09-21-2004, 08:03 AM
Joined at the hip
By Jim Sullivan | September 21, 2004
We'd be less than honest if we told you we have rabidly followed the two-decades-long career of the Canadian quintet the Tragically Hip. Never liked the smarty-pants name much. The music struck us as mediocre middle-of-the-road rock. Even the positive (four-star) review of its latest disc, "In Between Evolution," in Maxim didn't make us rush to put the CD, their 11th, in the player: "This is music that makes you want to drive all night across an endless wasteland of frozen plains (read: Canada)." We don't want to drive across any endless wasteland for any reason. We grew up in Maine. We've done wasteland. But this record, released on the local Zoe/Rounder label, is getting under our skin in a Neil Young & Crazy Horse way. Credit guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois for that. There's an antiwar subtext permeating this work. Rather pertinent. This -- and its striving sound -- remind us of the late, tragically underrated band the Call. And we like the Hip's twist on Sister Sledge's "We Are Family," called "Are We Family," with its notion of Americans "taking care of each other, one bullet to another." The Tragically Hip plays the third date of its tour, an 18-plus show, at Avalon tonight. The Sam Roberts Band opens at 8. Tickets: $28.25. 15 Lansdowne St., 617-262-2424.
By Jim Sullivan | September 21, 2004
We'd be less than honest if we told you we have rabidly followed the two-decades-long career of the Canadian quintet the Tragically Hip. Never liked the smarty-pants name much. The music struck us as mediocre middle-of-the-road rock. Even the positive (four-star) review of its latest disc, "In Between Evolution," in Maxim didn't make us rush to put the CD, their 11th, in the player: "This is music that makes you want to drive all night across an endless wasteland of frozen plains (read: Canada)." We don't want to drive across any endless wasteland for any reason. We grew up in Maine. We've done wasteland. But this record, released on the local Zoe/Rounder label, is getting under our skin in a Neil Young & Crazy Horse way. Credit guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois for that. There's an antiwar subtext permeating this work. Rather pertinent. This -- and its striving sound -- remind us of the late, tragically underrated band the Call. And we like the Hip's twist on Sister Sledge's "We Are Family," called "Are We Family," with its notion of Americans "taking care of each other, one bullet to another." The Tragically Hip plays the third date of its tour, an 18-plus show, at Avalon tonight. The Sam Roberts Band opens at 8. Tickets: $28.25. 15 Lansdowne St., 617-262-2424.
Nice to see new fans emerge, especially when a good review comes with them.