Sometime in May the German students preparing to come to Ontario for a year in September met in Bad Herrenalb (near Karlsruhe). They were there to get information about living and studying in Ontario and to hear from the Canadian students in Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW). A similar event had been held for us (the Canadians in BW) in Kingston one year earlier. Unfortunately for them, only about six of the fifty Canadians in BW showed up (including myself). Well anyway, I spent a lot of time talking with some of the Canadians, and talk of going to see the Tragically Hip play in Brussels arose. We agreed to try and organize a trip to see the Hip in Belgium. The only person who really showed any initiative (in organizing anything) later was Caroline, a francophone (with perfect English, mind you) from Ottawa. She soon discovered that the Hip were playing a four-show European tour, and that the first show would be in Hamburg, Germany. This meant that we could travel just as far without having to leave Germany, plus the Hamburg show was on a Saturday, a much better date than the Tuesday Brussels show. So we went about buying tickets, which turned out to be quite a hassel. We were unable to order tickets in time with our Visas or bank cards, so I called my aunt in Hamburg and asked her to pick up the tickets. Not only did she get us the tickets, but she was able to give us a place to stay for the night as well. This left us with just one more problem to solve. We still had to get to Hamburg. Caroline had told me that she wanted to try hitch-hiking in Europe, but not by herself. Note to female friends of mine reading this: this was very smart (not wanting to hitch-hike by herself, I mean)! Although I have had heaps of success hitch-hiking on my own, I do not advise that any woman try this by herself, in Europe or elsewhere. Anyway, I suggested that we try to hitch-hike to Hamburg together, and we agreed that this would be our plan. I hitched a ride to Heidelberg (where Caroline was on exchange, maybe 50 km from Karlsruhe) the day before the show. Early the next morning, armed with Frankfurt and Hamburg signs, we set out for the Autobahn. I think it took us about half an hour to find our first lift, who was a total weirdo. The guy not only took us a mere 2 km, he left us off the Autobahn, making it very hard for us to continue. To add to this, after Caroline got in the passenger seat, he tried to take off before I was in the back seat! He tried to say he thought only Caroline needed a ride (despite having already spoken to me - idiot). This had me worried that Caroline would think the hitch-hiking was a bad idea and that it might not work, so I was glad to get out of his car a few minutes later. Once out of the first car, we tried unsuccessfully for about an hour to get a ride back on the Autobahn. Eventually we saw a car rolling off the exit ramp. The driver was out of gas. After a local brought him a few litres of fuel, I asked for a lift. He said he could take us to the next gas station on the Autobahn (an ideal location for us to continue) if we would give him gas money. At this point in my life I had already used my thumb to get rides with over a hundred people, and not once did I ever pay anyone any money. This guy was also a very shady character, but we were desperate and agreed to pay him 16 DM (about $12 Cdn) for the lift. We made it to the next gas station on fumes and I paid the guy. We still hadn't travelled very far, but from this point on we had no problem asking normal people for rides from gas station to gas station. A few lifts later, we were on our way to Hamburg, and we arrived in very good time at about 3 PM. We made a short visit at my aunt's where we ate and got our tickets before heading to Hamburg's famous St. Pauli district for the show. The venue was actually in a sidestreet of the Reeperbahn, which is Hamburgs red light district. At the bar we soon met up with Nicole, another Canadian who had also come from Heidelberg for the show. Nicole was smart enough to avoid any stress and take the train. We also met a number of other Canadians on the same exchange program whom we had met before, although we didn't know they would be there. The show was a lot of fun, maybe 600 people or so there, and almost everyone was a Canadian from some corner of Europe. We all conglomerated there to worship our Canadian rock idols together! Both bands played extremely well, with the hip introducing some new stuff which was released back home the following week. My favourite song among the new tunes was "Lake Fever". In his prologue for the song Downie told us about a cholera epidemic in Kingston in the 20's (or earlier, I don't remember exactly when). To warn passing ships not to dock in the infected town, there were yellow flags flying in Kingston's port. Downie said the song was about making love in the shadow of the yellow flag. For those who don't know enough about the hip, they are from Kingston. It was very exciting to see the hip at such a small venue. The crowd sang along with just about every song and provided great support for both bands. Downie was incredible to watch, always dancing and shaking about in his unique style. He really played to the crowd. I should also note that he did seem to be on something. I spoke with a German photographer during the show and asked for a way to contact him, in the unlikely event that I could actually get copies of his pictures. He gave me a business card and then later sent me the pictures you see on this page! The pictures here are all from the show I saw; he also sent me others taken at another show. He told me he had seen the hip about 16 times in Hamburg, basically every time they had been there in the last ten or 15 years! After the show I met Paul Langlois and Gordon Sinclair (but not Downie!) from the hip. They were really nice. I also met ALL four members of Sloan. They are pretty cool guys who appear to be just normal people. They don't act like rock stars at all (or at least they are very good at pretending to be normal people). Andrew the drummer was wearing the same Salvation Army/Goodwill t-shirt he had no when I saw them in Guelph. For that matter they all wear such t-shirts. I got one of his earplugs which had fallen out and gave it to Nicole, since honestly I didn't really want his earplug. I did bring home a setlist though. I spoke briefly with Chris, Jay, and Andrew, and a long time with Pat. He told me to meet them in Amsterdam (the show was sold out though), but I told him I had to go to work and he called me a wimp. I got autographs from Langlois and all members of Sloan. After the show, Sloan was suggesting we could go out drinking (there were about 10 or 15 Canadians who hung around afterwards, including myself). Perhaps the suggestion was just a tease; since they had to take their bus to Amsterdam in about an hour, they decided to stay, and as Chris Murphy actually said (no kidding!), "sit around and lick the hip's ass for a while". After the show a group of about ten canucks walked around St. Pauli and later downtown Hamburg in search of some bars. We didn't find too many bars, but we still had a fun time together. The next day Caroline and I were back on the road. My aunt's friend gave us a lift to the Autobahn - and then continued - for well over an hour! This made it very easy for us to get home by 8 PM without any problems or weirdos. Back to the Main Page - Zurück zur Hauptseite