"Smoke what you've got to smoke; drink what you've got to drink; I will meet you at the lonely end of the rink."

Yesterday was the night of The Tragically Hip gig at the Astoria in London where myself, my brother and our long suffering partners who have to put up with our musical tastes headed off to see them.





And we nearly didn't make it.





We caught a train in plenty of time but after getting as far as one stop down the line we found ourselves stuck at that station because the Orient Express, of all things, had broken down on the track ahead of us and they seemed to be having trouble getting it shifted out of the way. In the end we jumped off the train and took a taxi to a station that did actually have trains running on it's lines. The end result was that an hours journey ended up taking us nearer to three, so it was just as well we had left in plenty of time.





Luckily the gig itself made all the extra hassle worthwhile.



The Astoria is a small venue, so you don't have to put up with watching tiny people stood on a stage. The band is right there in front of you so you get the benefit of the whole performance; and when it comes to putting on a performance not many can even come close to topping The Tragically Hip.



The warm up act, Forever Like Red, got things off to a good start. A rock band with a definite Jeff Buckley vibe and some great songs. After about the third song of their set my brother disappeared off to get us both a copy of their album.



Once they had finished playing and the roadies came on the stage to set up the stage for The Hip things got a little surreal. Over to our right, somebody in the venue had pulled out a Canadian flag and a large part of the crowd suddenly burst in to an impromptu rendition of "Oh Canada." I had the vaguely uneasy sensation of being outnumbered on home ground so it's just as well Canadians are so nice. Although it does make you wonder if The Hip always find themselves playing to travelling Canadians wherever they go. Even one of our group was from Canada and there aren't many people outside of that place that have even heard of the band.

While The Hip might be used to playing larger venues in their native Canada I would have to reccomend seeing them at a smaller gig like we did, simply so you are close enough to see what frontman Gordon Downie gets up to. Downie seems to have a limitless supply of energy (or suffers from attention deficit disorder), constantly moving around, so that you hardly watch the rest of the band. Even when he isn't singing Downie commands your attention whether he is smashing up the mike stand to hand out to the audience (having already used it as a prop for a motorbike, a dodgem car and a gun) or acting out some of the lyrics to the songs, from swimming at 'The Drop-Off' to reading the instruction manual from 'Springtime in Vienna.'

The Hip are definitely a band you need to see live and it was great to hear some upbeat, rockier versions of some of their mellower songs. I was especially pleased to hear 'Ahead by a Century,' still my favourite song of theirs, but a little disappointed I didn't have enough money on me to get one of the cool looking Hip hockey jerseys.

Anyway, here is the set list from the night, followed by my aforementioned favourite song:
1: Yer Not The Ocean
2: My Music At Work
3: Grace, Too
4: It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken
5: The Drop-Off
6: Ahead By A Century
7: Gift Shop
8: Family Band
9: Springtime In Vienna
10: At The Hundredth Meridian
11: The Lonely End Of The Rink
12: Bobcaygeon
13: In View
14: Fully Completely
15: New Orleans Is Sinking
16: World Container (introduced as 'World Contain Her' and fantastic to hear live)
17: Courage (For Hugh Maclennan)
18: Fireworks