Tragically Hip's last concert tonight in Kingston, Ontario

[Ansbacher Bremen]

Glad that I will be able to see the Hip's last show before leaving to see Band of Horses tonight.

How to watch the Tragically Hip's Aug. 20 concert on CBC

[ingerlou]

You know, this is one of those bands I know zero about. I gather they're just humongous in Canada, but for whatever reason, their success has never translated to the US. Are they a household name in Canada, or just a band that's popular with music snobs? Who would be the American equivalent, if any? I haven't heard a note, but I wish they were big here and Rush had stayed in Canada.

[bltkmt]

Same.

[Blaze]

Here are some numbers for perspective, but I can't think of a comparison to another band. I'm in the same boat as the abovers.

About 1/3 Canada’s population tuned in on television, radio and online streaming at some point during the nearly three-hour broadcast of the last Tragically Hip concert Saturday night, according to CBC.

11.7 million Canadians couldn’t resist hearing and watching the beloved Canadian band and its front man Gord Downie who revealed earlier this year he has terminal brain cancer.

[Rockstar Aimz]

You know, this is one of those bands I know zero about. I gather they're just humongous in Canada, but for whatever reason, their success has never translated to the US. Are they a household name in Canada, or just a band that's popular with music snobs? Who would be the American equivalent, if any? I haven't heard a note, but I wish they were big here and Rush had stayed in Canada.

I just posted about the show in another thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28477

The best American analogy I can come up with is Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen is to New Jersey as The Hip are to Canada. A lot of music snobs in Canada don't like them because they are so over played, but these are the same people who love Owen Pallett.

I've seen them live three times. The first time was ~1999 when I lived in St. Louis and a Canadian classmate dragged a bunch of us to see them. The club held maybe 300 people and it was in a super sketchy neighborhood. My roommate knew them because she was from Detroit and frequently listened to Canadian radio and CBC. Every Canadian in a 150 mile radius of St. Louis was there, and damn near drank the place out of beer. If the promoter had any foresight, he/she would have sold Canadian beer there and made a fucking fortune. "Oh Canada" broke out between sets. Leafs jerseys everywhere. My classmates and I only went because we knew the opening band since the drummer worked at the genome sequencing center on campus. I still remember Gord Downie flailing around on stage, thinking WTF am I listening to and watching? It was an incredible rock show, even though I didn't know any of the music.

The next time I saw them was in 2003 or 2004 at the Molson Park in Barrie, Ontario, a venue that doesn't even exist anymore. There were roughly 25,000 people there! I also saw them again in 2005 or 2006 at the fucking Sky Dome with 50,000 of my closest friends.

I think one of the reasons that they didn't break through in the US is that the popular rock music scenes were completely different in the US and Canada at the time they broke through in Canada. Their first few albums came out just as grunge was breaking in the US. The Tragically Hip are a super solid rock band, but they are not grunge. Not by a long shot. I am trying to think of an analogous American rock band and I'm blanking. They get comparisons to REM frequently, but that's because they both have an ostentatious, bald front man. They sound nothing like REM. In fact, I think that Gord Downie is weirder than Michael Stipe. I saw Gord solo at Hillside in 2009 or something and he was being so odd. Babbling weird shit into the microphone. As a solo artist he is a lot more experimental and weird than with The Hip.

Another reason is that their songs are very Canadian, referencing tiny Canadian towns, trivial Canadian historical figures, even Canadian artists (google Tom Thompson). Not to mention all of the lyrics about hockey! How many American pop songs reference Bobby Orr? Especially ones that make the top ten on the pop charts? That being said, they did have a really good American following in border cities like Detroit and Buffalo, and to a lesser extend in Chicago.

Hop on Spotify and check out the compilation album "Yer Favourites." That covers the hits and most of the songs that they played Saturday night. My favorites are Road Apples, Fully Completely, and Phantom Power. Their output after 2002 isn't as good, but it's still more solid rock.

It's going to be a rough day if Gord Downie dies. The median survival time with his type of glioblastoma in 14 and a half months. Hopefully he can kick some cancer ass like he rocked on Saturday night.

[Rockstar Aimz]

Matthew Ryan shared this on Facebook:

Marah's Dave Bielanko on The Tragically Hip.

---

I had this crazy dream about a band last night so I thought I'd share it with anyone else who might be interested and wanna read something personal...

So this band in my dream plays this amazing show and the band members start kissing and hugging each other between the encores, the audience is hung out there in the twilight between crying and wearing ridiculous exaggerated smiles, never once does the crowd stop cheering, screaming. They can't. The band leaves the stage, and the lights go back down, the crowd screams and screams, so the band comes back out! Bzzzzzt. They plug their guitars back in.

And again.

And again.

