05/30/09: The Fillmore: Detroit, MI

[Hugh23]

Great setlist for the second Detroit show. It was an excellent mix of old and new songs. After playing 50 Mission Cap Gord said he knew the song was about the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup. He continued that even though he is a Bruins fan, the song was an acknowledgement to the Detroit Red Wings for playing in a Cup game tonight.

As mentioned earlier, Dare Devil was played with the Hiccups musical intro. For the acoustic set after the intermission, Johnnie Fay was playing a new mini drum kit. It was metalic silver and had a tall bass drum with a foot pedal that struck the bottom of the bass. It also had two smaller snare drums (?) and he played it standing up. He was using some very thick drumsticks. After the show Johnnie told me the drumsticks were dowels he bought at a hardware store and he customized them with some red tape for better grips. The start of the acoustic set had all the band members sitting down except for Johnnie standing at his drum kit. Gord joked that normally the band played with everyone else standing, but tonight the acoustic set would be just the opposite.

The crowd was larger than last night and everyone was singing along. The last song of the encore was Blow at High Dough. The end of the song has Gord singing the word "blow" over and over again. My friends who were at the show with me and my wife and I were in the first row against the barricade between Gord S. and Robbie. There was a 4 ft. space between the stage and the barricade. Unexpectedly, Gord jumped off the stage and stood next to the fans at the barricade in front of Paul. Ricky, the band's personal bodyguard was surprised and rushed over to be next to Gord. As the band extended the outtro, Gord began shaking hands and giving "high fives" while singing the word "blow" over and over again. He walked from one end of the front row to the other sharing the mic with the fans and letting them sing "blow" with him. We all got a chance to sing/scream along with him. It was quite a rush for me to sing along with Gord during a show.

Overall, two great nights in Detroit. Between both nights I think I heard every song on the new album along with many rarities and classic fan favorites. My wife and I are looking forward to tonight's show in Cleveland and our last chance to see the band on this tour in London, Ontario at Rock the Park in July.

[soulsinging]

WOW better show than last night. Just crazy energy from the band. The crowd seemed more into tonight maybe since the tempo of the songs was up over last night.

Thanks guys for two great nights of music.

Tomorrow night its Nine Inch Nails long weekend of music for me.

I'm pulling the double duty Hip/NIN weekend as well. Trent's going to have a tough time matching last night's show... Poets might have been the best 6 minutes of live music of my life!

[Dexter Morgan]

Yeah Poets was outstanding

Coffee Girl is the perfect acoustic song also

[HipFan67]

Last nights show was awesome! My wife and I were up front on Paul's side of the stage, just down from where Gord jumped off. My wife was the one Gord got the photos from during Eldorado. The second set really ramped things up. Gotta agree about Poets too! Can't wait till the London show. Cool to meet some people from the board last night too!

[li99sh79]

I know the point of the tour is to flog the new album, but all the dupes from Friday kept me from finding a solid groove during the show.

Following the Wings on my iPhone probably didn't help either.

[spottrax]

Random thoughts....

I only got to enjoy half of the show Saturday night due to a prior commitment but I have never been so glad I decided to pop in for the second set. WOW.... Queen of the Furrows, Poets, Family and Blow really tore the roof off the Fillmore.

Friday's show was good, a little bit of a pacing issue due to so many new "power ballads" in the first set but last nights (saturday) show was really smokin! Did I mention it was HOT it was in the Fillmore?....Africa hot or as in surface of the sun hot? Main Floor was PACKED...really pushing it as far as capacity goes..... Some nights everything really comes together and a very special and memorable show happens....that was last night (IMO).

The only song that was a bit of an issue last night was IAGLIYDW.... Robbie could sense that someone was WAY out of tune and he thought it was him....turns out (i think) it was Gord S.... just normal stuff that happens and most of the crowd was singing along oblivious to the tech issue.... But you could see a little troubleshooting going on...these guys are the most professional band out there..... makes all these younger bands look like amateur hour.

Kudos to all the guitar techs and the band themselves. I truly don't think most fans have any idea how difficult it is to set up guitars for all these songs.... during Queen of the Furrows, Baker had a tele that was capo'd, and a mandolin that was capo'd at the same time.....I was shaking my head.....it takes incredible team work to pull that off!!! (a capo is a tool that goes on the frets of a stringed instrument to allow for different sound/playing etc....but it is tricky to get it in tune perfectly). Nice Job!!!!!!!!!!!

