04/24/09: The Danforth Music Hall: Toronto, Ontario

[sean.bonner]

Okay you lucky bastards...
Post your reviews.

EDIT: Setlist
* = Acoustically played.

01 - The Depression Suite
02 - In View
03 - Fireworks
04 - Coffee Girl
05 - Eldorado
06 - New Orleans Is Sinking
07 - Honey, Please
08 - Stay
09 - The Lonely End Of The Rink
10 - Grace, Too
11 - Country Day

12 - The Bear*
13 - Titanic Terrarium*
14 - Ahead By A Century*
15 - Morning Moon
16 - Poets
17 - Pigeon Camera
18 - It Can't Be Nashville Every Night
19 - The Exact Feeling
20 - Fully Completely
21 - The Last Recluse
22 - Family Band
23 - My Music At Work

24 - Escape Is At Hand For The Travellin' Man
25 - Tiger The Lion

[chris]

Will do!

[Gibie]

Amazing show... loved The Bear and Tiger, the sit down acoustic set, the drunk guy who passed out in row L far left and got carried out by the bouncers... Downie talking more than usual (e.g. Grace, Too)... the venue was cool, I really liked it. Loved it. Can't wait for the London show.

My personal fav was The Recluse.

Craziness at the bar though... only two servers and a huge MOB. lol

[lampshade29]

I think the highlights of the set are pretty obvious just by looking at it. But for sure Titanic was just wonderful. Stay was really great as well. Tiger was particularly heavy.
Gord's voice sounded really really good throughout. Mean when it had to and sweet when it got quiet.

I think one thing that I came away with was that Gord was more "normal" than usual. He talked quite a bit and not in the crazy ways we've all heard in the past. He was calmer and would introduce the song and what album it was from.
Cool moments were after Stay when he said it was from their album Music at Work album and that it was their misunderstood album. He said something like "ah yeah, it feels good to have a misunderstood album. You know, you love it just like the rest of your albums." I found it pretty funny.
Also talked about how Nashville was all about Toby Kieth and how he wouldn't want to mess with Toby Kieth...OH I Think I just did! haha. It was funny too.
But yeah, he was very normal sounding and it was really neat to see. I'm very interested to see how this tour develops. The band sounded so great. Not like it was their first night dress rehearsal. Even the real rare songs sounded like staple songs. That is the best part. Sometimes when bands play rare songs they sound like rare songs in the quality of the performances, but everything really sounded top notch tonight.

I could go on and on...it was a very special evening. Great show, really good crowd.

[nhaste]

Setlist...

Depression Suite
In View
Fireworks
Coffee Girl
El Dorado
New Orleans
Honey, Please
Stay
Lonely End Of The Rink
Grace, Too
Country Day

The Bear (sit down acoustic)
Titanic Terrarium (sit down acoustic)
Ahead By A Century (sit down acoustic)
Morning Moon
Poets
Pigeon Camera
It Can't Be Nashville Every Night
The Exact Feeling
Fully, Completely
The Last Recluse
Family Band
Music At Work

Escape Is At Hand
Tiger The Lion

[gratts99]

Great show, great venue! Kickass Setlist.
Has to be the first time that there was no bobc,courage,spring,gift,blow,bones,goodlife,nautical played in 1 show. Which is fanfuckingtastic!

It was definately the most talkative before songs , gord has ever been giving history or meaning to songs which went well with this new tour. Good break from the norm.

So many awsome rare songs tonight , i still cant believe some.

Only small downside to the night is the fact that 12 song sets just arent enough. lol. By the time it gets going its intermision or over. Not sure if they did 12/12/2 because it was a special event show or not and if they are planning to extend it at all for the regualar shows but the more hip the better!!!

HIP HIP HIP

[Billy]

Fantastic setlist! I dream about The Bear, Eldorado and Tiger The Lion...nicely done guys.

[Mr. Lahey]

Definately the most special show I've ever been a part of. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd hear The Bear and Stay IN THE SAME NIGHT, let alone ever. It will be very hard to top this Hip experience. Wow still on a major high.

I also thought it was a pipe dream that they would ever do an acoustic portion. At first I thought it may be something unique just for tonight's show but I wouldn't be surprised now if they do that to start each night's 2nd set. They have a bunch of songs they can rotate through if they want to do 3 per night. (Thompson, Scared, Kings, Fiddlers, etc)

Grace Too may seem out of place to some, but it didn't to those in attendance. They rocked the f--- out of it. Same with NOIS.

Highlights were: The entire acoustic session, Grace, every new song except Exact Feeling (most ppl looked bored too), and Gord being in an absolutely fantastic mood!

To end it, I was so happy to see almost everyone in attendance singing, dancing and just full-out enjoying themselves! I could tell Gord and the boys loved it too.

[MountainHip]

New O: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfQ9xhk8FB4
Fireworks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qAYhPet3JM

[Zenith]

HOLY CRAP!? The Bear?! Isn't that the first time that's been played live?

What a great setlist. Possibly the best I've ever seen. I really hope this was taped.

[chris]

HOLY CRAP!? The Bear?! Isn't that the first time that's been played live?

What a great setlist. Possibly the best I've ever seen. I really hope this was taped.

Yes it was the first time.

Yes it was taped - at least two video, and five audio rigs were with my group.

[Marcus1970]

HOLY CRAP!? The Bear?! Isn't that the first time that's been played live?

Gord mentioned that it was the first they played it live. He also said something like " that doesn't make us a special band but it sure makes it a special evening."

I thought it was interesting that for The Bear, Paul and Gord Sinclair had switched positions. I've never seen that before.

After the song they went back to their normal positions. It was funny when Gord Downie began to introduce Titanic, he looked to his right expecting to see Gord and Paul was back. He said " Hey you're not Gord, where did Gord go?"

[bstrauss24]

As we were leaving, my friend and I commented how we've never been to a show with no Courage or Meridain....and it was great! Not because we dislike those songs, but more because they opened the door to new songs being played. Whether this set was like it was because they knew the crowd they had will remain to be seen. Trow in no Bones, no Blow and no Good Life, it was just very different.

As someone else mentioned with the length of the sets, I kinda had a feeling that was how it would go. Not complaining here, but they are getting older. Would I like to see more....yes! But in reality, this was just a song or two more than a typical show on the WC tour. We will see how it goes as the show gets moving. Remember, this was only 20 bucks.

[mojo_mattv]

Just a great show. As a couple of other people already said, I think the best way to describe it is "different". There were alot of setlist standards missing and some rarities thrown in there place. Gord was pretty subdued (I thought) through most of the show, but it really showed in his vocals, I can't remember when he's sounded so good vocally. The mix seemed off a couple of times (especially in the first half). For instance, through the whole show I couldn't here the mandolin and a couple of time both with Baker and Benson I couldn't here their respective guitar and keyboard solos. Still very cool and special show. Oh and I met and briefly talked to Chris, which was pretty cool to actually talk to someone from hipbase.

[Mr. Lahey]

Regarding the setlist, I dunno if we'll see 30/32 song evenings, but I do think the other shows will be longer than last night. You have to also realize, $20 show vs $105 show.

25 songs or 30, last night was the most unique night I could've asked for from that band. Still giddy just thinking about it. They sounded so good! My fav Depression Suite to open, and my original fav, Escape, to start the encore. Wooooo!