07/25/09: Highland Bowl: Rochester, NY

[smadabeer]

Awesome show last night . It didnt seem like the rain was going to stop as it only got harder and harder once it started. I thought this was a great little venue and laid out well. Minimal lines at any of the beer\food booths, they may have been longer had it been sold out... not sure how many people were in attendance maybe 2-3000?

[Corpse]

crap. I was hoping they would postpone it so I could've gone. Wedding was great and I was dry so not all bad. Anyone tapeing in that mess?

[buffalorob]

I've also been to 40+ Hip shows since the early 90's, and set list wise, a bit of a yawner, but throw in the experience, the incredible crowd just eating the relentless rain up, and the band's response to that, plus a great venue, vaults this show high on the list of the best ones.

[emperpenguin]

I guess I am alone on an island here, but after 20-30 Hip shows the greatest hits set just doesn't do it for me in the pouring rain. I am a little let down with the evening with shows being so short and the set-lists have seemed to get more generic and less imaginative as the tour has gone on.

I agree that I normally don't like generic setlists, but that venue(my 1st time at the bowl), the rain, the people.....I didn't see anyone not having a great time.

I have been to many HIP shows, and this ranks in my top four for uniqueness:
Showplace Buffalo 96 (small theater/ secret show)
Highland bowl 09
HOB AC 07(only a couple hundred people at this world container show, place was completely empty)
Old Bridge NJ 98(weird but cool venue)

As far as the shows being short.....they have been doing 25 songs a night all tour.

[MalcolmKellyRaps]

I wasn't saying that the show was shorter than other shows this tour. I think to bill it as an evening with and play 25 songs in weak. I am a huge Pearl Jam guy. I have been to 57 PJ shows. They have had an opener at them all. 25 songs in the SHORTEST I have seen. The 2000 HIP Evening with shows were longer. They have more material now. It is a disappointment they are only 25. I don't mean to sound ungrateful. I am just spoiled by PJ. 27-32 songs night with a unique setlist every time out. The Hip are my #2 and they are the closest thing. I bet no one in here thought when they heard this tour was EW style that the sets would be any less than 30.

[SoylentGreg]

I didn't mind the setlist so much - easily the best version of New Orleans, Springtime, and a couple others that i've ever seen, and I'd never gotten Nautical Disaster or Thompson Girl before. Gord made the storm into a personal experience for the whole audience, i've never been to a concert where the show was so intimate as right after the storm cleared. The setlist posted last page is right, I was just going to post it (i've just gotten back to VA an hour ago.) As an aside, this was my fiancee's first Hip show and she loved it! We're going to hit the DC date in October, since it's a venue they play every tour we might get some rarities.

[mintgreenbird]

spectacular! we started the day at the 10 ugly men fest. about a mile away. for $30 all you could eat food and drink and 6 beers. free ice cream slip and slide volleyball live bands ect ect ect very cool event. we walked to the hip show (i parked HIP FAN there earlier so we could have a quick get away.) we got there about 30 min after doors and the place was kinda empty. we walked around a bit and got some beers. about 15 min till the show we walked right up front and got about 3 rows from the rail. the show started and was bright and sunny out. good show good songs... standard hip fare... we wiggled our way up to the rail... right to the left of the woman with the kid (i was the guy that pushed the drunk that was bouncing all over and pushing you out ) we spent the remainder of the concert on the rail directly in front of gords mic stand. the sky got a bit dark during NOIS we started to get a dribble of rain and the crowd let lose a battle cry and Gord commented (all paraphrases as its been almost 24 hours) "even under the threatening skys we were in good spirits". during the next song it let lose and was a solid downpour... gord walked out into it on a speaker box and strummed his guitar in the downpour untill it shorted out. show went on and was great... rain was so bad you had to close your eyes at times. the hip went in for their break and you could see they all did not leave they huddles in the doorway watching us stand in a downpour chanting for them to return. they did and started their second set. after a song or 2 he screamed "if you want to leave its not to late... go ahead and go... if you stay though you have to stay all night. we are in this together" on they played also he commented that in their 20+ years they had never seen anything like it. During a break in the clouds gord started again on the weather "i dont want to fixate on the weather but this is a conflicted sky if there ever was one." one half of the sky was black and the other was bright and sunny "i know its hard for you to see because you all are looking up here but i am watching it for you i got your back" he said.
overall no surprises with the set and would have been a yawn show if it weren't for the rain. but it did rain and was an epic show because of it. it changed the crowd it changed the band. favorite quote "look over there. its a statue of Fredrick Douglas standing there arms out looking over the bowl here in rochester saying ""what the f**k?""

what the f**k indeed -andrew

[767F/O]

Just got back to Ontario from Rochester.

