By the end of the three-hour gig, the band played an unprecedented third encore, with Downie saying, “We’re officially into uncharted waters”.
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Downie is a man and a musician. Canada is so much more than that. He is nothing short of the unofficial poet laureate.
May 24, 2016: The entire country of Canada is stunned at the announcement Gord Downie has been diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer and will lead The Tragically Hip on what could well be its last tour in the summer. He says the band remains anchored in Canada in so many ways through their lyrics and music. “But he’ll do it”, Downie told concertgoers between songs. Downie belted out hit after hit, he blew kisses into the crowd, he pranced, he preened – he did his thang.
In an emotionally charged final concert in Kingston, Ont., Tragically Hip singer Gord Down paused the show to address the audience, the country, and specifically, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Those who couldn’t get into the Rogers K-Rock Centre massed nearby to watch on a giant screen. In music The Hip are its counterpart as they are the quintessential Canadian rock band. But in doing so, Downie has given his nation a chance to pay tribute to him while he is still alive.
As he drove home Saturday from a potlatch – the northern B.C. indigenous gift-giving feast and economic system Canada banned until 1951 – Terry Teegee listened intently to CBC Radio’s broadcast of the last Tragically Hip show of the group’s final tour.
The Kingston crowd, and crowds at viewing parties across the country, could not be silenced at 11 p.m. when the band left the stage once again after thanking the audience.
In Rio, the Canada Olympic House hosted a party for Canadian athletes who wore their red team jackets.
“It takes courage to do what he’s doing”, she said.
“You guys were my first concert”, another one signed “M+E” said.
What has never been a cliché is the Canadian band The Tragically Hip. The song earned a Juno Award for best single in 2000. But Canadians from coast to coast have been paying homage over the past few weeks. Unfortunately, the singer is suffering from terminal cancer. In British Columbia, a community choir sang a Hip song outside the provincial legislature building. When I was a kid I said “eh” in place of yeah, right, agree, or just as part of a sentence and it was completely normal.
After spending three decades together, The Hip returned on Saturday night to where they began as a college rock band, the Lake Ontario city of Kingston. Far from a sorrowful event, however, it seemed more to be a lesson in national pride in much the same way as the Super Bowl or the Olympics.
Trudeau’s official photographer tweeted a photo of the prime minister and Downie embracing before the concert.
Man Machine Poem, the band’s most recent album, came out in June. The image of kids playing street hockey is intrinsically Canadian. “We’re still trying to figure out what makes us Canadian, and we have one of the loudest neighbors in the world, so this band helped a country, and Gord helped people lyrically, slowly start to try to define themselves”.
Downie, known for his frenetic stage presence and telling long stories in the middle of songs, has maintained his pace during the tour, clad in custom-made bright metallic suits. He acts out odd pantomimes.
The show was closed out by fan favorite “Ahead By A Century”.
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For all the Hip’s success – 8 million records sold – the band never really cracked the US market.
