Saturday, August 20, 2016 marked the final concert of The Tragically Hip's farewell tour, broadcast across Canada on CBC, live from their hometown in Kingston. John and Julie were kind enough to host a memorable day of food, drink and an all-Canadian playlist featuring heavy Hip rotation. Our band. Canada's band.
John cooked a ham Fully Completely by way of a Fire in the Hole in his smoker, rubbed in bobCajun spice. Greg prepared sandwich art on some fresh High Dough. After some Trouble at the Henhouse, there were some Little Bones involved as well in the form of chicken wings.
The lead up to the concert was fun, but the main event clearly stole the show. As billed, it was a national celebration. The CBC even stopped their live coverage of the Rio Olympics to show the concert, commercial free.
The Hip played for nearly three hours, with three encores, and hammered out thirty songs covering most of their discography. Gord Downie was transcendent, combining his incomparable stage presence and usual quirky antics with the pent-up anger that only a man dying of terminal brain cancer could summon. We were in awe, quite simply.
In an odd twist of fate, I was stung by a hornet on my leg whilst relaxing on the back porch as we smoked the ham. I hadn't been stung by anything in about 25 years, since high school, shortly after I first began listening to The Tragically Hip. Stung on the leg mere hours before what is very likely the final show of their memorable career, a show which ended with Ahead by a Century as the final song.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was there at the K-Rock Centre, the venue The Hip helped create. My sister was there somewhere too, not at the concert, but amidst the sea of fans flooding the market square in Kingston, soaking up the shared experience of celebration and sorrow.
Like so many others, we tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to several of the shows around Ontario. Luckily we got to see them about a year and a half ago in Windsor, for the Fully Completely 20th anniversary tour. Three of The Hip showed up to jam with The Trews at a concert my sister took me to last spring in Kingston.....and of course we will always remember Bobcaygeon in 2011 along with Sam Roberts Band, The Trews, Miss Emily, Keith and family.
John Gardner said "history never looks like history when you're living through it". In this instance, I must respectfully disagree.
We were gettin' reprieve from the heat in the frozen foods section....yeah!
Rescuing the beer, previously Locked in the Trunk of a Car....
Summertime in Vienna, Wheat Kings...and the Queen of Road Apples?
I sense a pending Nautical Disaster!
$2.50 for a Highball....
It's my 50 mission cap
Slow smoked ham...aka the Hip of the pig....
On with the show....
Courage.
...and the show must go on.
Streaming CBC in John's basement theatre
Him? Here? No.
Hey Man, Thanks.
Legend.......And Grace, Too.
Two Solitudes (for Hugh MacLennan)
That's where the hornet stung me....
At the 100th Meridian, where the great memories begin!
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