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The last Tragically Hip concert is tonight. A very bittersweet Canadian moment.

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Z

zer0blivion

Member
I was lucky enough to get floor seats during the fan pre-sale. What an amazing show. Managed to keep it together for the most part during the show, but watching it again afterwards, Grace, Too absolutely broke me. The whole band, and especially Gord Downie gave it their all.

Here's one of my pictures.
Qv4UGSd.jpg


Here's a nice write-up by Dave Bidini, of the Rheostatics, who opened for them on their Trouble in the Henhouse tour.

Tour: de force: Pretending that sorrow is joy as Gord Downie leaves the stage
With an impressive catalogue, The Tragically Hip gave us the crayons needed to sketch our national identity

Springer Market Square in Kingston, Ont., was aglow: hands shot into the air with choruses and drum breaks; a young man was the prime minister; and people sent in pictures from around the world of themselves watching TV, watching the band. A female friend wrote to tell me: "There was this guy in front of us who turned around and said, 'Can I have a hug?' And while I was a little creeped out, I thought, considering the circumstances, it would be fine. But he didn't want to hug me. He wanted to hug John." The tour was good for the country, but it was especially good for men. We wept into our forearms, remembering how to cry.
Click to expand...
kingston.jpg
 
C

capitalCORN

Member
zer0blivion said:
I was lucky enough to get floor seats during the fan pre-sale. What an amazing show. Managed to keep it together for the most part during the show, but watching it again afterwards, Grace, Too absolutely broke me. The whole band, and especially Gord Downie gave it their all.

Here's one of my pictures.
Qv4UGSd.jpg


Here's a nice write-up by Dave Bidini, of the Rheostatics, who opened for them on their Trouble in the Henhouse tour.

Tour: de force: Pretending that sorrow is joy as Gord Downie leaves the stage
With an impressive catalogue, The Tragically Hip gave us the crayons needed to sketch our national identity




kingston.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow, what an amazing write-up. I think many of us reached a point of pathos that night. It was not simply just a concert, but it wasn't marching band jingoism that played the soundtrack that night. I was a celebration and mourning at the same time. I found the sweet melancholy of our nation, at it was beautiful.
 
P

Parch

Member
jstripes said:
It's fun seeing the American reaction to this:
"What the hell is going on in Canada? I've never even heard of this band. I thought Rush was Canada's favorite band."
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I do think Canada and the US have significantly different taste in music preference. It does seem illogical that Tragically Hip never caught on in the States.

As for youngun not knowing the Hip, that's not too surprising either. They tend to ignore anything that gets labelled "dad rock" by their generation. Works both ways. Older folk often are not into modern music.

Musical preference is strongly generational as well as regional.
 
M

MoonsaultSlayer

Member
Well shit... I welled up reading the first 3-4 pages of this thread after fixing my link a couple posts up.

I'm going to have to check out this show and more from these guys. That song is one of my favs on the album and I've never heard of them beforehand, as I've already stated.
 
M

Mr. F

Banned
I've never been a fan, but those crowd shots are something else. Good on them for going out on their own terms.

Also brought out a lot of weird patriotic pissing matches, an acquaintance genuinely upset called me less of a Canadian for not having tuned in. Lol.
 
Z

zer0blivion

Member
MoonsaultSlayer said:
Well shit... I welled up reading the first 3-4 pages of this thread after fixing my link a couple posts up.

I'm going to have to check out this show and more from these guys. That song is one of my favs on the album and I've never heard of them beforehand, as I've already stated.
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Start with Yer Favourites and then branch out from there. They should be on all the major streaming sites.

Here's a fan-shot video of Locked in the Trunk of a Car from the final show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEPcSr5t4fI
 
M

Mighty Chin

Banned
Mr. F said:
I've never been a fan, but those crowd shots are something else. Good on them for going out on their own terms.

Also brought out a lot of weird patriotic pissing matches, an acquaintance genuinely upset called me less of a Canadian for not having tuned in. Lol.
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You are

There was a great Vox article I read this morning. I can't find it at the moment.
 
T

theRizzle

Member
Damian Abraham from Fucked Up did a really good article for Vice a few weeks ago called How I Learned to Love The Tragically Hip and Still Be Punk. It really relates a lot of how I felt about the band when I was growing up.

