02-25-2008, 04:38 PM
The Tragically Hip rock hometown with two-hour, sold-out performance; An old-fashioned rockfest
By Greg Burliuk
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The K-Rock Centre may be state of the art, but The Tragically Hip christened it as a concert venue with an old-fashioned rockfest Saturday night.
Sure, there were fancy lights and mighty speakers, even video screens on each side of the stage to capture closeups of the quintet, and in particular the manic antics of lead singer Gord Downie. But there were no weird lighting effects or pyrotechnics. This was meat and potatoes rock, hold the salad please, just guitars, drums and voice. There was little banter between songs, and other than a few local references, you got the feeling this would be a typical band performance in Sault Ste. Marie or Calgary.
The Hip played for more than two hours, rocking all the crowd favourites, and, for good measure, even had Dan Aykroyd play harmonica during one of the encores. And most of the capacity crowd of 6,800 stood the entire time in a pledge of devotion to their hometown favourites.
The concert was 40 minutes late in starting because of ticket snafus. People were still piling through the doors at 8 p.m. The band was given a flowery introduction by Aykroyd who called them, "the spirit of our country, the voice of our country."
Instead of opening with one of their minted favourites, the Hip played a song of more recent vintage, The Lonely End of the Rink. From there, however, it was on to familiar territory, as the crowd knew within the first slithering chords, that New Orleans Is Sinking was about to erupt. They also knew when the next two songs, Fully, Completely and Grace, Too, were about to blossom.
One of the advantages of having the video screens was in capturing Downie's facial expressions, which alternated between being sly and knowing, and a little psychotic. He is known for his stage gyrations, which suggest he is a student of mime and Flamenco dancing. Over the last few years, a plaintive side has appeared in his singing, but on this night, he was rocker Gord - even on the slow songs.
The canon of best-loved Hip songs slowly unfolded: Ahead by A Century, Fiddler's Green, Fifty Mission Cap, Courage, Bobcaygeon, My Music at Work, and At The Hundredth Meridian all had their place in the sun. There were occasional bursts of newer songs such as Yer Not The Ocean from their 2006 album World Container.
But it was the classics that the crowd loved and the Hip closed the concert with a raft of them. The last song before the encore was Blow At High Dough, and the two encores saw such favourites as Locked in the Trunk of A Car (with Aykroyd on harmonica) and Little Bones. About the only hits missing from the performance were their first one, Small Town Bringdown, which was absent from their Yer Favourites greatest-hits album, Vaccination Scar, Three Pistols and Nautical Disaster.
Most of the songs were delivered in the same fashion as when they were originally recorded. However, Fifty Mission Cap was a much more muscular vision than its original and At The Hundredth Meridian featured Downie's most extensive mimicry, at first riding the mic stand like a hobby horse, then later taking a nap on it with his handkerchief covering his face.
My favourite song of the night was My Music at Work from the 2000 album Music@Work, mostly because of the nice combination of snarling guitars and Downie's equally snarling voice.
Although Downie may be the visual focus of the band, one can't help but be impressed by the ferocious beat driven out by drummer Johnny Fay; and the inventiveness of lead guitarist Rob Baker, who never seems to play the same guitar lick twice.
And what about the sound at K-Rock place? On Saturday night, you couldn't always hear every word Downie sang but you could clearly hear everything that Baker, rhythm guitarist Paul Langlois and bassist Gord Sinclair were doing. There were times that the rhythm section of Sinclair and Fay seemed to make the joint shake with their deep-ended sounds.
The Memorial Centre had been struggling for years (some would say the last 20) to keep up with the technological needs of modern bands. In a recent interview with the Whig-Standard, Baker said the Hip hadn't played the M Centre since 1995, basically because their show was too big. Now that's not the case and Kingston can be back on the concert circuit for current stars and not be just a respite for has-beens.
By Greg Burliuk
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=916431">http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=916431</a><!-- m -->
The K-Rock Centre may be state of the art, but The Tragically Hip christened it as a concert venue with an old-fashioned rockfest Saturday night.
Sure, there were fancy lights and mighty speakers, even video screens on each side of the stage to capture closeups of the quintet, and in particular the manic antics of lead singer Gord Downie. But there were no weird lighting effects or pyrotechnics. This was meat and potatoes rock, hold the salad please, just guitars, drums and voice. There was little banter between songs, and other than a few local references, you got the feeling this would be a typical band performance in Sault Ste. Marie or Calgary.
The Hip played for more than two hours, rocking all the crowd favourites, and, for good measure, even had Dan Aykroyd play harmonica during one of the encores. And most of the capacity crowd of 6,800 stood the entire time in a pledge of devotion to their hometown favourites.
The concert was 40 minutes late in starting because of ticket snafus. People were still piling through the doors at 8 p.m. The band was given a flowery introduction by Aykroyd who called them, "the spirit of our country, the voice of our country."
Instead of opening with one of their minted favourites, the Hip played a song of more recent vintage, The Lonely End of the Rink. From there, however, it was on to familiar territory, as the crowd knew within the first slithering chords, that New Orleans Is Sinking was about to erupt. They also knew when the next two songs, Fully, Completely and Grace, Too, were about to blossom.
One of the advantages of having the video screens was in capturing Downie's facial expressions, which alternated between being sly and knowing, and a little psychotic. He is known for his stage gyrations, which suggest he is a student of mime and Flamenco dancing. Over the last few years, a plaintive side has appeared in his singing, but on this night, he was rocker Gord - even on the slow songs.
The canon of best-loved Hip songs slowly unfolded: Ahead by A Century, Fiddler's Green, Fifty Mission Cap, Courage, Bobcaygeon, My Music at Work, and At The Hundredth Meridian all had their place in the sun. There were occasional bursts of newer songs such as Yer Not The Ocean from their 2006 album World Container.
But it was the classics that the crowd loved and the Hip closed the concert with a raft of them. The last song before the encore was Blow At High Dough, and the two encores saw such favourites as Locked in the Trunk of A Car (with Aykroyd on harmonica) and Little Bones. About the only hits missing from the performance were their first one, Small Town Bringdown, which was absent from their Yer Favourites greatest-hits album, Vaccination Scar, Three Pistols and Nautical Disaster.
Most of the songs were delivered in the same fashion as when they were originally recorded. However, Fifty Mission Cap was a much more muscular vision than its original and At The Hundredth Meridian featured Downie's most extensive mimicry, at first riding the mic stand like a hobby horse, then later taking a nap on it with his handkerchief covering his face.
My favourite song of the night was My Music at Work from the 2000 album Music@Work, mostly because of the nice combination of snarling guitars and Downie's equally snarling voice.
Although Downie may be the visual focus of the band, one can't help but be impressed by the ferocious beat driven out by drummer Johnny Fay; and the inventiveness of lead guitarist Rob Baker, who never seems to play the same guitar lick twice.
And what about the sound at K-Rock place? On Saturday night, you couldn't always hear every word Downie sang but you could clearly hear everything that Baker, rhythm guitarist Paul Langlois and bassist Gord Sinclair were doing. There were times that the rhythm section of Sinclair and Fay seemed to make the joint shake with their deep-ended sounds.
The Memorial Centre had been struggling for years (some would say the last 20) to keep up with the technological needs of modern bands. In a recent interview with the Whig-Standard, Baker said the Hip hadn't played the M Centre since 1995, basically because their show was too big. Now that's not the case and Kingston can be back on the concert circuit for current stars and not be just a respite for has-beens.