The Tragically Hip: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

new one is their weirdest album since music@work

xp. I think it just puts into stark relief and focus how crappy a set-up the whole concert ticket buying system is because it's literally depriving people of a chance to see their favourite band for the last time before the lead singer passes away from a terminal illness unless they have a ton of money laying around.

also im sure, if they wanted to, ticket-sellers could make tickets non-transferable, that would end scalping.

I got two tickets to their Sunday Toronto show /bragging2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX-PqWQsgfE

;_;

wow. their guitarist still has the exact same hair he had in 1992!

I trust everyone (Canadian) will be doing their patriotic duty and watching the final show live on the CBC this Saturday?

i'm going to the thing! first ever Hip show, too.

not sure

might watch a bit of it

xp. good answer.

not xp. bad answer tut tut

hey the last bit will be the best bit

which is what i plan on watching

maybe

Starting...

Wasn't expecting him to shred his throat so much from the start. Don't know how he'll make it through the whole thing.

that is the way he sings live

or at least that was my experience in seeing them

Really going for it on this one.

Makes sense, Brad.

Watching cbc with goodwill even tho these guys mostly bored me

Idly wondering if they'll mention baton Rouge when they inevitably play "New Orleans is Sinking"

they're playing "fireworks"! my favorite song about nuclear terror and falling in love with someone who doesn't care about hockey

jeez I love gord so much

Doh was so busy I forgot this was on just tuned in now

this show is incredible

I'm really glad they're doing "Nautical Disaster" for a second encore!

"Locked in the Trunk of a Car" to start the third encore!

I actually kind of like that they're still going after the climactic screaming in "Grace, Too".

There must be something in my eye

I feel v alienated from my countrymen tonight

wld love to see NoMeansNo or Propagandhi get even 1/1000 the love when their day comes tho

I will be totally verklempt at the last Blue Rodero show, tho

i can see disliking the hip, even tonight watching some of the songs in the later verses or the outro section quite a few of them seem a bit plodding and pat. they can legitimately rock at times but not necessarily all the time. and i can see not liking gord's vocals or his eccentric, goofy stagecraft. im no huge fan, and am not that familiar with the breadth of their discography, but there's at least a couple dozen of their songs i find great and that i love.

but watching tonight legitimately moved me. im an immigrant to canada, lived here four years, am a permanent resident - my canadian wife sponsored me. this move is permanent and i will apply for citizenship when im eligible in a few years. i often find it hard to get to grips with the canadian national identity, and while i now consider this country home, i sometimes feel there's a paltry number of things for me to identify with or gather a sense of solidarity or belonging from. im scottish, from glasgow, in scotland and in glasgow there's a plethora of identifying and particular elements to life that mark you out as living in that particular place and belonging to it - speaking dialect that is non-intelligible to other native english speakers, a certain definable harsh, sardonic, gallows humour, a pub and a bookies on each corner etc. i don't feel much of that in canada i like hockey ok, im not sure canadians are as polite as people make out, i hate tim horton's, and i live in one of the few places in canada where it isnt cold in the winter. so i dunno, for me cultural things seem to be the things i think of as canadian. you know like old nfb documentaries, the log driver's waltz, alice munro short stories, trailer park boys, and especially the tragically hip.

id never heard of the hip before i moved to canada. my wife was aghast at this. theyre huge in canada but virtually unknown elsewhere, whereas most other bands that are huge in canada crossover somewhat. this makes them more particulary canadian for some reason. then there's the lyrics, multiple hockey references, references to canadian towns, history, people etc. - i found out what the summit series was from googling "hockey goal 72" after hearing the song fireworks. then there's gord downie, quite dorky and canadian for a rock star, and plenty wordy lyrically but still earthy and somehow blue collarish despite his pretensions. so i have thought of them as this dorky, endearing, authentic expression of canadiana. the obvious emotional resonance of the farewell tour before gord dies of terminal brain cancer (which my maternal grandfather died of) and the final show in their hometown, broadcast live and uninterrupted on the cbc, attended by the prime minister - who you know is legitimately a fan who smoked weed in his dorm room listening to fully completely in the early 90s. i dunno, it just got to me.in any case there are much worse things to have as a national symbol than a nerdy 90s alt-rock band.

his voice was def... noticeable to me.

Great post jim

I was almost relieved that they didn't play Long Time Running last night. I know it's easy to write off as a stereotypical bar ballad, but even before recent events, that song was already so nostalgic to me (literally takes my mind back to being in Kingston in the 90s) that I might get teary dwelling on it. Got to love the connection power this all has had though. Just amazing.

Glad Downie used some of his time to kinda hold Trudeau to task, but I fear it might have been too good-natured to register that way to most.

definitely didn't feel that way in the room. downie seemed (unduly) adoring, like he had drunk the kool-aid.

Man this thread is hovering near the top of the New Answers almost as long as Sund4r's Tea Party thread that one time ILX went through an ion storm and that was the only thread that you could post on.

Canada just endured an ion storm

Ha, I had no idea they've released six albums since Music @ Work.

new one's actually good!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/arts/music/tragically-hip-gord-downie-final-show.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-3&module=inside-nyt-region®ion=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0

think this nyt story, along with the new yorker piece quoted in it, are a pretty good explainer for people outside of Canada.

new one's actually good!

Yeah, I listened to the last two this morning. I was pretty impressed. I even thought of Eno and Berlin-era Bowie at times.

Is there a Hip album that encapsulates their project well? I've only heard stray early singles, and I respect Downie as a lyricist, but I haven't found a punctum in their music yet.

day for night. lot of classics on that record but it's also a sustained dark mood

a lot of people would say fully completely but day for night is the deeper, more interesting picture imo

the poppiest and most accessible intro to the hip would prob be phantom power

Thanks!

the poppiest and most accessible intro to the hip would prob be phantom power

Is this poppier than Fully Completely, with its six singles and diamond certification? I mostly either pull out FC for a 90s hit machine or Music @ Work for more engrossing art-rock. Day for Night is good, though. "Nautical Disaster" is classic.

Is this poppier than Fully Completely, with its six singles and diamond certification?

imo in terms of being way more melodic and catchy, yeah!

does anyone know a Gordon outside of Canada who goes by Gord

Lots of Gordons in Scotland, never met a Gord.