Well Tuesday July 26 has come and gone and holy moly, what a fabulous show by The Tragically Hip in Vancouver! I have never in all my years EVER been to a show that had the fan volume as this one. Not only did we make it loud, the fans stood for the entire two hours shaking their moneymakers, right up to the folks in the nose bleed rafter seats. My heart swelled with happiness and pride that we were all there celebrating the life of a great man and his band. If there is anything to the so called power of positive thinking, then Gord Downie has a chance at a very long and happy life because from what I have been able to tell from photos at other shows, the crowds have been just as loud and appreciative.
What an amazing show, they missed playing some of my favourites but the tunes they did play sounded spectacular. I didn’t cry as I had expected, I was elated that I was lucky enough to be a part of this celebration for Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip. You could see how happy and sad Gord was when he was strutting his stuff for the audience, every smile he had contained joy and sadness. My heart was full of patriotic feelings, all of us came together to be serenaded by our favourite band and I was lucky enough to have a man I didn’t know wanting to hold my hand during the show, he said it made it more special. It did actually, I won’t soon forget that show and how I shared it with him. Not a bad way to meet a new friend, at least we would have one other thing in common besides fingers and toes 🙂
It is now August 21, the day after what could be The Hip’s final show ever in Kingston, Ontario where they first began. Our national Canadian broadcaster the CBC aired that final show live as a national celebration, completely commercial free. They even preempted the Olympics that night for the show, so awesome that our old standby the CBC would understand the cultural phenomenon that is The Hip and understand Canada’s love for them. I had been invited to watch the show with friends but declined, I had done the group experience a couple of weeks ago, this time I wanted to concentrate on the small details from the show and commit them to memory.
This time the tears came, knowing that most likely this will be the very last time all of Canada has the opportunity to revel in the melodic, harmonious music and poetry that is this band. That evening made me prouder than ever to be Canadian, 11.7 million viewers tuned to the CBC and the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau was in attendance at the venue. Before the show began Justin posted a photo, he was giving Gord a hug that I can only describe as being from all of Canada, our collective hug – Justin seemed to have almost a death grip on the man and the image hit me like a ton of bricks, that was when the leakage from my eyes started to find a place to happen.
I haven’t got cable so was streaming the show, the CBC had a countdown page and the feelings of anticipation, excitement, anxiety for how the show would be were surfacing. Then it started, I was so amazed that I was able to watch the show on a live stream wondering at that time how many other fellow Canadians were watching as well. The show definitely did not disappoint, they did the faves that weren’t played at the July 26 show. Their rendition of Boots or Hearts was amazing, a little extra country twangy which was fantastic and the crowd loved it….I personally had goose bumps it was so good.
The band played 30 songs and they all sounded amazing and it was obvious how much the band enjoy playing together. Kudos to them for keeping their shit together at all these shows. I’ve seen some footage and images where you can see the sadness in each of their faces, yet others with pure joy and happiness. A particularly sad moment was when Gord started crying during Grace Too, it was like the enormity, the potential finality of it all finally caught up to him. He was yelling as he does during that song and then dropped the mic and seemed to pause and cry. Then they left for intermission, the guys waved at the audience, smiled and kissed each other before they left the stage.
During Ahead by a Century, when Gord sang the lyric “and disappointing you is getting me down” he sang it like I haven’t heard him sing it before, it almost had more meaning tonight than it had any other night. What I’m disappointed with is that a deadly cancer is going to get the better of a man who isn’t a poser, he’s a guy with meaningful things to say, who really cares about the country we live in and the people who live here. I’m thankful the band gave us the chance to have what likely will be one last hurrah with them, a celebration for us all to show our mutual respect and admiration for each other.