2002-09-15 - Royal Theatre - Victoria, BC

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TLB
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2002 2:12 pm

Post by TLB »

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15th

330PM
Got off the ferry at Swartz Bay around 230pm and
headed straight to Victoria. After trying for 30
minutes to park, I ran to the side to of the Royal to
find out that I had missed the boys by about 10
minutes! A couple of minutes later, a taxi pulls up
and Paul Langois climbs out of the back, grabs his
very expensive clubs from the trunk and proceeds to
the side door. I asked him if he had time to pose for
a picture and he said ‘sure!’ with a big smile on his
face and trademark black shades covering his eyes.
After the picture, I wished him a good stay in
Victoria and a great show tonight. He appreciated the
gesture and proceeded into the Royal. Great guy,
really nice! About 10 minutes later, the sound check
started. Vapour Trails, The Dire Wolf, Lake Fever,
and The Dark Canuck, only to be interrupted up the
street by a dry run for the Queen’s visit. All I
could hear for a couple of minutes was bagpipes and
drums, but after they passed, I could hear the sound
check continue and finish.

430PM
Not knowing anyone in Victoria, I went and hung out in
front of the Royal after the sound check, waiting for
the show. I was trying to sell my single ticket, but
there weren’t many takers at that time of the day. A
little while later, a guy with a Hip tour tag came out
front to have a smoke and we struck up a conversation.
We spoke about the tour so far and about the show
later that night. Eventually, I told him I was trying
to get rid of my extra ticket and get one for the next
show, so he devised a novel plan to get my ticket
sold, have one for the next day for me, and get these
2 other girls tickets. He then finished his smoke and
left for a few minutes. When he came back, he asked
if his little plan worked out, but it never did. I
was still trying to peddle one ticket and track down
another. I thanked him anyways for the great idea he
had proposed and mentioned that I would’ve never
thought of anything like that. He responded with
something like “well you have those little ideas when
you’re the manager of the band.” In utter disbelief,
I hardly got out the words “are you Jake Gold?” and it
was! I talked to the guy for a good 20 minutes or so,
and never knew it was Jake Gold! We chatted some more
and I asked him about the upcoming arena tour. He
said there weren’t many plans in place because they
didn’t know whether they wanted to do one yet or not.
Jake said if it does happen, it won’t be until
February or March, so I prodded him to get the boys to
come back to Prince George one last time. He said he
didn’t know, but that he would take it into
consideration. I had called him Mr. Gold a couple of
times before he said ‘don’t call me that, that’s what
my Dad is, just Jake is fine.” He had to go back in
so I left and had something to eat and stuff, killed
more time, and came back to the Royal. Jake was out
front again, so I asked him how to go about getting a
setlist for tonight’s show. He pulled a folded piece
of paper out of his shirt pocket and said he had it
right there! I told him I didn’t want to see it to
ruin the surprise, so he asked what row I was sitting
in and said to track him down after the show and he
would give it to me. That blew me away because he
must be very busy and in no way did I ever expect to
be able to find him after the show, but it was really
nice for him to say that. After that, he went back in
and I got ready for the show.

700PM
Coming in the doors, there were come clowns and mimes
wandering around the theatre, greeting people. I
think it had something to do with the ‘theatre
extravaganza’ tour theme. The show itself was great
for a night #1 show. The boys were spot on all night
and Sam Roberts put on an excellent show. His band
has a ton of energy and definitely was better than
Wayne from the Seattle show. Sam tried a few times to
rev up the crowd, but no one really reacted. The boys
opened up with Silver Jet, which was my first time
hearing it as an opener, and it really got the crowd
going. Jet has been getting a lot of airplay on
Island radio stations. The band seemed genuinely
happy to be back in Victoria after seven years. As
soon as they came out, Gord D had an ear-to-ear grin
that I’ve never seen on his face in all of my shows,
and it didn’t fade until near the end of Jet.
Fireworks was a song for Alan Eagleson. At the start
of Courage, Gord had to wait for Gord S to re-tune his
bass, so Gord proceeded to sing “Courage, HA! No that
wasn’t right. Ha! No, not that, hoooooooo Courage.
Nope. Courage, HA!” Right then the rest of the band
kicked in, the timing was almost perfect. Vapour
Trails was awesome, I haven’t seen that live since the
Phantom Power tour. “Throw away the rubber? What
rubber? I don’t have a rubber!” At The Hundredth
Meridian included Life Is Forgetting. Locked In The
Tunk Of A Car was wicked! I totally didn’t expect it
and it really got the crowd going after The Dark
Canuck. Ahead By A Century was a pleasant surprise
and Fire In The Hole was a rocking way to finish the
night. During Fire In The Hole, Gord mentioned
something about Terry Fox, but I couldn’t make it out.

