[ourplace] Tragically Hip Plays Final Concert in Canada, as Lead Singer Gord Downie Has Terminal Illness

From: "Vickie" <rolisonv@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Our Place List" <ourplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 11:52:51 -0700

BlankTragically Hip Plays Final Concert in Canada, as Lead Singer Gord Downie
Has Terminal Illness

KINGSTON, Ontario The rock concert did not begin with a rock song. Instead, it
started with flag-waving fans breaking into a national anthem, "O Canada."

The impromptu tribute by an emotional sold-out crowd that included Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau began what was expected to be the final performance
Saturday
by Tragically Hip, a group known as Canada's Band, and lead singer and
songwriter Gord Downie, dubbed Canada's unofficial poet laureate.  Downie has
been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and fans across Canada and abroad
gathered at viewing parties to tune in and bid him farewell.

The bluesy rock band is better known as The Hip, and Downie is known for
penning paeans to Canadian life: about hockey and desolate small towns, about
literature and the French explorer who named Canada.

Being so defiantly Canadian might be one reason why The Hip sent nine of its 13
albums to No. 1 in Canada, but none above the top 100 in the U.S.

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. Those who couldn't get into the Rogers K-Rock Centre massed
nearby to watch on a giant screen.

While the band was careful not to declare that its now-concluded 15-show "Man
Machine Poem" tour would be its last, the concert had an aura that was both
celebratory and somber.

Despite being diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive cancerous brain
tumor, an energetic Downie was in fine form as he and his bandmates played an
epic 30-song set, punctuated by three encores. Trudeau, on learning of Downie's
diagnosis in May, tweeted that the singer "has been writing Canada's soundtrack
for more than 30 years.

On Saturday, the prime minister's official photographer tweeted a photo of
Trudeau, 44, and Downie, 52, embracing before the show.

Downie acknowledged Trudeau from the stage. The singer called on the prime
minister to take action on behalf of Canada's indigenous people, and then said
he expected Trudeau would have plenty of time to do it. "He's going to be
looking good for about at least 12 more years. I don't know if they let you go
beyond that.
But he'll do it," Downie told concertgoers between songs. Trudeau could be seen
in the audience nodding and mouthing "thank you."

Trudeau reminisced in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. about
how he enjoyed the band's music during high school and college, and said the
band remains uniquely Canadian. On Twitter, the prime minister said: "On behalf
of Canadians, I thank Gord Downie and the Hip for their decades of service to
Canadian music.  Forever in our hearts and playlists."

While The Hip became one of Canada's most beloved rock bands, lasting success
in the U.S. was elusive outside of border
cities like Buffalo, New York, where viewing parties of the concert's Canadian
broadcast were also held. In Rio, the Canada Olympic House hosted a party for
Canadian athletes who wore their red team jackets.

Downie, 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.

They opened with four songs from their 1992 breakthrough album "Fully
Completely": "50 Mission Cap," "Courage," "Wheat Kings" and "At the Hundredth
Meridian."   The Hip then segued into songs from their last album, "Man Machine
Poem," before running through tracks from "Music @ Work," "Road Apples,"
"Phantom Power," "Up To Here," "Day For Night" and "Trouble at the Henhouse."

The band's biggest hit closed the show, "Ahead By A Century."

Downie gestured as if he was sketching a portrait of the teary audience as the
band played the song's final notes. They then embraced, stood arm-in-arm as the
crowd roared, and walked off stage.

Before performing one song, Downie seemed to reference the outpouring of
support from fans since his diagnosis. "Thank you, people, for keeping me
pushing and keeping me pushing," he said, which prompted a "Gordie! chant from
the audience.

After it ended, Toronto broadcaster and writer Alan Cross tweeted: "We will
talk about this show in hushed tones for years to come. #TragicallyHip

Follow-Ups:
- [ourplace] Re: Tragically Hip Plays Final Concert in Canada, as Lead Singer Gord Downie Has Terminal Illness
  - From: Linda Gehres

[ourplace] Tragically Hip Plays Final Concert in Canada, as Lead Singer Gord Downie Has Terminal Illness

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