Quick Trip – But worth it!

Over the weekend I was able to get away for a quick one-night trip up north to see a band that doesn’t get down south very often. This is a Canadian band that sells out huge arenas in the Great White North, but rarely makes it down past the Mason-Dixson line. So if they won’t come down to me, I must go up to them. I went to see The Tragically Hip in Lewiston, New York. I flew up on Saturday morning and back the next day. Even though it was a short trip, it was a good trip. I meet a friend from Atlanta who went up the night before to see the Friday night show and we stayed at a friend of ours house in Buffalo. The weather this weekend in the Buffalo/Niagara area was beautiful, high of about 72 and sunny. There was a nice breeze coming of Lake Erie that actually made if feel alot colder.

Our friend organized a big group to go to the show on Saturday night and rented a huge pimped out bus to take us there. That truly is the way to travel to a show! The bus ride up and back was a lot of fun and there was a great deal of bad signing by most everyone on the ride back. Especially when Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” hit the stereo! But at the show, there was some great signing by the boys on stage. I like to equate The Tragically Hip to the Canadian version of REM. They are a solid rock band that formed in the late 80’s. They have been cranking out great music for years and both have an exocentric front man. But for some reason, they just never took off in most of the United States. They are obviously big in the states that border Canada but not much more. Oh well, I can’t explain it, but because of this, they don’t come to Atlanta much even though there is a huge Canadian population down here.

They played at a Artpark in Lewiston, NY which is about 20-30 minutes north of Buffalo right on the Niagara river. You could look across the river over to Canada that was pretty cool. Anyway, we were treated to two sets and an encore. They did a good job of mixing in their new songs with their old standards. They also started the second set by playing three songs acoustically. That was a nice change of pace and this is something new to the band on this tour. Even though there were some repeats from the previous shows at this venue, since this was my first and only show of the tour, I was very happy with what was played. Also, they pulled out a song that has only been played 4 times live in their history, “The Bear”. So, I feel a little special!

It was a quick turnaround, but it was fun. I got to hang out with some friends, met some new ones, see a part of New York I have never seen, enjoy some great weather, see a great show and have some wings from the place where they were started! I say it was an overall good trip! Also, I was able to score an authentic 1974 Braves hat, you know the one with the lower case a on the front, from a lady who sells authentic New Era throw back hats out of her garage. It was a pretty crazy site, but that story is for another time!

Rock an Roll!