I associated The Hip with my parents, so I never really gave them much of a chance until I got a bit older and wasn't as concerned with "being cool" or whatever. But people hating things without giving them a legitimate chance because it doesn't fit in to their subculture is a real thing, and hopefully this article can get a few more people to give Gord & Co. a chance.
 
M

MoonsaultSlayer

Member
darscot said:
That is all kinds of wrong, I like covers but that is a butchery. They missed the whole dark haunted aspects of the song.
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I disagree. Murder by Death have a dark haunted sound of their own, in case you're not familiar with them. I just got done rewatching the video from the band themselves and other than a different cadence and an early 90s guitar fuzz, it doesn't sound "dark".

I mean, I can understand your POV as you're a big fan of one and not of the other. But you should always weigh the "gravitas" (for lack of a better word) of a band doing a cover more so than the cover "quality" itself. I don't think Bowie's Across the Universe is a "quality" cover, for instance, but it's very Bowie-esque and therefore it fits.
 
D

darscot

Member
MoonsaultSlayer said:
I disagree. Murder by Death have a dark haunted sound of their own, in case you're not familiar with them. I just got done rewatching the video from the band themselves and other than a different cadence and an early 90s guitar fuzz, it doesn't sound "dark".

I mean, I can understand your POV as you're a big fan of one and not of the other. But you should always weigh the "gravitas" (for lack of a better word) of a band doing a cover more so than the cover "quality" itself. I don't think Bowie's Across the Universe is a "quality" cover, for instance, but it's very Bowie-esque and therefore it fits.
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I love covers, especially when an artist makes it their own. That is not a good one, it sounds exactly like the image, cheesy wedding singers. We have very different definition of a dark haunting sound. That is the only song I have heard by them.
 
M

MoonsaultSlayer

Member
darscot said:
I love covers, especially when an artist makes it their own. That is not a good one, it sounds exactly like the image, cheesy wedding singers. We have very different definition of a dark haunting sound. That is the only song I have heard by them.
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Sorry, I wasn't saying this song was a dark haunting sound. Their regular stuff can have that sound.

For me, I happened to like the song on the album. I didn't know it was supposed to have a "dark haunting" sound listening to the original (edit: I get an REM vibe when I listen to it) ....

BUT, that's coming from someone hearing the song within the last year for the first time with NO context of the band and their reputation and history. So, again, I understand your POV.
 
W

Walpurgis

Banned
I'm surprised there's enough fans to get so much news coverage and a 6 page thread for a band that I've never heard of before this month.
 
T

The Scollard

Member
I see the Hip as too much tied into the Canadian identity to ever really make it big anywhere outside of Canada. The band basically based themselves on being Canadian. They wrote songs about events Canadians cared about (50 Mission Cap), and places in Canada that weren't world famous (Bobcaygoen, 100th Meridian). They were very, very Canadian, and I love them for that. However, I think its that unique Canadian-ness they had which prevented them from becoming known world-wide.

Rush is a good contrast. Rush is one of my favourite bands ever, and I love them more than the Hip, and they're Canadian as well. However, the topics they wrote about weren't uniquely Canadian, despite referencing those places (such as Lakeside Park, an actual park on the shore of Lake Ontario), the meaning of the song is more universal than with some of the Hip's (Bobcaygeon is similar to that point, I admit, but Lakeside Park sounds like less specific a place than Bobcaygeon). I'm sure our friends in the States have a park by a lake which evokes the same feelings in them as Lakeside Park did with Peart. And for some of their songs (*cough*YYZ*cough*), it uses the Canadian/Toronto reference to do a 5-minute instrumental.

The best comparison to the Hip I can think of in terms of national identity was Stompin' Tom Connors, who wrote our national anthem (no, the other national anthem), who for that same reason was popular in our country. I've even referred to the Hip as the Stompin' Tom of rock because of how much they embraced and added to our culture. And considering how much I love the stories both Stompin' Tom and the Hip tell of Canada and her stories, I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
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gabbo

Member
The Scollard said:
I see the Hip as too much tied into the Canadian identity to ever really make it big anywhere outside of Canada. The band basically based themselves on being Canadian. They wrote songs about events Canadians cared about (50 Mission Cap), and places in Canada that weren't world famous (Bobcaygoen, 100th Meridian). They were very, very Canadian, and I love them for that. However, I think its that unique Canadian-ness they had which prevented them from becoming known world-wide.

