August 22: Like almost half the country (a CBC report said that 12 million people watched or listened to the show ), I watched the Tragically Hip concert from Kingston. Truthfully, I am not a huge fan of the Hip; I have some of their CD’s and many of their bigger hits on my playlist. But it felt like the concert would be one of those quintessentially Canadian moments – “where were you when Henderson scored” – and that I should be part of it.
Like many people I spoke with, I found it to be an exceedingly odd event. Here’s a guy with a terminal disease giving what might be his last public concert. There was a strange mix of the celebratory – that we had known and enjoyed the band for so long – and the sorrowful – we are losing a talented artist “before his time”. I use quotation marks because none of us knows when the time is up. The difference here is that we know Downie’s time is close, and that there’s an opportunity to express our emotion before he is gone. And it was emotional. Bittersweet seems to be an appropriate word. That mixture of enjoying the moment together while being aware of the sadness and anger at his impending death.
I don’t honestly know how to judge the concert itself; I have never seen them perform live. It was clear that the set list had been picked for this specific event and many of the lyrics were ironic, or seemed to have been chosen to convey a message. At least, it was hard not to conclude that. The first song, Fifty Mission Cap, tells the story of Bill Barilko, who drowned unexpectedly on a fishing trip, gone too soon. Courage followed with one verse saying “There’s no simple Explanation For anything important Any of us do. And, yeah, the human
Tragedy Consists in The necessity Of living with The consequences Under pressure Under pressure.” I thought that it was a solid and workmanlike performance, and Downie was obviously exhausted by the end. Overall though, it seemed to be lacking something; it felt a bit hollow to me.
So we are losing an iconic artist and performer. Like David Bowie, Gord Downie is aware of his fate. Bowie wrote about death in the last few months of his life. Like any artist, creativity flows through Downie. It’s not something that he can shut off. He clearly remains passionate about specific issues. If the Hip is truly finished as a band, it will be interesting to see what route Downie’s artistic expression takes now that time is short and there is nothing to lose.