06/20/09: Save On Foods Memorial Centre: Victoria, BC

[NegPhil]

Post moved to 06/20/09: Save On Foods Review: Tragically Hip show a tale of two bands
By MIKE DEVLIN , Times Colonist June 20, 2009
http://www.timescolonist.com

Post Moved to 06/19/09: Save On Foods Review thread.

[HandsInTheRiver41]

That was a review of the night before, June 19th. But that reminds me, Gord Downie dedicated Grace Too on the second night to Mike Devlin. I thought that was pretty funny.

[Tthip]

[ToastyB]

Second Hip show in a week (my first one was in Portland in that steamy, sweaty place they call the Wonder Ballroom). I would say that the Hip displayed a lot more energy for this concert, perhaps because of the fact they were back in Canada and playing to a more appreciative crowd. The sound system was MUCH better, and there was also the luxury of having full screen video displays on either side of the stage. Although SOFMC cannot match the intimacy of a smaller auditorium, the atmosphere was as electric as one can expect from a great Hip show.

Gord was still visibly sweating in this show, but at least he had more room to move around.

Highlights for me included Fiddler's Green (didn't see that one coming!), Courage, Nautical Disaster, Fully Completely and Locked. I also liked the fact that they opened with Love is a First, just to get the audience pumped!

Alas, no Little Bones this time. 4 shows in the past week and I pick the 2 which they don't play it. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade the expeience of seeing the Hip in an intimate venue over wanting to hear my favorite Hip song live! That will have to wait until they play another double header in Victoria, at which time I will have to get tix for both shows!

Now, if I can find a way to post my pics . . .

[pprusha]

I recorded Friday night's entire show, with the exception of Courage!

Awwww your killing me! But thanks for grabbing the rest of the show... can't wait to hear it.

You'll have to give me a day. I recorded two 'songs', part one and part two. Chris asked what I used. i used a Yamaha Pocketrak 2G set to a mic sensitivity of 6 (out of 30). It was clipping past 6 during the opening Depression Suite, so I stuck with that the entire show. I've set markers on the Pocketrak, just need to sequence them out and post them. I should've taken my Zoom H4n for really accurate sound, but man i was happy i used the Pocketrak. The freaking security and cops at the show probably would've thought the Zoom was a bomb or something.

Chris, can you provide the url to where i should post them on hiptracker? I'm happy to post them here too.

I'll apologize now for comments you'll hear at the start of some songs, like "This is f***ing incredible"...

-Paul

[chris]

[You'll have to give me a day. I recorded two 'songs', part one and part two. Chris asked what I used. i used a Yamaha Pocketrak 2G set to a mic sensitivity of 6 (out of 30). It was clipping past 6 during the opening Depression Suite, so I stuck with that the entire show. I've set markers on the Pocketrak, just need to sequence them out and post them. I should've taken my Zoom H4n for really accurate sound, but man i was happy i used the Pocketrak. The freaking security and cops at the show probably would've thought the Zoom was a bomb or something.

Chris, can you provide the url to where i should post them on hiptracker? I'm happy to post them here too.

I'll apologize now for comments you'll hear at the start of some songs, like "This is f***ing incredible"...

-Paul

Thanks Paul.

Visit www.thehiptracker.com and send a request for an invite.

It's a Bit Torrent site - are you familiar with how that works? If not, let me know and we can set something else up.

[Spycouple]

For the record...

Save On Foods Memorial Centre (i.e. "Gestapo Gardens") = WORST VENUE EVER!!!

After a long week and the unavoidable hassle of B.C. Ferries, just wanted to "relax" at a Hip show with some Hip show veteran buddies of mine. I didn't even bring a vid camera to document the events (as often done at past shows) and the wife forgot her still cam in the car at the ferry terminal. No problem. Perfect opportunity to just kick back and enjoy the show (properly!).

Well...

I thought I was at Victoria General Hospital, given how sterile it was in there. Confiscation of cigarettes, nary a puff of smoke or little red ember in the crowd... even at "Tonight we smoke the out.." Jeeeez. I'm not opposed to smoking by-laws and concern for the well being of other audience members, but did no one get the memo that it was a rock n' roll concert!!! As long as your trying to be discreet and not piss people off, let people enjoy the freakin' show! Poured cans of Vancouver Island Brewery beer? Couldn't they tap a few kegs and speed things up a bit? The brewery is just down the freakin' street. Also, how is it legal to arbitrarily decided that if you're 19-23 years old, you can only get one beer at a time? Suddenly at age 24 you figured out how to handle drinking two beer in an hour? It's not like all the "kiddies" were bustin' out a big game of Centurion. Come on.

