2012-06-28 - Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON

[direwolf74]

Really a great "fan club" setlist here. Nothing is more rewarding for $80 than hearing the same songs you've heard 1000 times before, again.

Agreed. Aside from Gems and the new songs, this looks like the exact same generic 'greatest hits' setlist from last summer. I'm still looking forward to seeing them in Calgary on the 11th (mostly just to hear the new songs), but I'm baffled as to why they continuously ignore such a deep catalogue. I love the Hip, but if this is what their setlists are gonna look like on the proper tour after the album is released, I'm not too interested in seeing them.

[emperor penguin]

Really a great "fan club" setlist here. Nothing is more rewarding for $80 than hearing the same songs you've heard 1000 times before, again.

Agreed. Seems like nothing has changed in the past 12 months. Same setlist, outdoor venue, no new album in my hands...

Living up to the last tour with those crazy setlist stats, and so many different rarities will be next to impossible to match. I heard Emperor penguin live, nuff said.

Agreed, but to hold a special show that's for registered users only, at a nice little intimate venue like Jackson Triggs, and charge more money for it, then play this setlist is incredibly disappointing. I'm glad I didn't waste my money. At the end of the day they can do whatever the hell they want, and play whatever they want, they owe nothing to anybody. But it's still shitty that they're just going through the motions at this point.

[direwolf74]

These guys are my favorite band of all time, and it saddens me to think that they might be going through the motions these days, but it certainly seems like that's what's happening...at least over the past year or so. As a veteran band who has played thousands of shows, you'd think they'd be sick to death of playing certain songs. There's a great quote from Eddie Vedder from the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary where he says something like "we could easily tour every couple of years and play the same setlist every night and just play the hits, but I just can't bring myself to do that."

The Hip could really learn a few lessons from that band. That being said, I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I pray that these boring, predictable setlists are nothing more than a summer festival thing. I think the proper album release tour in the fall will determine whether or not they're going through the motions. We'll just have to wait and see.

[emperor penguin]

These guys are my favorite band of all time, and it saddens me to think that they might be going through the motions these days, but it certainly seems like that's exactly what's happening...at least over the past year or so. As a veteran band who has played thousands of shows, you'd think they'd be sick to death of playing certain songs. There's a great quote from Eddie Vedder from the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary where he says something like "we could easily tour every couple of years and play the same setlist every night and just play the hits, but I just can't bring myself to do that."

The Hip could really learn a few lessons from that band. That being said, I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I pray that these boring, predictable setlists are nothing more than a summer festival thing. I think the proper album release tour in the fall will determine whether or not they're going through the motions. We'll just have to wait and see.

Agreed, and I can see why they would play these setlists at big GA summer shows, but to play a setlist like tonight's at a more expensive, "fan club" show at a small intimate venue is totally unacceptable. I am also holding out hope the album tour will be different. The last tour for We Are the Same was great and diverse.

[NegPhil]

Looks like plan B is exactly like plan A. Wake up boys the fans are pissed off.

[spottrax]

Very disappointing setlist indeed. Only 19 songs??? Looking back on tours (that weren't even "evening with") from say the Phantom Power era and the band was doing 23-24 songs per night.
Poets, Courage, Love Is a First should be traded for Escape, Pigeon and Morning Moon. If you add 3 more songs (totaling 22) you could dig a little deeper and include something like, Ocean, Daredevil and Cordellia. Just sayin...

Hopefully the venue limited the number of songs (length of set) and we will get a few more as the summer shows continue.

Hopefully the band was playing it safe and knocking off the cobwebs with the safe and familier material for this first show.

Hopefully the band digs deeper into their catalog than last years shows (and this one)...we're not asking for Another Midnight, Last American Exit or Wild Mountain Honey etc.

[spottrax]

These guys are my favorite band of all time, and it saddens me to think that they might be going through the motions these days, but it certainly seems like that's what's happening...at least over the past year or so. As a veteran band who has played thousands of shows, you'd think they'd be sick to death of playing certain songs. There's a great quote from Eddie Vedder from the Pearl Jam Twenty documentary where he says something like "we could easily tour every couple of years and play the same setlist every night and just play the hits, but I just can't bring myself to do that."

The Hip could really learn a few lessons from that band. That being said, I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt, and I pray that these boring, predictable setlists are nothing more than a summer festival thing. I think the proper album release tour in the fall will determine whether or not they're going through the motions. We'll just have to wait and see.

agree with ya on all counts. What has happened to our beloved Hip who used to challenge themselves and us. Very strange.

[mookytc]

That was an epic show at an incredibly intimate venue (on a beautiful summer night). There was no security gate in front of the stage. Front row was like having them play in your living room. Great crowd as well...a real treat.

[borgs]

Good show. Venue was amazing. Highlight for me was Gems->Giftshop. New songs sounded good. Man Machine Poem has a cool vibe. Streets Ahead still has a weirdness to it that I can't quite put my finger on. There was also a new song in the encore between Wheat Kings and Blow that, if I heard correctly, mentions Attawapiskat.

Though I would have enjoyed a setlist with deeper tracks, I disagree that band is just going through the motions right now. The guys were all rocking hard. Gord D was playing guitar less, and talking/ranting more than he has recently. Remember that this was their first show in quite a while and they were shaking off some rust. While I expect the setlists at the summer shows to be very similar to this one, I'm sure the tour after the album release will get deeper into their catalogue again. They've tried hard to keep things interesting on their last few album tours by including things like covers, and acoustic sets, and longer runs in each city to force themselves to change things up. I expect that the upcoming album tour will be no different.

I'm happy The Hip are back and I can't wait for the new album. Good show tonight.

[tigerthelion88]

cool show. amazing vantage. the venue is something else. the sound was electric. of course i wish the sets was deeper but man did they sound tight. gems-gift, man machine, encore newbie were great
during the encore blow at high dough, someone lit an engulfing doob, and gord got a laugh repeating 'blowing hydro'.

[Lucky13]

I was surprised they didn't play one song off of We Are The Same.

[sean.bonner]

I was surprised they didn't play one song off of We Are The Same.

Love is a First

[Lucky13]

I was surprised they didn't play one song off of We Are The Same.

Love is a First

Sorry I missed that one! Surprised they did play The Depression Suite. It was a tour favorite last time around.

[thebends]

... we're not asking for Another Midnight, Last American Exit or Wild Mountain Honey etc.

Actually, I think we are

[thebends]

Found this on the Hip's facebook page. Its a good picture of Rob's pedal gear taken last night. I'm familiar with all of them except the one on the top left - any ideas?