REVIEW BY: ROB IVES
Metro Centre, Halifax, NS
Tuesday, December 12, 2000

Tickets to a rock concert - $34
Cab fare to the show - $11
Souvenir t-shirt - $33

The sights, sounds and smells at A Night with the Tragically Hip... Priceless!

The Music @ Work tour continued on tonight despite an afternoon of strong Maritime winds which caused power-outages throughout the city of Halifax. The strength of the winds merely foreshadowed the powerful performance that the Hip would give later that night.

After soundcheck and several trials using the video equipment we proceeded to take a tour of the backstage area. We saw Robby Baker's extensive guitar collection (Ross wouldn't let us play them), checked out the sound equipment and made our way to Ross' make-shift office, bumping into Paul Langlois on the way. After a tour of the office and one of the four tour buses we were treated to a tasty pork roast dinner. As we ate the crowd began filtering into the Metro Center.

One final check of the equipment and we were ready to tackle the job. The Hip opened with My Music At Work which was well appreciated by the 10,000 crazy Hip fans. From the get go, everyone knew Gord and the band were in perfect form. We left the Work Place for the designated video area the penalty box, where we filmed At The Hundredth Meridian. We couldn't have been luckier as Gord truly came through with a spectacular rant. The band played hard through the entire first set that ended with Nautical Disaster.

The second set opened up slowly with Scared, but went full throttle shortly after with Blow At High Dough. The feverish pace continued throughout the second set with Courage, Poets and New Orleans Is Sinking. The set ended with Fire In The Hole.

The setlist showed Freak Turbulence as the encore, but thanks to some energetic fans, the band played the heavily requested Emperor Penguin, followed by Little Bones to close out a terrific evening of music.

Clean shaven, Robby Baker and Paul Langlois were amazing tonight on the guitars, Gord Sinclair played perfectly on the bass, Chris Brown added a unique touch to the show on keyboards, while Kate Fenner and Gord Downie both turned in a magnificent performance with their vocals. The Halifax crowd was treated to a night full of the classics along with many new songs from Music @ Work. All in all, it was a great night. We would like to thank Ross Walton for everything he did to make this the most memorable Hip experience we have ever had.

This summer I attended the Tragically Hip's sold out concert at Sheperd's Bush Empire in London, England. I was working about an hour and a half outside of the city. Chris and I made our way to the concert from our apartment by train after skipping off work early. After arriving in London we took the underground to Sheperd's Bush popping in the one of the many London Ferkin pubs for a quick couple beers before entering the sold out venue. The pub was packed, everywhere we looked we saw canadiana, something was special about it all.

A warm feeling corsed through my vains as I appreciate more than ever what it was to be Canadian. We are truly a proud country! So far away from home and Canadians still unite together. Being a Nova Scotian, Sloan opening was just the cherry on the sundae. The show was great, the crowd energetic, and Gord, his usual amusing self. A great night that made me feel like I was back home. This brings me to the question of !

Why I should be the videographer for the Halifax show:

Well, I have a certain loyalty to the band. The Tragically Hip is Canada's band! I've seen the Hip three times in my life, but none was more special that the one in a renovated theatre on the other side of the Atlantic. I remember Gord pointing to different members of the crowd saying "it's you, it's you, it's you, it's you, it's you," he missed me that night, so I am hoping that you will do me a favor, by saying, the videographer for Halifax, it's you!

-- Rob Ives