Rush is a good contrast. Rush is one of my favourite bands ever, and I love them more than the Hip, and they're Canadian as well. However, the topics they wrote about weren't uniquely Canadian, despite referencing those places (such as Lakeside Park, an actual park on the shore of Lake Ontario), the meaning of the song is more universal than with some of the Hip's (Bobcaygeon is similar to that point, I admit, but Lakeside Park sounds like less specific a place than Bobcaygeon). I'm sure our friends in the States have a park by a lake which evokes the same feelings in them as Lakeside Park did with Peart. And for some of their songs (*cough*YYZ*cough*), it uses the Canadian/Toronto reference to do a 5-minute instrumental.

The best comparison to the Hip I can think of in terms of national identity was Stompin' Tom Connors, who wrote our national anthem (no, the other national anthem), who for that same reason was popular in our country. I've even referred to the Hip as the Stompin' Tom of rock because of how much they embraced and added to our culture. And considering how much I love the stories both Stompin' Tom and the Hip tell of Canada and her stories, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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Neil Peart is not nearly the lyricist Gord Downie is, unless you feel Objectivist philosophy is representative of the everyday Canadian experience (I for one, do not).

OCDChewie said:
It's a shame how they're only big in Canada, because I think they deserve more. They're really great, and Canada's best band.
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Would we still feel the same way, would we have had our national broadcaster air three hours of commercial free concert footage from Kingston, if they were a huge world wide phenomenon?
 
L

lamaroo

Unconfirmed Member
Been listening to their two latest albums because of this, after never giving them a chance before and I'm liking Man Machine Poem, but don't care for Now For Plan A too much, aside from a few songs.

Anyone else listening to them?
 
G

gabbo

Member
lamaroo said:
Been listening to their two latest albums because of this, after never giving them a chance before and I'm liking Man Machine Poem, but don't care for Now For Plan A too much, aside from a few songs.

Anyone else listening to them?
Click to expand...

I've been watching their Woodstock 99 set on youtube a lot the past week.
 
E

Extra Sauce

Member
I've been going down the Tragically Hip YouTube rabbit hole tonight while reading through this thread and realized two things. Firstly, I was a fool to miss that broadcast. Secondly, I was a fool to leave the Hip behind after the late '90s. I wish I appreciated their music for longer before the recent turn of events. Time to make up for lost time.

Looking at those ratings; it is strangely comforting that in this era of fragmented culture, practically a third of our country experienced this moment together.

Seriously though... these motherfuckers got tunes. More than I remembered.
 
T

The Scollard

Member
gabbo said:
Neil Peart is not nearly the lyricist Gord Downie is, unless you feel Objectivist philosophy is representative of the everyday Canadian experience (I for one, do not).
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I love the Hip, but Peart's an amazing lyricist. Stuff like Lakeside Park represents an experience I think most Canadian's have had in one way or another, of having fun and watching the fireworks at a local park on Victoria Day. Spirit of Radio is about the magic of music, and was named after the tagline of a Toronto radio station (CFNY, I believe). Red Barchetta is a one-two punch about both having a beautiful car, and the urge the break the rules in order to feel free, a sentiment I think all youth share. And I'm sure most Canadians know a suburb like the group describes in Subdivisions. I feel Peart's is able to touch on the Canadian experience as much as Gord does.

Also, what other band wrote a 20-minute science fiction epic of a song?

Both Gord and Peart hold a special place in my heart for their lyrics. They are equal in my mind, each accomplishing what they set out to do with their lyrics very well.
 
E

ElNino

Member
Walpurgis said:
I'm surprised there's enough fans to get so much news coverage and a 6 page thread for a band that I've never heard of before this month.
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If you lived in Canada in the 90's and were older than 10, you had to know them. It's possible you weren't fans of their music (as strange as that is to me), but there's no way you weren't aware of them.
 
