It was a bittersweet end for The Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem tour, as terminally ill lead singer, Gord Downie, earned high praise from a sold-out crowd (including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) as the band performed its final set on Saturday night. His rock-and-blues band, often known by the shorthand “The Hip” formed in the 1980s, penned lyrics about small-town Canadian life, that won them a broad national following over the course of 14 albums, though they are largely uknown outside Canada.
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The 52-year-old, who came forward with his diagnosis in May (16), wiped away tears from his eyes in the middle of the concert.
The event, which was broadcast live across Canada, coincided with The Tragically Hip Day.
The tour has been a sellout across the country with the national paper reporting the shows “left a trail of heartbreak but also celebration across the nation”.
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. “But he’ll do it”, Downie told concertgoers between songs.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has said Downie had “been writing Canada’s soundtrack for more than 30 years”, was at the show. With cameras cutting to Trudeau, who was in attendance, he continued: “He cares about the people way up North, that we were trained our entire lives to ignore, trained our entire lives to hear not a word of what’s going on up there … It’s really, really bad, but we’re going to figure it out, you’re going to figure it out”.
Tickets for Saturday’s show went for upwards of US$1,000 (S$1,300) on ticket reseller StubHub last Friday.
“A singer needs to keep his or her voice always warm”, he said, briefly undoing the sock to reveal its heel before tying it back onto his neck.
Downie acknowledged Trudeau from the stage.
He made the crowd work a little harder for the second encore, and by the third one, the audience’s cheers for more reached a new peak as people banged the arena seats and chanted his name.
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Gord, who started the show wearing a metallic silver suit and hat with a Jaws T-shirt underneath, hugged and kissed his bandmates – guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay.
