Tragically Hip

On Friday the 21st a group of us went to see the Tragically Hip play at the historic Astoria theatre. Its a small venue (capacity of 2000) at Tottenham Court Road. The show was a blast! When we first arrived we were expecting to see loads of Canadians standing in line -- but for some reason all of these Germans were asking us if we had extra tickets -- this seemed a bit strange. After being asked several times I said to one of them if they were here for the opening act, or actually knew/liked the Hip. Communication was an issue, to the point where I showed them my ticket and pointed at the text "The Tragically Hip" to which they looked dumbfounded. Turns out we were standing in a huge line as the "Astoria 2" -- about 20 feet down from where we should have been "queueing" up.
Anyhow, the whole show was general admission and we ended up about 20 feet from the stage for the whole show with access to the bar (through the crowd). Most English don't even know who they are, so we were right pumped to pay £25 to see them up close! He played a bunch of hits including poets, ahead by a century, bobcaygeon, and the infamous new orleans is sinking - to which the crowd went absolutely wild!!! They didn't play nautical disaster, which is a shame, but they rocked the night nonetheless. The theatre was completely full of proud Canadians and a few English that were dragged there by their canuck mates. Gordon Downey danced erratically but had so much energy at his age that it was amazing to watch. Gord is definately a weird dude :)