07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Been to a show and would like to give a review?
User avatar
Spycouple
Experienced Groupie
Experienced Groupie
Posts: 363
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:50 am

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by Spycouple »

Upon further review... nothing from Road Apples.

Where was Little Bones? Has anyone seen my little calico cat?

LITTLE BONES!!!!!
User avatar
NegPhil
Hipbase Staff
Hipbase Staff
Posts: 1607
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:09 am
Location: Richmond, Virginia USA

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by NegPhil »

MuchMusic Blog
Pemberton Festival: The Tragically Hip
July 27, 2008

http://blog.muchmusic.com/archives/2008 ... sti_10.php

Since I just took pictures of The Hip a month ago at Virgin Festival Calgary (see?), I decided to take a different approach this time around. Gord's got his primate routine that he pulls out in song three, during which he comes to the edge of the stage, and if you're in the right spot you can get amazing shots of him. So I planted myself in front of a space between two speakers and I WAITED.

Image

85% of the other picture takers were on the other side, and Gord put on a top-notch performance for them...

Image

But then (after breaking a microphone stand and spinning it around), he loomed above me.

Image

And then he jumped off the stage and made his way to the audience...

Image

...and planted a big wet one on a dude in the crowd!

Image

And I was pretty much the only person on the right side to get it all, MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Muh-huhuhu ha. Aaaah. Ahem.
Posted by Wendy
patiodweller
Experienced Groupie
Experienced Groupie
Posts: 301
Joined: Mon Sep 13, 2004 8:18 pm
Location: Ottawa

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by patiodweller »

Wow! Sounds like one of the greatest HIP festival performances ever. The HIP are the greatest band in the world. Here's hoping they bring back Another Roadside Attraction!
User avatar
thehip11
DareDevil
DareDevil
Posts: 1015
Joined: Mon Jun 10, 2002 3:59 pm

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by thehip11 »

I love Poets anywhere as well.
The only time I remember them closing a show with it was 6-12-02 Club 279 Secret Radio show
I also remember them playing Poets last at the 2nd night at the Hummingbird in 2002.
User avatar
NegPhil
Hipbase Staff
Hipbase Staff
Posts: 1607
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:09 am
Location: Richmond, Virginia USA

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by NegPhil »

I feel like I need to give a truthful account of the Pemberton Festival. Over all I give it a thumbs up but having spent so much money I feel a bit pissed off. What follows is my honest account of a very crazy situation. First off I have got to say I’ve got the luck of the Irish. Always have. That being said we had a good time.

We rolled into Vancouver around 10 p.m. Friday night and had a traffic free trip all the way to our Hotel in Whistler Village. The RCMP and local Police did a great job of herding the cars up the pass by taking the lead position and rear guard and escorted the pack up the mountain into town. Saturday morning we left the hotel at 10 a.m. and stopped at the festival check in station in town for our wrist bands and parking pass. That worked great. No lines. We were in and out in no time. We had a beautiful traffic free drive up the mountain to the festival site.

Then all hell broke loose.


Dangerous road conditions were created by hundreds of pedestrians traveling to and from offsite parking lots and local markets. Wandering drunks and bicyclists flanked the narrow mountain highway veering into traffic and randomly crossing the street. To make matters worse the road was under heavy construction. When I say heavy construction I mean for almost the length of the highway the entire shoulder had been completely removed. So basically, if you drift left you face oncoming traffic or plunging your car over a cliff. If you drift right you drop 6 inches off the pavement into the gravel subsurface.

The bad situation was made even worse by the total lack of signs directing commuters to the parking lots. I doubled back and luckily stumbled upon the bolder field that served as the lot for Saturday ticket holders. I carefully navigated the boulder strewn hellhole narrowly avoiding ripping the tailpipe off the car and parked. As we breathed sighs of relief I noticed a nice dirt road to our left that had gone completely unmentioned by the dazed “Lot attendants” who sat in the back of a pickup truck drinking beer.

As look back I realize that was the sign I was looking for and the sign read “Your F@#$%^”

We grabbed our day packs and headed for the security “check point” that marked the start of the trail to the festival grounds. As we approached the tent I saw giant piles of garbage piled along the fencing. Not a single garbage can. Not one. Just piles of trash and plastic water bottles. For an event that was billed as “Green” I was shocked. We handed over our bags to some kid standing behind a table who gave our bags a quick search then waved us through.

And we’re off.

