we are. For me it is less about 2 sets than one that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator of fan. I'd love to be surprised by an Oh Honey, or The New Maybe or Sharks or The Completists or The Darkest One or Dire Wolf or even Summer's Killing Us or Vaccination Scar

[Escape@Hand]

I think if you were to look at the actual album tours over the last few years (as opposed to summer festival gigs, which, imo, have become greatest hits shows) you'd see that overall they are still digging into their back catalogue. Outside of the Canadian leg of NFPA, I don't think they've gone into "greatest hits" mode on a regular basis. I thought the WATS tour had lots of rarities - I got to see Looking for a Place to Happen, The Dark Canuck, and Throwing Off Glass for the first time, (plus WATS songs that likely won't be played like Frozen and Exact Feeling), along with numerous cuts that I've heard before, but not often, such as Dire Wolf, Twist My Arm, Fiddler's Green, Pigeon Camera, Thompson Girl, Gems, Puttin Down, Thugs...plus the acoustic version of some hit songs that helped keep things fresh.

I think they are still pulling out surprises - they played Something's On for the warm up gig, which they haven't played in years and I was surprised by that. Would I love for them to play one or two (or 10) more tracks like that during the non FC songs for this tour? For sure, but a night that you get to hear Something, plus the rare FC tracks is still pretty good in my books.

[sherpa]

Yeah fair enough. I'm kind of on the fence. WATS did have some nice rarities I saw also. The bear, goodnight josephine, emperor penguin to name a few. I guess with a single set and all of FC it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for pleasing the casual fan who probably make up a lot of the shows

[spottrax]

As a fan, I am simply glad that the same five guys are still touring as a band. Yes the prices are a bit stiff and we hardcore fans are a bit over critical but the fact remains that the Hip has stuck it out for 30 years and they are touring a fantastic album. Many people on these forums (including me) have begged for a tour celebrating one of the band's first few albums and here it is. In a perfect world, I personally would love it if the band played a different album every night (at least some of the classics) followed by about 15 hits and misses....rarities. However, for whatever reason (GD's voice/fatigue, the risk of losing the casual fan, more necessary rehearsal time) the band chooses to only do a two hour show, sticking with mostly familiar material. In our perfect Hipbase world, the Hip would play FC in its entirety and then follow it with a 15 song set of revolving door of hits and rarities (from No Threat to Grace Too.....to Last American Exit to Blow At High Dough). Im looking forward to catching them (and over-paying....lol), Friday In Cleveland.....to me...its worth it. For the record...I disagree with Sherpa above. I believe the 2009 tour was way better than the 2000 Evening With tour. The deep cuts and Gords connection with the crowd that tour was awesome. Only after that tour did things drastically change in the Hip camp...for whatever reason. I'm still diggin' them. Give me 5/FC/5....of course I wouldn't complain if they did 6/FC/6?/encore of 2 songs.....

[bstrauss24]

Yeah fair enough. I'm kind of on the fence. WATS did have some nice rarities I saw also. The bear, goodnight josephine, emperor penguin to name a few. I guess with a single set and all of FC it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for pleasing the casual fan who probably make up a lot of the shows

This is why I asked how people on here really feel about the album concept. Let's be honest,a lot of us are road warriors that go to multiple shows or travel to see them. Having over half the show set in stone takes a lot away for me as a fan.

Maybe it's a topic for another thread.