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I think I’ll always remember the moment when I first heard that Gord Downie had brain cancer. I had just arrived home from teaching band camp at a public school downtown when m’lady broke the news. We were both pretty devastated by the news and vowed to see at least a couple of shows in the band’s upcoming tour.
August 10th, 2016 was the first of the band’s three-night run in Toronto, and the first show we attended on what will likely stand as The Tragically Hip’s final tour. There had been so much attention to Gord in the news – and so much sorrow throughout the country – that leading up to the show I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel. Was this going to be a wake? Will Gord make it through the concert okay? How will the rest of the band be doing? What will the mood be like in the Air Canada Centre?
This really was unprecedented. Sure, bands have gone out on farewell tours before, some have even done it several times (I’m looking at you, The Who), but I can’t think of a band going out for a last run because their frontman had terminal cancer.
And in the end, the concert was utterly fantastic.
I had been watching their setlists and noticed the band was playing four-song blocks from different albums. This show started out with songs from Road Apples.
Stop for a moment an imagine the emotion during Fiddler’s Green:
And Falstaff sings a sorrowful refrain
For a boy in Fiddler’s Green
I actually choked up. I would a few more times before the concert was over.
I really wanted one of the t-shirts they were selling with “That night in Toronto” on the back. When the band went into their quartet of songs from the new album I ran (literally) to the merch area to pick one up. I couldn’t believe what I found when I got there: even though we were five songs into the concert there must have been at least three hundred people in line for t-shirts. I was flabbergasted. These people had missed an unbelievable show opening and were destined to wait another…what…maybe another hour? Amazing.
I raced back to my seat. Seeing this concert was much more important to me than buying a t-shirt.
Near the end of the show the band played four heavy-hitters from Fully Completely (the title track, 100th Meridian, Fifty-Mission Cap and a truly sublime Wheat Kings) and encored with stuff from my favourite of their albums, Day For Night.
The encore was Bobcaygeon (with that magical “That night in Toronto” line) and a Poet rocker to bid us farewell.
Forever.
Gosh, it was so damn sad. But wow, what a concert. I clung to every word, every discombobulated dance move. I soaked it in as best I could. It meant a lot to me to be there.
(I couldn’t figure out how to fit this in but I took the greatest Uber ride ever to this concert, not that I’ve taken many. We ordered a ride for six or eight of us and they sent a long, black SUV. The driver was dressed in a suit and cap, he got out and opened the doors for us all professional-like and had water and snacks on hand for the drive. He told me his day job was driving a limousine.)
Todd Man Out 