Photos & Review:  Declan Goodall

Said we're Tragically Hip come on lets go!..... and so we did  with 12,500 other people who had their rain gear with them just in case another storm cell hit, but it never arrived and the Hip played a little less than 2 hours in a perfect break in the overcast skies.

This was the sixth Hawk Rocks the Park Concert event for  Bethany Catherine McIntyre  Foundation, a young girl who passed away at the age of 7 from MLD (Metachromatic Leukodystrophy Disease) the past five years had raised $750,000 for research into this disease, and this was the first year that Centennial Hall and Brad Jones have changed their Classic Rock format by bringing in the Tragically Hip.  

We had met the Hip earlier in the day at their hotel, (these guys do not run or hide from their fans like some other bands we know) and so we were pumped to see them play an outdoor show at Harris park, home of the now defunct London Balloon Festival that used to have great bands.  So the Hip was going to provide London with another chance to party in Harris park, with all the trimming of great food and lots of beer....woo whooo!

We arrived in time to see a bit of the Ottawa alt-country Kathleen Edward's set, some idiot fans gave her a hassle to get the Hip out earlier, but Kathleen gave it back to them by shouting over them Hip Hip Hip, only in London would the idiots heckle the opening acts, but that was only a fraction of the idiots that showed up. The other idiots were everywhere starting trouble by pushing their way to the front.

The other opening bands were the Arkells (Hey Hey Hey and Oh the Boss is Coming, a couple of great songs) along with the Spades, another awesome band that just hasn’t caught their break yet.

Buddy if this is as far as we could get without getting a shot in the head, then guess what? You ain't fucking getting past us assholes! They come after the show has started and knock people off their feet and into the people in front of them and its a chain reaction of people getting knocked off their feet from behind.  It’s even worse for photography getting pushed around and trying to get the money shot from a distance in red/purple and blue lighting that the Hip used most of the night.

Gord and the boys with a keyboard player? Ottawa singer/songwriter Jim Bryson (also a member of Kathleen Edward's band, who made me think of that cool Blue Rodeo keyboard sound) took the stage just before 9:30pm the park was really overcast, I thought they could have hit the stage at 9:00 as the roadies had already left the stage and there was a bit of a lull in the show, was one of the members late, say maybe Gord Sinclair, who we did not see at the hotel at all, that show should have started in the light at 9:00 pm.

Photography is all about light, and being in a swarm of people equals blurred shots, but I got help from a couple of girls behind me who ask me if they kept the idiots from pushing me would I send them some shots, they gave me their e-mail address, and the deal was on, the one girl was tough, and would have fought anyone for some Hip shots, very nice, high five Borat!

Gord Downie was dressed in a suit, with a vest over a checked shirt, like he was going to a wedding, the other guys were in street clothes.  The crowd goes crazy and the party started, they had a wall of 4 x 4 sections that had a great light show that played to the songs all night long and had a cool psychedelic effect on the music for the partiers in the crowd.

They played "Depression Suite" from the new album which is rich in keyboards and strings.  "We are the Same", "Poets", "Wheat Kings”, "Scared" and my favourite "Music at Work".  Gordie jumped into the pit at the front a couple of times to party with the crowd with his bodyguard right beside him just in case the fans got too crazy pressing it with Gordie.  This would have been a great shot from a front of the stage point of view... but was not gonna happen tonight, too far back, but it looked great on the big screen.

There was lots of Wild Wood Flower in the air.  Funny how it's criminalized by the ruling elitist class of our society, but its everywhere. The Police beside us on the other side of the railing could have cared less, they were there to jack the drinking rowdies out of the crowd, and bust em up good if they did not walk on their own to the exit.  Not the good people who were enjoying the Flower, they were well behaved.

Hey there's a study in behaviour right there, one makes you violent, and the other mellows you out ...ahem!Earth to God, got another question about Planet Mayhem.

Being in the middle of a sea of people has its positive side as well if you have girls around you who are hanging on to you to stay on their feet, as we swayed to "Bobcaygeon", hey everyone knows the words to every Hip song, that has to mean that the Hip are Canada's #1 band, then Rush?

Gord had a handkerchief he carried all night, putting it over his face looking like the Elephant Man on the screens at each side of the stage.  He went into his trances and the crowd loved it, by the end of the night I though I was in the Kiss Party Room at home instead of a park, that’s how good the sound was.  I thought Gordie was the best I have heard him as he was in great form through "Gift Shop" with a Bobby Baker guitar solo, "Morning Moon", "Boots or Hearts", "Three Pistols", "Fully Completely" and two encore songs to close off the night, "Tiger the Lion" and "Blow at High Dough".