What a great show!
The Bowl is a great venue. The sloping lawn makes for great sight lines for everyone. My wife and I were standing right in front of the sound and light boards.

I was worried the show might get scrubbed...Tornado warnings for North West Rochester!! But the crew worked really hard to keep it all going despite the deluge!

The rain really added a fun element to the whole night. I was really hoping that we would luck out and miss the rain...but I found that the rain really got the band going. I found that Robbie was adding a lot more riffs to his playing and all the guys were working hard. I really felt like they appreciated that the majority of the fans were sticking it out.

My wife really wanted to hear Thompson Girl and Coffee Girl - she got them both and was ecstatic!

Thanks tkkarpen for the suggestions on places to eat...went to the Distillery and had a great meal/drinks. Met some others at the Distillery that were heading to the show as well.

Wanted to give a big thanks to the guy working the sound board (Mark???). You did a great job keeping the sound great with all the water potentially messing things up....and also a a big thanks for letting me have the set list! This is my first copy of one and I will truly cherish the momento....that was a great end to a great night!

I will definitely make the 4 1/2 hour drive again if they ever play the Bowl!!

Cheers.

[mattyd22]

GREAT Show! And I met a bunch of you guys on here that night! I was the guy with his wife dead center on the rail wearing the World Container 2007 tour shirt (Matt), wife with a purple shirt (Andrea). First of all... way to go Alex! A handkerchief AND the MIC!?!?! Are you kidding man? Good job buddy! Anyway about the show.. I though the set list was good. I got 100th, Wheat Kings, Bob, Courage, and Century, some of my favs. Coffee Girl is one of the wife's new favs, and Thompson Girl was a pretty cool treat as well. I caught two handkerchiefs, gave one to the wife, and the second to the girl next to me who I think I stole the first one from LOL (congrats on the engagement again!) The venue was also pretty cool. Great atmosphere and Frederick Douglas.... Yea man "What The F*ck?" (that was awesome). Gord was in a very funny mood and really got involved with the crowd which was great. He even blew my wife a kiss...twice! He's lucky I'm a fan of his LOL. AND of course....The rain. Oh man the rain! Made the whole show. Haven't been out in anything like that since the Goo Goo Dolls downtown on the 4th of July for the DVD Taping, and I think this show gave us more rain than that! All around a great show! Me and Andrea had a blast and met some really nice people including Alex and his Family, The couple from VA, and a few more. Can't wait to see them back in Syracuse this November.

[tkkarpen]

Great show! Started the day with a bunch of friends at Ten Ugly Men, which was great as usual. Convinced the bus driver to drop us all off at my place (near Monroe and Goodman), where we had some food and more drinks. Took a van cab to Highland Park, got there just before 6, and walked right up front. Ended up right behind the lucky one with his hankie and mic. Most everyone in our group was at Tom Petty last summer at Darien Lake when a big storm rolled through and power cut out a few times, we were all wondering if it would be a repeat. The downpour made the show epic, rockin out in 3-4 inches of water for most of the show. My friend picked up the frog, some guy next to us grabbed it out of her hand and threw it up on stage. Thompson Girl acoustic was a highlight, I haven't heard it live before. The guy I think others have commented about was near us. Story time, at the last night of Artpark, we showed up around 4pm. I went to the bathroom around 5, and this guy is in the empty bathroom pissing in a garbage can yelling, "TICKETS, TICKETS,"... all stalls were open. So we go into the show, there is one empty seat at the end of our row, two ushers more or less carry down that guy to sit there. He can't get up and has a big goofy smile on the whole time. Anyways, he was the same guy! We were laughing our asses off when we saw him. He was basically leaning into/over each of us throughout the second set. Funny at first b/c it was the same guy, annoying after about 1 minute. Didn't take anything away from the show though, it was epic...Gord set the tone when he went out into the rain and shorted out his guitar. Great show, great day, great time... I hope they come back to the Highland Bowl again.