We walked down a trail that lead through a beautiful alpine forest. Along the trail were occasional stops with local artists and advocacy group who had set up groovy little displays and information kiosks. At the end of the trail the forest gave way to the camp grounds. Actually camp grounds is too generous of a word. Refugee camp is more accurate. Thousands of tents had been haphazardly set up in some crazy hive like configuration. No logic or reason to the placement was discernible. And then the smell. Even from a distance we could smell the results of 20,000 camper and 6 Honey Buckets. It was not pleasant.
Last edited by NegPhil on Tue Jul 29, 2008 7:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar
direwolf74
The Last Recluse
Posts: 7223
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 3:48 pm

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by direwolf74 »

NegPhil wrote: They stole the show. The flaming Lips knew it.
It's funny you should mention that. I went to the Sasquatch Festival back in '06, and the Hip stole the show from the Flaming Lips on that day too.
User avatar
tth_fan
DareDevil
DareDevil
Posts: 1212
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:07 am

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by tth_fan »

Here are some sweet vids from the main attraction at Pemberton (Hip included):

http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/ ... ct=2698882
User avatar
NegPhil
Hipbase Staff
Hipbase Staff
Posts: 1607
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:09 am
Location: Richmond, Virginia USA

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by NegPhil »

Right.

So at this point I feel I should give major props to the folks at Live Nation who designed and built the festival space. The place was huge. I don’t know the actual size of the valley but it was really impressive. The festival grounds were built on the potato fields of a privet farm that is tucked inside the Pemberton valley. The entire event space was surrounded by giant snowcapped mountains.

I was impressed with the amount of power that was being distributes throughout the entire valley. Having humped more than a few sticks of cable in my time I can appreciate the work that went into the site. Two large stages were built with the mountains in the background providing a spectacular views for concertgoers. A massive tent that looked like you could park a 747 airliner in it had been set up and festooned with the image of giant neon colored Buddha. Yeah, the rave tent. I of course quickly dubbed it the “Smiling Buddha Cabaret” and made plans to check it out later. Yeah right! Even at that early hour there was a big line of people waiting to get in and it wasn’t even open yet.

The food and merchant stands were well run by friendly staff selling a nice variety of stuff. Prices were a bit expensive but that’s to be expected at a festival. We paid around $3 for H20 and $5 for a bottle of pop. The stands were well placed and it was easy to get around except for the giant piles of trash. This is my biggest complaints about the event. Having trash strewn about with literally no garbage cans at a public event like that is absolute bullshit. Whoever was in charge of waste management deserves to be taken out back and flogged. The conditions were deplorable. Shameful. Disgusting. I paid top dollar for a “green event”. As far as I am concerned Live Nation blew it. The toilets were beyond dirty. Everybody knows portable toilets suck. We expect it. But the conditions at Pemberton were nothing less than criminal. I don’t care if they had to helicopter that little guy in from The Possum Lodge but damn it this is an issue of public health. It was insulting. I’ve seen Live Nation representatives on television and in the media saying they had “a couple of first time snags”. Don’t you dare spin this! Don’t you dare minimize what happened. Live Nation should thank God the event was not shut down by the Provence.

The air quality was hazards to human health. Live Nation knew the air quality was a problem after the first day. They should have distributed protective breathing devices to all ticket holders. I saw one dude walking around selling masks for $2 each and scarves/bandannas were apparently for sale by venders but I find that a poor substitute for good public health practices. I feel like the environment took a hit for this festival and I resent the fact that I was forced to participate. My last bitch is the beer. It came in cans that the friendly bartenders cracked open and poured into a plastic cup. The can was then tossed into a pile and the cup handed over to the drinker who then drinks the $7 beer and tossed the empty cup into another pile. Green my ass.
User avatar
The Heron Outside
DareDevil
DareDevil
Posts: 1212
Joined: Sat Aug 17, 2002 5:43 pm

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by The Heron Outside »

NegPhil wrote:My last bitch is the beer. It came in cans that the friendly bartenders cracked open and poured into a plastic cup. The can was then tossed into a pile and the cup handed over to the drinker who then drinks the $7 beer and tossed the empty cup into another pile. Green my ass.
Without getting too far off topic, anyone here ever been to the Hillside Festival in Guelph? At the beginning of the festival, you've gotta buy a re-usable plastic cup to get beer. The only way you can get beer afterwards is by providing that same cup. And you can use them at any Hillside festival for the next few years. I'm not sure if they could pull something like that off at a festival of this magnitude, but it's worth considering.
Escape Is At Hand-Tales of a Boy and a Band due June 2013 from Eternal Cavalier Press
http://eternalcavalierpress.com
http://www.twitter.com/eternalcavpress
User avatar
mojo_mattv
Completist
Completist
Posts: 1371
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:39 am

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by mojo_mattv »