The stage show now has a “night sky” added to it, a
black drape behind Johnny with hundreds of lights
imitating the stars in the night sky. It really added
to songs like Lake Fever, Springtime In Vienna and
Gift Shop. The rest of the setlist didn’t change much
from the US tour. There was the
NewO-Fully-Ready-Fever block at the start.
Weaken-Meridian-Springtime in the middle, and Wolf,
Gift, & Bones to close out the main set. I was on the
left aisle for the show and during the first encore
song, Grace Too, who come's up to me in row 4 but Jake
Gold himself. He calmly hands me the setlist he
promised me and walked back up the aisle as quickly as
he showed up. I was taken so off-guard by it that I
forgot what it was he handed me, until I opened it up.
I was able to see the rest of the encore ahead of
time, but I was fine with that. Totally cool of him to
do that and I won’t soon forget it! As for the crowd,
sorry Victoria fans, but it was a really lame crowd
that night. When the doors opened and I got to my
seat, the guy behind me asked if I was going to stand
up, and I said yes for the whole Hip show for sure.
He didn’t like that too much. I told him I paid more
than top dollar for the seat and as long as I didn’t
stand on it, I was okay and security pretty much
laughed at him when he complained. The guy across the
aisle from me was ‘Gord-ing out’ the whole show,
dancing non-stop, and a lady a few rows behind him
would come up and pull him down to sit down, and he’d
get right back up and keep dancing. Come on Victoria,
this isn’t Raffi at The Royal Theatre! This is THE
HIP! It’s a rock concert! Every time something even
semi-slow was played, everyone sat down like bumps on
a log, like in Dark Canuck. Then when part two of The
Dark Canuck kicked in, they all decide to stand back
up. Like I mentioned before, even Sam Roberts was
trying to get the crowd going, but to no avail.

1000PM
After the show, I waited by the side doors for the
band. For about an hour, guests and roadies filtered
out every few minutes. Eventually Jake came out and
no one reacted, nobody knew who he was, so I decided
to approach him and thank him for the set list. He
said it was no problem and explained that he almost
didn’t find me because I had changed my shirt before
the show. He asked if I’d found a ticket for the next
show yet, but I hadn’t. By about that time, other
people had heard us talking and heard me call him
Jake, and proceeded to join in and start asking him
questions about who he was and stuff. He seemed a
little perturbed by that, and so our conversation
ended there and he walked away. It was a long day for
the band, especially the ones in the Terry Fox Run, so
only Gord D and Robby came out to sign autographs and
briefly talk to the fans. There were only about 10
fans that stayed, so Gord and Robby stayed to make
sure everyone got an autograph. Gord signed my jersey
last year so I stayed away from him (one less fan
swarming Gord) and went straight to Robby, who aptly
signed my jersey. Someone got into a hockey
discussion with Gord, asking him his opinion on Harry
Sinden and what he’s done/did with the Bruins in all
his years. Gord responded by saying “I don’t believe
in the separation of church and state.” Classic Gord!
He went on to comment on Bill Guerin, how it was
shitty he left and how he won’t do nearly as well in
Dallas because he wasn’t with Joe Thornton anymore.
Gord said that’s what you get for $9 million dollars!
After that, Gord & Robby retired to their transport
with the rest of the band and the fans left happy and
giddy.
User avatar
TLB
Sherpa
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Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2002 2:12 pm

Post by TLB »

Silver Jet
New Orleans In Sinking
Fully Completely
Are You Ready
Lake Fever
Fireworks
Courage
Vapour Trails
It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken
At The Hundredth Meridian
Springtime In Vienna
The Dark Canuck
Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
Ahead By A Century
The Dire Wolf
Gift Shop
Little Bones

Grace, Too
Use It Up
Fire In The Hole
User avatar
chris
The Last Recluse
Posts: 8673
Joined: Fri Sep 13, 2002 8:04 am

Re: 2002-09-15 - Royal Theatre - Victoria, BC

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