i've had a few problems going in to canada (vehicle searches by friendly mounties), but the us side was always a comlete joke...sometimes they wouldn't even look at us...or our drivers' licenses...
I live in Vermont, USA and cross into Canada at least once a month to go to Montreal, which is only about 1 hour from our border, and IMO it's not any harder to cross to/from Canada then before 9/11. Maybe it's because they see in their system that I go up there regularly, but even then I figured that they would think I was smuggling drugs or illegal aliens!! Most of the time they don't even ask for an I.D. or drivers license, but it depends on the time of day you cross, who you get for an agent, etc. They really start asking a million questions and get the drug dogs out as soon as they find out I'm a DJ or they find a crate of records in the car. That's when I plan on being there for a while. Overall though, it's worth dealing with the border because Montreal's techno scene is bar none in North America and in Vermont, techno is like a dirty word.

So...Go Richie!! Not a fan, but seeing him doing his thing for the world to see can only be a good thing.