[Andre Cardinal]

I wouldn't do it either.....we are all getting old.

Last minute decision for me. Haven't seen the band in 2 years. Kids change things....but they don't get it.

[WesleyC.]

I doubt there are any full songs as it's not a concert video.

If I recall from last night there were about 8 songs on the movie, the 2nd half is more like a concert video. I think they did about 6 songs complete. I had a few drinks so I cant remember exactly how man they did but for sure it was over 6.

[WesleyC.]

I think the movie was actually pretty good, better then Heksenketel and That Night in Toronto. I liked it because it had a lot of behind the scenes stuff, and the best part I found was after the concert they were recorded back in their trailer decompressing with some drinks and jokes. Gord Sinclair is walking around with his shirt off and belt undone, Rob is all smiles nad Johnny looks like he is wound up pretty tight, and Gord D. looks very relieved Paul looks glad its over with. Its actually a great look inside what its like to be a Hip. The guys constantly seem like any of us if we were in that situation, that meaning they are so normal.

[blacksox12]

Saw it last night in Ottawa and enjoyed it. For all of us true fans, it's a treat. Nice to see some of the behind the scenes stuff that we rarely get to see. One of the parts I liked was right at the end as WesleyC. mentioned when after the show, they are back in the bus, and Robbie starts talking about how it was fitting that they included 50MC in the encore and how it sent the crowd off on a high note. What I found interesting was his mention of other songs that could do that or couldn't do that. Twist My Arm could not do that, but I believe he mentioned Cordelia and I'll Believe In You as songs that could be fitting as closers. Interesting Q&A with the director last night as well. In response to a question about footage, he did says that he has a lot of it, including the full concert.

[blacksox12]

I doubt there are any full songs as it's not a concert video.

If I recall from last night there were about 8 songs on the movie, the 2nd half is more like a concert video. I think they did about 6 songs complete. I had a few drinks so I cant remember exactly how man they did but for sure it was over 6.

Saw clips of the following songs in the film:
Grace Too
Drip Drip (We Want To Be It)
ABAC
IAGLIYDW
Bobcaygeon
50MC

Most of the above were full songs except maybe Drip. I think I'm missing one though...

[Tthip]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.toromagazine.com/culture/film/eaf11834-a4d9-6d44-39e7-ef17256a3d14/Bobcaygeon/">http://www.toromagazine.com/culture/fil ... obcaygeon/</a><!-- m -->

“Bobcaygeon” wasn’t the highest-charting single from The Tragically Hip’s sixth album Phantom Power (1998), but building on steady radio airplay it’s become one of their signature songs

It’s also brought national attention to a tiny community in rural Ontario, population 2,500. While the name may have been chosen for reasons more practical than sentimental — Bobcaygeon rhymes with “constellations,” a key image in the lyrics — locals have taken the shout-out to heart.

Andy Keen’s concert film Bobcaygeon, which captures the Hip’s first performance in the town in June of 2011, is as much about the fans as the band. Some fly-on-the-wall tour bus footage aside Hip followers get the real spotlight, revealing more about the music’s importance than bios or interviews ever could.

In anticipation of the movie’s DVD / iTunes release on November 20 we spoke with Keen about his unique look at one of our country’s greatest bands.

Bobcaygeon answers two questions most concert movies don’t bother to ask: why the concert is important enough to film, and how it’s actually put together.

Yeah, [the latter] made for some great Spinal Tap moments, like the band’s manager showing up and discovering a wellhead in front of the stage. That was a keeper. I wanted to show what was really going on with the concert preparation, the wrinkles that happened. 



Concert movies that show almost nothing but performance always seem like wasted opportunities.

Look at The Last Waltz — what made it great were the performances, of course, but also the cutaways to the guys just hanging around, chatting. I loved that cutting between performance and backstage, and that’s what we tried to do in the latter half of Bobcaygeon.


Footage of the town hall meeting, where locals question the logistics of moving thousands of people in and then out of Bobcaygeon, is particularly interesting. Did you ever follow up on that, learn of the ‘aftermath’ so to speak?



Overall it was a success. There was a lot of rain that day, so the field site [got] very worn. I know there was some backlash, online, about busses getting stuck, people trying to get home. But everything I heard indicated [the town would] be happy to do it again. 





Bobcaygeon focuses more on the fans than the band members themselves. Was that something you planned initially, or did you find their presence in the editing process?

Right from the start, Gord (Downie) and the band had agreed they didn’t want to do interviews, or add anything biographical about the Hip. So we turned the camera on the fans. In the end I think we used more concert footage than the band thought we would. But we couldn’t build a narrative leading to the concert and not show a bunch of it. That would’ve felt like a rip-off.

When we put the call out for fans to interview we got a huge response. We visited lots and lots of them, more than half didn’t make it into the final cut.

Of the footage we do get of the band, mostly on their tour bus, your unobtrusive filming style reveals a lot about their dynamic as friends, and professional musicians.

Yeah. When I first saw that footage, I was struck by how still, after 25 years, they’re a bit nervous to go out there. You can see that in their body language and interactions. 


Do you think that nervousness was owed to a high level of anticipation for the concert?  