...glad that you enjoyed the Distillery, great place for some good bar food

[Bonnie23]

It sounds like a bunch of us were all standing together...

I was right behind Alex's dad, slightly to the left. Watching Gord's reaction to Alex was awesome. So thank you for that!

This was my 10th show, and while not the best set list out of my ten, this one was probably the most memorable. The crowd (at least at the front) was bonding like you wouldn't believe... and there's nothing like changing out of your soaked clothes in the middle of a Rochester, NY street.

Highlight for me was Thompson Girl of course... and I like Frozen in my Tracks more and more each time I think.

[Bonnie23]

right to the left of the woman with the kid (i was the guy that pushed the drunk that was bouncing all over and pushing you out ) we spent the remainder of the concert on the rail directly in front of gords mic stand.

Hey mintgreenbird.. were you by chance with a blonde girl? She was standing in front of you?

[Xanagirl]

Wow. A bunch of people that were near us have posted on this thread. Cool! Everyone we met that night was so friendly. There were a fair share of drunken idiots too, but you always get that. There was no way we could have stayed in the pit if we didn't have Alex shielded between us and the rail. It worked out perfectly, though.

Here are a couple more pics. The first is of Gord during The Depression Suite, I believe. I know we snapped this shot early in the show. In my photobucket album, my caption for this photo is "nice pants." Damn, but Gordie is a very slim dude.



And we didn't get a shot of Gord tossing Alex a hanky, but we did get this shot of a lady 2 down from us. (Maybe someone from this site?) Either way, I love the pic!

[coffee girl]

GREAT Show! And I met a bunch of you guys on here that night! I was the guy with his wife dead center on the rail wearing the World Container 2007 tour shirt (Matt), wife with a purple shirt (Andrea). First of all... way to go Alex! A handkerchief AND the MIC!?!?! Are you kidding man? Good job buddy! Anyway about the show.. I though the set list was good. I got 100th, Wheat Kings, Bob, Courage, and Century, some of my favs. Coffee Girl is one of the wife's new favs, and Thompson Girl was a pretty cool treat as well. I caught two handkerchiefs, gave one to the wife, and the second to the girl next to me who I think I stole the first one from LOL (congrats on the engagement again!) The venue was also pretty cool. Great atmosphere and Frederick Douglas.... Yea man "What The F*ck?" (that was awesome). Gord was in a very funny mood and really got involved with the crowd which was great. He even blew my wife a kiss...twice! He's lucky I'm a fan of his LOL. AND of course....The rain. Oh man the rain! Made the whole show. Haven't been out in anything like that since the Goo Goo Dolls downtown on the 4th of July for the DVD Taping, and I think this show gave us more rain than that! All around a great show! Me and Andrea had a blast and met some really nice people including Alex and his Family, The couple from VA, and a few more. Can't wait to see them back in Syracuse this November.

Ya the above post is my hubby. He failed to mention the obnoxious drunk chick behind us that decided to use me as a crutch to hold herself up and then spill her 3 beers all over the back of me. At one point she decided to get angry and try to claw her way infront of me. I also got a few elbows in the back and head. What a whacko!! She lucky I kept my cool, cause at one point I had ahold of her wrist and was about to drop her. Any of you who were close by know exactly what girl I am talking about. As for the frog... yes I seen that. What a jerk! That poor frog was devistated as it sat in the same spot for the remainder of the show.... .

To Alex and his parents!!!! Have fun at U2!!!! lol yes I remember that boy, I told him how lucky he was to have such awesome parents!

See you all in Syracuse in November!!!

[Xanagirl]

Hi Andrea,

I know exactly what girl you were talking about. I thought at one point security was going to evict her from the show too, but unfortunately they didn't. She was so drunk her eyes were rolling back in her head. I have no problem with people enjoying some beers before/during a show, but when you drink so much that you become an annoyance/menace to others, you've had too much to drink!

It was so nice to meet you and your husband. BTW, I have a picture with you in it. My husband took a pic of Alex and I standing at the rail just after the gates opened, and you're standing right next to us. I can't send you a PM because I don't have enough posts, but if you want a copy of it, just email me at mtmarino at roadrunner.com (replace "at" with "@").
Cheers,
Michelle (Alex's mom)