2015-02-14 - Winnipeg, Manitoba

[sean.bonner]

MTS Centre

" A raven strains along the line of the road
Carrying a muddy, old skull the wires show their approval
Off down the distance "

01 - Grace Too
02 - My Music At Work
03 - Ahead By A Century
04 - Something On
05 - New Orleans Is Sinking
------
06 - Courage
07 - Looking For A Place To Happen
08 - At The Hundredth Meridian
09 - Pigeon Camera
10 - Lionized
11 - Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
12 - We'll Go Too
13 - Fully Completely
14 - Fifty-Mission Cap
15 - Wheat Kings
16 - The Wherewithal
17 - Eldorado

18 - In View
19 - At Transformation
20 - Boots Or Hearts
21 - Nautical Disaster
22 - Little Bones

[Shane Kroeker]

I've got my tickets in the 200 level. Any other basers making it out?

[stevewiebemusic]

I have 5th row floor seats. This will be the closest I've been for a Hip show, much to the chagrin of my wallet.

I may have one 5th row ticket available, as a buddy who was supposed to come is heading down to California for some serious cycling training.

[stevewiebemusic]

I'll be in the 5th row, wearing the "Bruins" jersey with Gus on the front. So pumped!!

[metallihip]

Grace, Too
My Music At Work
Ahead By A Century
Something On
New Orleans Is Sinking

Fully

In View
At Transformation
Boots or Hearts
Nautical Disaster
Little Bones

Fully was outstanding to see live, we'll never see some of those songs played live again I imagine. Thought it was interesting that Gord hardly acknowledged the crowd at all, it seemed like it was just end of song and then right into next song. I've been to nine shows, can't say I remember him being that quiet.

Also, does anybody know their fascination with playing In View every single show?

[Graham]

Thought it was a great show!

Was super happy to hear Something On, and what I realized while the band was ripping through the Fully material, is that it was still a great show, all the Fully stuff we don't usually get to hear made this concert way better than Hip 2012 IMO. El Dorado, Wherewithal, Pidgeon and Locked especially was downright ripping. The crowd responded as such.

Gord sounded great too...the only thing I thought was weird was that he wasn't playing guitar at all. After 18 songs its kind of like...Gord, you ran out of dance moves 10 songs ago.

I just wish that every time I see the Hip at MTS Centre I don't get bull shi$@(%@@ tickets in a section with lame people who don't want to stand up, dont sing a word, or talk through the whole damn thing and leave during the encore break. Why even come?

[direwolf74]

Thought it was a great show!

Gord sounded great too...the only thing I thought was weird was that he wasn't playing guitar at all. After 18 songs its kind of like...Gord, you ran out of dance moves 10 songs ago.?

Gord didn't play guitar at all for the first 10 years of the band, so for me it's not that weird seeing him without one. I guess he's trying to concentrate more on his singing for this tour. From what I've heard, it's working.

[Escape@Hand]

Thought it was a great show!

Gord sounded great too...the only thing I thought was weird was that he wasn't playing guitar at all. After 18 songs its kind of like...Gord, you ran out of dance moves 10 songs ago.?

Gord didn't play guitar at all for the first 10 years of the band, so for me it's not that weird seeing him without one. I guess he's trying to concentrate more on his singing for this tour. From what I've heard, it's working.

Yeah, for me it was cool to see him just singing. My first Hip concert was on the TATH tour, so I just missed seeing them without him playing guitar.

[Rocker_Matt]

Random ramblings on the show:

- Awesome show, as expected! Probably ranks third among the eight Hip shows I've seen.
- Was great to hear Something On in the first set, and Boots or Hearts and Nautical Disaster in the encore. I could do without hearing New Orleans is Sinking, Music at Work, and Little Bones again. Not sure why they always insist on closing with Little Bones every time they're in Winnipeg. They've done it for the last three MTS Centre shows.
- After four Now for Plan A shows, I was really not looking forward to At Transformation. Although Saturday's version was sped up and arranged a bit differently, so it was quite refreshing.
- I was really hoping to hear Twist My Arm; even tweeted my request to Rob, which he said he'd try and do. Alas, no Twist. Although Rob did tweet me back after the show saying it slipped his mind, and he apologized. Classy guy!
- Managed to get a guitar pick from Rob, drumstick, Gord's hankie, and Johnny's setlist. Pretty good haul!
- One of my the highlights of the show was not the music, but rather the interaction between Gord and Paul. These two are hilarious to watch together. Paul, who hardly ever smiles, seemed like he was trying the entire night to keep his laughter in whenever Gord came over to him. So hilarious and fun to watch.


As fantastic as the show was, something seemed a bit different about the show. From the get go, Gord D seemed happier than usual. Still up to his usual antics, but he definitely looked to be having a lot of fun up there. Especially, worth noting, during the rarer Fully Completely tracks. Gord really seemed to enjoy playing these songs. Maybe it's time to let him make the setlists.

Having said that, at the other end of the spectrum, the show seemed very rushed. Hardly ever more than ten seconds in between songs, with no banter. I could not believe it when I looked at my watch at the end of the show and realized an hour and 45 minutes had gone by. Not sure if the band was just in the moment and wanted to keep moving along and not lose their "groove". But it was just a tad disappointing that the show was so rushed.

Gord's voice has definitely improved; although there is still room for improvement, as always. Unfortunately, by the time Nautical Disaster came, Gord seemed to lose his stride. In my opinion, Nautical is such a wonderfully sounding song, but Gord's voice really seemed to ruin that effect for me.

All in all, after this "all over the place" review, I had a blast at the show and can't wait to see what the band has up their sleeves after the FC tour.

[Rye]

This was my 16th Hip show dating back to my first one in 1996. Saturday night was one of the better arena shows I've seen in the past ten years. The band sounded good (Johnny seemed much more animated than the last few shows and I love their rythem section with he and Gord). I really liked the visuals accompanying the Fully songs and wish Lionized and Eldorado were played more live. These two songs and Locked were my highlights from the Fully set.

I agree the show seemed very rushed. My main complaint is the length of the show, under 2 hours. With their back catalogue, and hearing how good the rarities on Fully sounded, I really wish they'd dig deeper. My other complaint is when Gord keeps rephrasing songs, like on Grace, Too.

Over the past few years I've hated a couple shows (Winnipeg 2011 and 2013), not minded one (Brandon) and really liked one (Fargo). This show I really liked and it made me look forward to the next one which hasn't always been the case in the past decade.