Z

zer0blivion

Member
Possible new Gord Downie solo project?
It Ended In A Hockey Rink On An Avenue Called Tragically Hip Way

Downie has what has been described to me as an amazing solo project ready for release in October. In addition to a CD that explores the challenging issues of Canada's notorious residential schools for native Canadians, the disc will also spawn a graphic novel and an animated CBC special. I've heard he'll tour it too.
Click to expand...

Great news, if true.
 
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matthewwhatever

Member
Walpurgis said:
I'm surprised there's enough fans to get so much news coverage and a 6 page thread for a band that I've never heard of before this month.
Click to expand...

Between this and your posts in the Canadian poliGAF thread, I sincerely wonder what kind of bizarrely sheltered existence you've led. It's not like the Hip are some obscure band. They've won 14 Junos. They've had 9 #1 albums. They've had numerous songs that have been impossible to avoid. They were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno Awards held in the city in which you live. Yet, somehow, you managed to avoid all that. It's incomprehensible.
 
W

Walpurgis

Banned
matthewwhatever said:
Between this and your posts in the Canadian poliGAF thread, I sincerely wonder what kind of bizarrely sheltered existence you've led. It's not like the Hip are some obscure band. They've won 14 Junos. They've had 9 #1 albums. They've had numerous songs that have been impossible to avoid. They were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno Awards held in the city in which you live. Yet, somehow, you managed to avoid all that. It's incomprehensible.
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¯_(ツ)_/¯
 
A

affleck1981

Member
Did a rugby tour around Brock, Ontario in the late 90s - got introduced to the Hip by the people we stayed with as they had released the Trouble at the Henhouse album at the time. Got a couple more albums and their best of. Sorry to hear the news and glad they did this concert.
 
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excelsiorlef

Member
Walpurgis said:
I'm surprised there's enough fans to get so much news coverage and a 6 page thread for a band that I've never heard of before this month.
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They are a Canadian Institution.

I was buying things from the dollar store and the cashier heard my music playing quietly fron my headphones and asked if I was listening to The Hip. I said yes and we talked about watchimg this concert and the impact of it and the energy and emotions Downie put into his songs on this tour.
 
T

TheWorst

Member
I'm 20, and while I know who The Tragically Hip are, I didn't quite realize how big they were here. If Walpy is younger than me, I can understand not having heard of them. I think they're a lot more important to my parent's generation.
 
SturokBGD

SturokBGD

Member
Having only been a resident of Canada for about 12 years now I had heard of the Hip but hadn't really gotten around to listening to much of them. Figured now was as good a time as any to give them a spin, and boy do I wish I did it sooner, they are BRILLIANT!

I would have got in on this earlier, but (I hate to say) I find most mainstream Canadian rock (classic and modern) is rubbish. Sorry. Glad I was wrong about this one!
 
W

Walpurgis

Banned
ElNino said:
So you really do live in Canada and have never heard of The Hip? I didn't think that was at all possible, but at least now that you are aware of them, you have a bunch of great music to go back and catch up on. ;-)
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Joeku said:
Walpy, I also grew up in Winnipeg, and I have known of The Hip for as long as I can remember knowing rock music. I don't know how you've missed this. Surely you've heard their songs.
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Maybe I have heard their music without realising it. I don't actually listen to much music so I only typically know whatever's playing on Hot 103. 😛
TheWorst said:
I'm 20, and while I know who The Tragically Hip are, I didn't quite realize how big they were here. If Walpy is younger than me, I can understand not having heard of them. I think they're a lot more important to my parent's generation.
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See guys? I'm not living in a bubble. I swear!
 
G

gabbo

Member
TheWorst said:
I'm 20, and while I know who The Tragically Hip are, I didn't quite realize how big they were here. If Walpy is younger than me, I can understand not having heard of them. I think they're a lot more important to my parent's generation.
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I'm 31 and they've been a huge part of the music in my life since before I knew what that meant, so it's not just for the 40 and older crowd I assure you.
Just turning on the radio or watching MuchMusic from when I was a kid in the 90s up until about World Container in 2006 and there's a good chance you'd come across them. Hell, radio, if you listen to broadcast radio, they're still basically all over any rock station's playlist.
 
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