That said, still (eventually) enjoyed the show. Takes a solid band to get past the above-described atmosphere. Similar in some respects to last year's Radiohead show at UBC where no other band would've been able to keep people there in the chilly 2-hour downpour. Can't really do much about mother nature though, but the ridiculous vibe of Slave-On-Centre is not beyond control. Too bad.

Good thing for "Fiddler's Green". It made all the Slave-On-Silliness disappear in a hurry. Anyway...

[pprusha]

For the record...

Save On Foods Memorial Centre (i.e. "Gestapo Gardens") = WORST VENUE EVER!!!

Couldn't agree more. I missed recording an acoustic "Courage" on Friday night due to the gestapo. I leave via the front left exit (patrolled by about 6 guards) with my wife, we buy 5 beers (3 for us, two for our daughter and her boyfriend), try to re-enter the show at the front-left, which was very close to where we were sitting. We're told we have to go out, down to the back, and walk all the way up to near the front. But, when we're going past the beer lines, we're stopped and told each person is only allowed to buy 2 beers at a time, so we'd either have to dump a beer ($7.50), or go back to the same counter where we purchased it to get refunded. We flipped. I demanded a refund, and informed the lady that they might want to let staff know that if that's the rule, don't sell more than 2 beers to anyone! I let her know that I have just missed Courage because of her, and there is no f***ing way I am missing one more song. We go to re-enter, refund and two beers in hand, and need to produce our tickets again. Ah, my wife has left her ticket at her seat! She charges past two guards, gets grabbed and stopped. She turns to the guard with the look of absolute anger on her face and screams something irrelevant to the guard, the guard lets her go, and i produce my ticket and get back to discover I've missed the start of Thompson Girl.

When we first entered the center, my wife is asked what's in her water bottle, she lies and says 'water'. But being a savvy European who lived under communism for years, she goes out, trickles a bit of white wine out of the bottle, comes back to the guard and sticks it right up to his face and says, "there, it's empty now", and she gets in. Me and my daughter's boyfriend don't get scanned yet, because we learned there is no 're-entry' into the building once you leave. So we duck out for a quick cigarette. Another gestapo comes out saying there's no smoking on the property, you have to go down to the road. I say, "are you serious?" She was.

At intermission i approach a guard and ask "where's the smoking area"? He says there isn't a smoking area. I then show my disdain for the "no re-entry" rule, saying that if i paid $85 for a ticket, that entitles me to enter the establishment at any point in the evening to enjoy what I've paid for. He spews on about no re-entry and I laugh, saying that re-entry sounds very very serious, like are you Neil Armstrong approaching the Earth's atmosphere in your space shuttle? He says 'very funny' and storms away.

So as I'm walking back to my seat a commotion starts in the upper-left area, with a woman dancing topless. She's wrestled to the ground by several guards, and soon there's cops pushing me out of the way, spilling my beer, trying to get up there to help remove the offender. By the time they reach her, the security guards have already kicked her, smashed her face into the concrete steps, and have both her arms wrenched behind her back. The crowd boos. It was completely unnecessary the way she was treated.

I saw The Hip at the Commodore in Vancouver at the start of their World Container tour. That's the place to see a show! 900 people max, tubs of cold beer everywhere, burning embers ignored, and great sound.

I will NEVER EVER return to the SOFA for a show.

[Spycouple]

@pprusha

Wow. I guess it could've been worse.

On the bright side...

a woman dancing topless.

So you had that going for you...
...which is nice.

[Bootlegger420]

True hip fans dont leave there seats for BEER, youve learned a valuble lesson

[Tthip]

True hip fans dont leave there seats for BEER, youve learned a valuble lesson

True Hip fans do not return the beer for a refund. Drink faster!

[BIGVDOGG]

True hip fans dont leave there seats for BEER, youve learned a valuble lesson

True Hip fans do not return the beer for a refund. Drink faster!

Yeh WTF???

[HandsInTheRiver41]

I don't know why people are singling out this venue (except I guess it's one of the only 2 arenas on this tour).

Any 'large' venue's security (I know the SOFC isn't actually large) is insanely strict. I've been to GM Place and the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State and they are way stricter than this venue. It's especially tougher for BC venues now that you are not allowed to have smoking within 30 meters of any doorways or whatever it is. And the no re-entry thing is the norm and has nothing to do with the venue (they've had those electronic scanners for probably a decade now so they don't need to tear the stub off at venues).

[Tthip]

[magmazing]

I thought I'd sign up to the board and post my YouTube vids from the Saturday Victoria BC show, but I see someone's already decided to post my vids... Well, more are up and more are on the way. I'll have 13 videos from the Saturday show on my YouTube page. http://www.youtube.com/magmazing Be sure to watch them in the HD glory (well... YouTube's compressed version of HD anyway...)