What a great two days..... wish the band could squeeze in a DTE date this summer but thats is just wishful thinking..

[NateNantais]

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[ianmac]

ust got home to Southern Ontario after the show in Detroit last Night.

First the venue was great, a grand old lady of a theater and would enjoy returning to the Fillmore to see anybody performing. With the Red Wings playing last night in game one of the championship as well, there was a great vibe in the resturants before the show and on the street after the concert.

This is the first time we have seen the band on this tour and I thought they were all definatley BANG ON , the energy of the whole band reminded me of years ago. Gords interaction with the crowd and the song introductions just plain conversation in between the songs were great. I will get use to the key boards in some of the old songs.

The Detroit / Windsor crowd was great as usual and very loud. I couldn't even hear my self singing the songs.

" They are the Same" The Hip that we love, just like we all know they are, but now with a new bunch of killer songs to blend into the sets.

I thought the set list was very tight and there was nothing out of sync. Great show

Ianmac and crew

[tragicallysteve]

Is Coffee Girl the first acoustic new song on this tour?

I thought I remembered reading Country Day acoustic near the beginning of the tour. Maybe it was at the bathouse.

[syncdude]

We just got back home (St. Louis) and quite simply put, my wife and I had the time of our lives in Detroit!! Everything I had envisioned the weekend being came to fruition without a hitch. We met alot of great people from all over the US and Canada, the weather was perfect (well, except late last night when we froze our asses off for 2 hours waiting to meet the band), and the band was just absolutely smoking, especially Saturday night! I am in the process of downloading a TON of pics and video from my camera even as I type, and when I sort through them all and get some stuff uploaded I will post them here or give a link to my MySpace page or whatever. As a teaser of sorts, here are two of my favorites...






Dave

P.S. Oh, and after a nearly 11 year absence, they told me they will be coming to St. Louis this fall!!!

[sullivand]

P.S. Oh, and after a nearly 11 year absence, they told me they will be coming to St. Louis this fall!!!

Don't toy with me, man.

[john cage]

One word: SMOKIN' !!!

More words - while Friday's show was decent, I would say Saturday's was amongst the best (if not the best) of the tour so far. It was the best of the four I saw, no contest.

For people that say a setlist doesn't matter re: whether a show is outstanding, please compare Friday to Saturday. While getting Glass and Dark C (Fri) were great and I'm glad I had a chance to see them live again, trading several 'standards' for the likes of 50MC, DD, 3 Pistols, ElDo, Escape, and a couple more new songs was something I'd take anytime.

Better yet for me, I got two of my 'Yeti' songs (never seen) - ElDo and NOiB plus my favorite Daredevil w/ Hiccups intro. Thank you, Gord S. !!!

Notes:
- During Struggle, Paul broke a string on his acoustic 12 string which is a big part of the verse. Rob and Gord S. looked at each other and started laughing. Paul kept going while Billy Ray performed surgery on the string to remove it.
- Can't remember the song, but Rob played a note he might not have wanted, gave Gord S. this look like 'what was that?' and they started laughing again.
- Johnny beat the crap out of Family Band. Reminded me of Animal from Dr. Teeth and the Electic Mayhem.
- Coffee Girl acoustic is really good. Should've been done this way on the album, imo.
- Country Day is much better live. The slide guitar solo at the end!

Great stuff !!!

[MAverick]

A few photos: Set is here:





Backstory: On friday night after the show, I was telling Gord D. how I was trying to get a picture with both toes on the edge of the stage and that I had one toe, but not two. So on Sat, he spent a bit of time with both toes over the edge of the stage to let me try and get the shot. There is a few in the set. I think they are kinda cool!


I have been trying to get shots from different angles this year and am sort of into the "underneath" shots, so I have spent a bit of time on my back looking up - i think these crowd shots are pretty cool



Steve and Mark



This isn't the "best" shot, but what I love, is that Gord's handkerchief is floating in front of him, right over my head. Tool cool.



Johnny's stand up kit

[Edward_K]

great shots!

I am now off to Detroit to speak to the automotive community (insert joke here) about their responsibility to lower Co2!

I guess my conference was a couple days too late.

saludos, edward

[Tthip]

Mark and Steve
Now that is a cool picture - good on ya MAv.