Air Canada Center, Toronto, Ontario -Jan 1 2000

by Alan McGaughey

The Watchmen were the last band up on the main stage before The Tragically Hip. The loop that plays during Stereo started up after they were introduced, beginning a 40 minute set. The sound at the Air Canada Centre was fantastic! Danny's voice filled the arena, and seemed to grab the attention of the mostly full building. Next up was Boneyard Tree. I really like the bass thing that Ken does as a mini-intro. Danny said that the next song was a new one, that they had written about a week before. It was the second time it had been performed live (with the first presumably being the previous night in Winnepeg). There was a simple loop in the background. It had between a medium and slow groove, and wasn't that heavy. One of the repeated lines was "I wish I was dead / So I could forget about life for while". The complete setlist can be found below. One of the biggest highlights was Danny's solo of "The Heart of Saturday Night", which I recently found out is a Tom Waits song. For anyone who has seen a Watchmen show before, they know that the a capella thing is to be expected. However, with this being a Hip show, many of the crowd didn't know this and I think were caught by surpise. Danny's voiced literally soared, and everyone was into it. Good stuff! Say Something was also great. The band seemed generally excited about playing. Danny talked quite a bit. He mentioned that they had caught a very early flight from Winnepeg in order to make it in. It would have been nice to hear a longer set. However, there were a lot of other good bands playing, and it was a most enjoyable evening.

Setlist:

Stereo
Boneyard Tree
I Wish (?) -new song
Any Day Now
I'm Waiting
All Uncovered
The Heart of Saturday Night -Danny's Solo
Incarnate
Say Something