Now I go to concerts for a good time if you know what I mean.  Can you say Magical Mystery Tour? So if I did not get every song written down, it was because of the elements around me.

I’d like to wrap this review up by saying I would love to see this show again ASAP and maybe study it a bit better than I got to but it’s the best show I have ever seen Gordie sing. It seemed like he did not want to leave the stage but he had to because of a noise bylaw that originates from medieval times and Henry the 8th, this needs to change to at least midnight. 

Gordie was not ready to go home and neither were we!

Centre in the Square
Kitchener, Ontario
April 28, 2009

Another couple of cool things about this venue are:  there are bars set-up everywhere AND you can go outside of the building during intermission - just in case anyone wants a smoke! They took about a 20 min break and came back with Thomson Girl, Flamenco and Music at Work. A couple more acoustical numbers from the new album: Now the Struggle Has a Name and Queen of the Furrows. Then In View was next, such a FUN song, and the classics Eldorado and Bobcaygeon!  Uncommon ones after that, The Dark Canuck and Family Band, then ended up with Blow at High Dough!! Encore...The rare Throwing Off Glass, which Gord said was only the 2^nd time performed and ended with 50 Mission Cap!! Of course, you ALWAYS want more... there’s SO many, but we all went away smilin’ and thrilled with what we received!! Especially when Gordie threw his LAST hanky of the night to my girlfriend AND I scooped the original set list!! My other long-time bud, Dean Hughes (singer of the Practically Hip) - who has seen them between 60 and 70 times - NO REALLY! – said it was only the third time he had been that close!! As always, they left us feeling Fully and Completely!!

Sarnia Bayfest
Sarnia, Ontario
July 17, 2004

July 17, 2004: And there ya have it... I'm standing in front of them again at another killer Bayfest show.  Did I mention I fuckin love Bayfest?  You'd think I was getting a kickback or something but no.  Where else can you see top notch bands for pocket lint?  NO FUCKING WHERE.  Except Bayfest.  So I lied... last time I saw these guys I said I'd go out of my way to get pics of the other dudes in the band... well I didn't...  Now, about the show... the boys put on another stellar performance, I swear they always do.  They used the same lighting rig as ZZ Top the night before so I knew it would be great for photos.. only thing is, I got stuck behind too many fuckin Sasquatches.  One in particular, more like a Yeti or Abdominal Snowman, let me prop my camera on his shoulder and squeeze off a few shots.  Good shit.  Turns out he lives right down the road from me so I'm gonna throw him a photo or two for helping out.

HEY that's what kinda fuckin guy I am.   So next time you see me in the crowd trying to get a photo of some band, fuckin MOVE your giant melon and I'll be glad to share my photos with ya.  Anyway, see how easily I get distracted?  A.D.D. I think. The Hip was in top form supporting their latest album, In Between Evolution.  I gotta admit though, I love the older stuff.  Classics like Blow At High Dough, New Orleans Is Sinking, Little Bones, Courage.... shit man, these guys have a fuckload of tunes to pick from and throw at ya when ya least expect it. And they do.  If they were to play ALL their best tunes in one night the show would probably run 4 to 5 hours.  Well a couple hours is enough for me.  I got good and hammered at Stokes Bar before the show so by the end I was ready for bed.  That's becoming part of the Bayfest tradition, getting loaded at Stokes before I go shootin.  

Sarnia Bayfest
Sarnia, Ontario
July 12, 2002

I never got to see the hip back in the good old days but when I FINALLY did, I was thoroughly impressed.  They played a whole barrage of great tunes and I got to shoot one of Canada's most classic acts of all time.  I don't care what anyone says.  These guys are the epitome of the Canadian band.  Way better than anything the States has to offer, and yet still relatively unknown other than in Canada where they are GODS. This was another infamous Sarnia Bayfest show.  I could only see Gord Downie from where I was standing but I could see him REALLY WELL, so I took a shitload of photos of him.  Sure he's not a pretty boy but he's got more talent in the three hairs left on his head than any pretty boy bands have in all the hair in their whole families heads.

I swear this is why the Hip never got REAL BIG in the States.  Cuz Gord wasn't cutesy enough for them.  Gord is just a dude, like me.  Not the ugliest fucker on earth, but the women aren't beating down our doors either.  Anyway, it's always a pleasure seeing the Hip so I hear.  I guarantee I will be standing in front of them again as soon as I possibly can.  Sorry, I didn't get any decent shots of anyone else in the band this time, I get set up for Gord photos and then realize I can't see anybody else from where I'm standing.  Next time I shoot them, I'm gonna go out of my way to get the other guys.  I mean without them, there is no Hip is there?

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