I wonder. I was definitely surprised at the time, and now that you mention it that might have had something to do with it. I wonder if, on the way to the next show, they felt the same kind of thing.

How did this finally come about, 14 years after the song’s release?

From what I understand, the promoter Mark woke up one morning and just had that lightbulb go off in his head. I know the band had talked about it before but it’s all about timing. The song has [taken its time] to become an anthem for fans. Waiting made it almost more special.

An underlying theme of the film, I think, is how certain songs mark moments in our lives, how we attach music and memory. Do you have any particular Hip memories, as so many fans do?

Mine pale in comparison to theirs. Just those iconic moments — driving to university, travelling across the province, sitting on the dock up north. Neil Young aside, I think the Hip really own the imagery of the Canadian landscape.

[Tthip]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/film-reviews/bobcaygeon-tragically-hip-concert-doc-misses-the-mark/article5349376/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/fil ... le5349376/</a><!-- m -->

Bobcaygeon: Tragically Hip concert doc misses the mark
BRAD WHEELER
The Globe and Mail

Nobody knew Woodstock was going to be Woodstock until, you know, Woodstock. Director Andy Keen, on the other hand, had advance warning of what was to go down in a farmer’s field in Bobcaygeon, Ont., on June 25, 2011. His documentary on the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip chronicles what the movie’s press blurb describes as “one of the most anticipated events in the history of Canadian music.” Anticipated because a lauded song of place of was coming home for the very first time – back to the garden, as it were.

Bobcaygeon is a Juno-winning story-song from the Hip’s 1998 album Phantom Power. By far the breeziest tune in the band’s repertoire, it references both Toronto and the titular, bucolic community about 160 kilometres away. One year ago a local promoter had the idea to bring the band to Bobcaygeon for a festival; Bobcaygeon, the feature doc, tells the story.

Much like the Woodstock saga, there was tension involved with the notion of holding a festival for 25,000 people in a village with a population of 3,000. Keen films a meeting attended by officials and worried citizens. Later, the director (who won a Juno for the 2006 concert film Escarpment Blues) resorts to the king cliché of music-fest docs – the time-lapse photography thing, chronicling the stage’s erection. (Post-concert, we see the garbage-strewn field, naturally).

The film’s charm is its dealing with Hip fans and townsfolk, with the former testifying to their devotion of the band and the latter expressing their enthusiasm for the festival and the geographically specific song. (Oddly, more often than not, the people who are interviewed on camera spoken to with sport tattoos.)

In short, the band’s fans will need to watch Bobcaygeon, while others can miss it.

One of the film’s problems is that Gord Downie, who wrote the lyrics to Bobcaygeon, doesn’t talk about it except to say that singing the “classy song” would be a “formal occasion.” There’s some good backstage footage for Hip fans to watch, but Keen neglects to ask the band about the collective Canadian experience, involving the place where constellations revealed themselves “one star at a time.” Instead we hear about the drummer’s preference for alcohol wipes over deodorant, and we learn that the water pressure for showers at the local inn is inadequate (in the estimation of two band members).

Perhaps Downie did not wish to mythologize the song. Perhaps the village’s claim to Canadian rock fame rests only in its rhyme-ability with “constellation.”

After the concert, one of the band members asks “where are we playing next?” So much for the sense of epic occasion. Perhaps in a number of years, if the festival’s attendance grows as non-attenders tell everybody they were there the night a crowd sang “it was in Bobycageon” while actually in Bobcaygeon, maybe the event’s significance will grow as well.

[Scotty12]

Going to see it tonight! Anyone else?

[chris]

I am.

[tonyd]

i am!
chris, i have all the footage from the documentary
wish i was allowed to cut the show.

[Scotty12]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://bloorcinema.com/2012/11/20/just-announced-the-tragically-hip-join-bobcaygeon-qa/">http://bloorcinema.com/2012/11/20/just- ... aygeon-qa/</a><!-- m -->

Any one have questions they want asked?

[mojo_mattv]

Just want to know if I made the cut!

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/0RjjI.jpg">http://i.imgur.com/0RjjI.jpg</a><!-- m -->

Did you see the two of us talking about one another throughout the doc? We made the trailer.

[Scotty12]

You sure did, I don't want to spoil anything for you, but I think you'll be happy! The crowd in the theatre tonight had a nice reaction to one of your moments.

[BIGVDOGG]

i watched it 2x today,was at hmv 10am sharp.I am very happy with the documentary.Matt your in there,wes and his wife,chris and trevor A,Markslog,stephen dame,i might be missing someone.This show meant alot to me,My summers since i was a kid were spent just down the road from the show less than 2k and i still have a trailer up there.Could tell it meant alot to the band too,you could see the tense moments before going onstage,im inspired to edit my footage of the show and gets some vids up.

Tigerthelion88 is in there also.

[jgardz]

A cool doc for sure...some cool behind the scenes stuff, some interesting fan stories, (some STRANGE fans, lol), cool seeing people I've seen and met at shows over the years...but NO extras on the Bluray! A little disappointed by that, but overall a nice addition to my hip collection. Well done.