Another Roadside Attraction 1997 in Saskatoon
Written July 1997
Well, once again the Tragically Hip have put together a talented group of
musicians. Another Roadside Attraction 1997 consisted of Van Allen Belt,
Ron Sexsmith, The Mutton Birds, Change of Heart, Los Lobos, Wilco, Ashley
MacIssac, Sheryl Crow and the Tragically Hip. It was 30 degrees on July 21
and absolutely prime weather for such an event.
Van Allen Belt-I missed them.
Ron Sexsmith- He was very good, quite a mellow fellow with very catchy
melodies. If you like him go buy his new album, Other Songs.
The Mutton Birds- A surprise. They were pretty good. Nice, poppy songs.
Change of Heart- Wussup? The lead singer kept on saying this as well as
how he wanted to make love to everyone in the crowd.
They were pretty good and got the crowd going a bit.
If you didn't know the words you were screwed though
(I only knew a couple of songs).
Los Lobos- Very groovy and very talented musicians. They won me over
with a cover of Neil Young's 'Cinnamon Girl'.
Wilco- These bearded henchmen weren't afraid to rock out. They show quite
a bit of variety in their music and songwriting.
Ashley MacIssac- This Cape Breton fiddler can rock. I really enjoyed
Sleepy Maggie (w/ Jane Lammond showing up to sing).
Although he had some really energetic songs (Devil in the Kitchen)
he tended to stretch out some of the slower songs.Very nice.
Sheryl Crow- She was very good. Have listened to most of her new CD so they were all recognizable songs.
A nice blue denim suit and straw cowboy hat topped it all off.
The Tragically Hip- Well, they were the headliners and that's
what most people were there for.
Here's the setlist:
Springtime In Vienna
Save the Planet
Grace, too
Twist my Arm
Ahead by A Century
700 foot Ceiling
Membership List
Blow at High Dough
Flamenco
Don't Wake Daddy
Fully Completely
Fire in the Hole
Nautical Disaster
Wheat Kings
Gift Shop
1st encore
Bobcaygeon
Daredevil
The Wherewithal
2nd encore
New Orleans is Sinking
All in all, the concert was a bit less than two hours. They played very
well and Mr. Downie was in his usual spontaneously ranty mood.
The new songs are good. I think I enjoyed Membership List the best because Paul Langlois
and Gord Sinclair sing along with Gord D. It makes for a very rich sound.
Kind of reminds me of the Rheostatics. Save the Planet was quite an upbeat
song w/ Gord Downie playing guitar. He's getting a lot better at the guitar,
I noticed. He makes a lot more chord changes and it seems more natural for
him now. Bobcaygeon was introduced as "This is a song about a relationship
between a policeman and a chambermaid". I enjoyed the lyrics in this song.
Something about the constellations revealing themselves one star at a time.
Otherwise, they started off w/ Springtime In Vienna which worked well.
They did a good version of Grace,Too w/ a long intro into it. Very nice.
"This is a song about the RCMP" and on into Twist my Arm.
Ahead by a Century was good as well w/ the usual jam at the end. 700 foot Ceiling
is one of my favorite songs and I was not dissapointed. It really
got the crowd shaking. Blow at High Dough was perhaps the most energetic song of the evening w/ the
crowd going nuts and Gord making up the lyrics as he went along. He sang this
part before he started the song that sounded like "Ohio" by Neil Young or
maybe "I've been Working on the Railroad" but anyways it sounded good. Flamenco
worked very well live. Gord dedicated it to Beverly DiAngelo and said that
he hoped that it was as beautiful as the canola fields and Bobby Orrs of the
prairies. Don't Wake Daddy was allright. Fully Completely was good as usual
but I think the best song of the night was Fire in the Hole. Gord dedicated
it to a guy w/ a German or Austrian name I think. He started off w/ another
Poets rant("Don't tell me what the poets are doing, Don't tell me that they're
all in sync, Don't tell me what the poets are doing, Don't tell me that they're
sucking their dinks, etc....). At the end of the song he started dancing
and spinning around on the speaker stands.
He made kind of an action like he was smoking a cigarette and kind of
strutted around. There were some lyrics in it about a burning church and
some matches and diesel gas. He kept saying "Why...do you treat me so bad?"
in a melodic sort of way. Very interesting. Nautical Disaster was another gem
w/ Gord adding in some of The Rheostatics 'It's a Bad Time to Be Poor' and
then going on to some other rant. Wheat Kings was a classic of course
accented moreso with the full moon and completely visible stars dancing
around the prairie sky. Gift Shop works very well outdoors. The crowd
got bumping around once again for that one. Just as they were exiting
Gord asked if anyone wanted to see his impression of Pierre Trudeau.
He shrugs his shoulders and raises his hands a la Pierre and walks off
the stage. Bobcaygeon was a nice suprise as described above. Daredevil was
introduced as, "This is a song for Jean Chretien". The Wherewithal
was well done with flashing lights and a screaming intro.
I thought the concert was over but they came back out with New Orleans is
Sinking which included a very groovy song in the middle. Gord D. said that
it was a song about a revered music city (New Orleans, of course). Gord
wished everyone a good summer, thanked the crowd a couple of times and then
exited stage right. The sound system was very good and amazingly clear
but then it was at Craven in '95 as well. For $45 ARA was a steal.
Hope you enjoyed it if you were lucky enough to go. Au revoir.
Back To Tunes Page
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page