The Heron Outside wrote:
NegPhil wrote:My last bitch is the beer. It came in cans that the friendly bartenders cracked open and poured into a plastic cup. The can was then tossed into a pile and the cup handed over to the drinker who then drinks the $7 beer and tossed the empty cup into another pile. Green my ass.
Without getting too far off topic, anyone here ever been to the Hillside Festival in Guelph? At the beginning of the festival, you've gotta buy a re-usable plastic cup to get beer. The only way you can get beer afterwards is by providing that same cup. And you can use them at any Hillside festival for the next few years. I'm not sure if they could pull something like that off at a festival of this magnitude, but it's worth considering.
That's a really great idea! I've been meaning to go for the last couple of summers and I always remember like three days after it's taken place, but it always sounds like Hillside has got it's shit together.
User avatar
hotmetal401
Completist
Completist
Posts: 1365
Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 1:34 pm

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by hotmetal401 »

thehip11 wrote:
I love Poets anywhere as well.
The only time I remember them closing a show with it was 6-12-02 Club 279 Secret Radio show
I also remember them playing Poets last at the 2nd night at the Hummingbird in 2002.
This was the night Poets and I stopped getting along. It was audibled in place of On The Verge. This was significantly worse than when Escape replaced Throwing Off Glass the previous Friday in Montreal, for obvious reasons.

Cheers,

Pat
User avatar
Tthip
The Last Recluse
Posts: 6996
Joined: Mon Jun 10, 2002 7:05 pm
Location: in a Wheatfield
Contact:

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by Tthip »

Pretty good sound on these:

ABAC



Family Band



Fully Completely



NOIS
"We're forced to bed, but we're free to dream"
Dana
User avatar
tth_fan
DareDevil
DareDevil
Posts: 1212
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:07 am

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by tth_fan »

Spycouple wrote:Upon further review... nothing from Road Apples.

Where was Little Bones? Has anyone seen my little calico cat?

LITTLE BONES!!!!!
I was wondering if the boys make setlists to include songs in general, or songs from certain albums. Obviously if they're touring for an album they'll play key songs from the new album. But for festivals I questionif they try to concsiously take songs from certain albums. Like I actually wonder if they sat down and said "you know what guys, lets not play Road Apples this summer...".
User avatar
Spycouple
Experienced Groupie
Experienced Groupie
Posts: 363
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:50 am

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by Spycouple »

tth_fan wrote: But for festivals I questionif they try to concsiously take songs from certain albums. Like I actually wonder if they sat down and said "you know what guys, lets not play Road Apples this summer...".
Yes, I'm pretty sure they don't put this kind of thought into a set list. I think it's Paul that writes'em up, calling the pitches and the rest just going with it since he's had years of experience at the job (as opposed to having a "band meeting" every time... Flight of the Conchords anyone? :) ). I doubt Paul is over-analyzing the song selections the way some hare-brained concert reviewer did earlier in this thread [cough, cough]. Hey, people were getting antsy for a review and no one was posting! Had to put something in there to read other than "this song rocked" or "you know that part in Bobcaygeon? It was awesome."

NOTE: The Road Apples observation + "Little Bones" comment was just in reference to Gord's "cat calls" that sometimes happen when they play the song, e.g. Marymoor last summer and the "Have you seen my cat?" stuffed animal incident.

jf
User avatar
thedarkcanuck
Completist
Completist
Posts: 1634
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:37 am

Re: 07/26/08 - Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival

Post by thedarkcanuck »

Spycouple wrote:
tth_fan wrote: But for festivals I questionif they try to concsiously take songs from certain albums. Like I actually wonder if they sat down and said "you know what guys, lets not play Road Apples this summer...".
Yes, I'm pretty sure they don't put this kind of thought into a set list. I think it's Paul that writes'em up, calling the pitches and the rest just going with it since he's had years of experience at the job (as opposed to having a "band meeting" every time... Flight of the Conchords anyone? :) ). I doubt Paul is over-analyzing the song selections the way some hare-brained concert reviewer did earlier in this thread [cough, cough]. Hey, people were getting antsy for a review and no one was posting! Had to put something in there to read other than "this song rocked" or "you know that part in Bobcaygeon? It was awesome."

NOTE: The Road Apples observation + "Little Bones" comment was just in reference to Gord's "cat calls" that sometimes happen when they play the song, e.g. Marymoor last summer and the "Have you seen my cat?" stuffed animal incident.

jf
gord sinclair does the set lists
7/17/95-Craven
11/18/96-Saskatoon
7/21/97-Saskatoon
9/16/00-Winnipeg
11/24/00-Red Deer
07/14/02-Camrose
9/26/02-Edmonton
9/27/02-Edmonton
8/1/03-Kelowna
6/22/04-Edmonton
11/17/04-Edmonton
11/20/04-Saskatoon
10/28/06-Calgary
1/19/07-Regina
7/18/07-Saskatoon
6/22/08-Calgary
8/4/09-Saskatoon
9/14/09-Edmonton
9/19/09-Banff
7/14/11-Edmonton
1/23/13-Edmonton
7/6/13-Saskatoon
10/10/15-Houston
7/28/16-Edmonton
7/30/16-Edmonton
8/01/16-Calgary
Post Reply