A Saturday night with The Hip

Yesterday afternoon I received an email letting me know that I could get two tickets to see The Hip that evening in Lewiston, New York for $50! (Face value of $125) We took the deal and were on our way. The drive should take about 1.5 hours plus the time you wait at Customs. We had friends who were already on the road and let us know that the wait at Queenston/Lewiston bridge was more than an hour. 378With that knowledge we decided to drive to one of the other bridges further up river, and farther away from the venue and home. One the drive we saw two rainbows and took that as a sign to take the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. What a good plan that turned out to be! Less than 10 minutes to cross – we ended up making it to the venue from Toronto quicker than our friends who left earlier from Hamilton and took the Queenston/Lewiston bridge.

The show was great from start to finish. The band seemed re-energized after a short break from their nearly year long tour schedule, and it showed in their performance. The venue – Art Park – is really cool. It is a hybrid of an outdoor amphitheatre and an indoor concert hall. The back wall raises like a giant garage door for events where the lawn seating is needed, and closes to create an intimate theatre space similar in size to the Hummingbird Centre here in Toronto.

380One dramatic difference from seeing an outdoor show in Canada is the freedom that fans have to “tailgate” in the parking lot are before the show. There were hundreds of people with barbeques grilling, and beers chilling, throughout the lot. The police had no problem with this as long as you kept your beer drinking to the grassy areas, not in the actual parking area. It was a festival-like atmosphere leading up to the doors opening.

Read more about this event, and The Hip on my other blog: hipfans.com