The band plays rock n roll music (which is why this dream is so remarkable). The singer fights this over-simplified, knuckle-head, notion in self defense over the years. He has to. Through the years the singer goes to great lengths to throw people off the trail actually, it can't be that simple! So he pushes it, pushes himself, he is not a dumb guy and his bandmates deserve better then that, later there are kids and wives in the wheelhouse too, managers, busdrivers, accountants...a big extended family and he is standing out there holding the microphone speaking for all of 'em....so he does what he thinks is right, he does what he thinks is for the good of everyone, he works hard trying to unlock what's in his head and see the road ahead....not everyone realizes this every step of the way.

There are tough days along the way. But tonight they all understand. By the end of the show everyone understands. "thank you!" people are screaming at him. He makes funny faces back at you, he smiles, pretends to chomp an invisible cigar. No one knows exactly what he means by this, but he is right somehow. Always was.

The band is from another country and exists there in their own parallel dimension (this does not jive with the American ego and our special brand of insular ignorance so in many ways, for American's anyway, the band doesn't really exist) Donald Trump has never heard of this band. Guns N Roses re-reunion fans never heard of 'em, Brooklyn hipster music 'tastemakers'? Nope.

"fuck you" says the roaring crowd from another country, yes it does!
"fuck you" says the band with their loud guitars...grrrrr, yes we do...

Yes we did.

But anyway, this other country is super proud of "their band", so their official National Broadcast Channel streams the band's "final" concert out all over the world for free! (what the hell?) they don't even fuck it up either, there aren't even any commercials! it's a classy affair, a no-frills broadcast, good camera shots, simple, it's all about the band, the audience and the songs (in a lot of ways this is the ultimate validation, the supreme recognition) an unprecedented acknowledgement that this band really happened. And mattered.

Right here.

It's "the nod".

They were ours.

We were theirs.

The National TV channel does not just stream the first hour of the gig either...they stream the entire marathon show, it opens humbly with the band coming up the metal stage stairs from their dressing room, the crowd roaring... and it ends when it ends...many hours later with the band arm in arm all sweaty saying "thank you" to the wild crowd. Then the singer says "have a nice life", it's a super "loaded" thing to say! everyones head is about to catch on fire. The Prime Minister is there yelling something out in the wild crowd. He is standing up shouting and clapping his hands till they hurt. He stands in awe of the band just like everybody else.

The singer of the band is real, real sick. You'd never know it watching them play their music tonight but at some point very soon the band is gonna need to wrap it up for real/for real. Go home and be with their loved ones in the fleeting moments, hold hands, try to make sense of everything that just happened them, to all of them....they'll have to try to get their affairs in order and cruise it all in for a landing once and for all. It's all very beautiful and sad and awesome and fucked up.

It's a SuperBowl of emotions. A Stanley Cup actually I guess.

And then the dream ends when the phone rings....
I'm tired today but I can't stop thinking about it. I woke up on the couch with my boots on.
I ended up staying up most of the night last night after it was over, just kinda sitting there in front of the screen where I just saw it all go down. But now the screen was black and the show was over.

I saw something amazing last night, that's all I know... anyone who says I didn't is a liar.

I followed this band since I was a little kid, me and my bro bought the band's 1st MCA Ep on cassette the week it came out (1987?) and we never left them, Im a Ware-wolf baby. We rocked their tee-shirts in HighSchool and felt pretty good about confusing other young people to that degree. When "Road Apples" finally came out we played that album more then anyone on the planet, Canadians or not, we played that shit more then you. We were also there when they toured "Day for Night" in the USA and stopped at the TLA on South Street in Philly to play it just for us (and about 250 other traveling Canadians) that either just happened to be in Philly that night to watch a hockey game the next day, or were actually following the band around the States hitting every gig? I'll never know.

I didn't care then. The band was amazing, after the gig we stood out behind the club hoping to meet them, but they dodged us somehow, they probably had to go...

USA Today wrote about the band (for the first time) today... whatever. Your newspaper sucks.

I miss the band already. I can't stop thinking about them.

Ok, that's all I got.

You are ahead by a century.

Thank you amazing rock n roll band, we were always listening!

That's all I got.
DB

[bltkmt]

^

[ingerlou]

Good stuff Rockstar. Thanks.

[track11]

Yes, thank you, Aimz!

[nacho]

after the gig we stood out behind the club hoping to meet them, but they dodged us somehow, they probably had to go...

You mean like how you dodged me at the Echo in '06, Dave? Flew right by my extended hand to hit the bar. Thankfully, Serge and the guy from Glee were happy to chat. Dickhole.

[Blaze]

after the gig we stood out behind the club hoping to meet them, but they dodged us somehow, they probably had to go...

You mean like how you dodged me at the Echo in '06, Dave? Flew right by my extended hand to hit the bar. Thankfully, Serge and the guy from Glee were happy to chat. Dickhole.

Brent Best never did this to his fans.

[Beldo]

I've only heard one song by the Tragically Hip, and that was a Daniel Lanois cover. I liked it.