On Saturday, millions of Canadians across the country gathered together in town squares, living rooms, community centres and various other impromptu venues to share in the experience of celebrating something uniquely our own.
The Tragically Hip, fronted by Gord Downie, played what was billed as possibly the group’s final show. Downie, widely revered as a modern national poet laureate and treasure, recently revealed his incurable brain cancer diagnosis, which was followed by the announcement of The Hip’s farewell tour. It was a shock to fans of the band. For the past 28 years, The Hip has been widely regarded as having provided the soundtrack to Canadians’ lives.
The music has always been solid, with lots of catchy guitar riffs for amateur rockers to play air guitar at parties, thudding bass lines and driving drum beats. But, perhaps some of the most popular fan favourites have been the more acoustic, softer songs, such as Wheat Kings, a ballad about the wrongful conviction, incarceration and eventual freedom of David Milgaard.
On Saturday night, wandering around in front of Squamish Municipal Hall where half the town had shown up for a free live-streamed screening of The Hip’s final show of the tour in their hometown of Kingston, I heard the stories. People talked about their first time seeing the band, or something particularly interesting or life-changing that happened at another gig.
I have a box of concert tickets from my record store years, and there are something like 14 Tragically Hip stubs in the box. However, time, and possibly a lot of beer at the time, have swirled the shows all together in my mind into one, like really big, long show… but a great one!
Saturday’s final concert was more memorable. It was memorable for a solid, tour-de-force show from the band and an emotional, mesmerizing performance from Downie. They played all the hits we wanted to hear… and we all cried as a nation together at the end.
All those towns, including Squamish, hosting screenings for free, and not to mention the CBC for three hours of commercial-free television, too! Where else, and what other country could, would do something like that… for a band?
They reminded us who we were, where we came from, and what resides in the Canadian soul. They reminded us again on Saturday, and the nation came together to respond in kind. Now, we’ve all got one last Hip story to share and cherish.
