<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/Tragically+light/1860348/story.html">http://www.thestarphoenix.com/entertain ... story.html</a><!-- m -->
Tragically Hip light up the Ex
By Bill Robertson, For The StarPhoenix
What a way to start the Ex!
Towering above the pretzel, ice cream and spudnut stands -- and all those kind people offering to sell us raffle tickets -- sits a large grandstand, full of good, loud music.
The Tragically Hip, touring their most recent album, We Are the Same, blasted the Ex's opening night Tuesday into outer space. And the outer space was calm.
All day, the weather had been iffy, with rain at noon, but by showtime the sky was dark but holding, the ferris wheel turning and the Hip burning.
Kingston, Ont.'s finest -- excepting, of course, Sir John A. Macdonald -- opened hard and happy with one of the band's gem of gems, New Orleans is Sinking. The crowd went nuts, leaping to its feet and rushing the stage.
Lead vocalist Gordon Downie was in fine form in a white shirt with black pants and vest. Just after getting the crowd all worked up, he and the band slowed things right down for the multi-part Depression Suite from the new album. But things weren't slow for long.
The familiar strains of Poets, from Phantom Power, got things all revved up again, Downie doing a manic version of a Scottish hornpipe, one hand on his crotch, the other holding a white handkerchief to his tailbone.
From there, he and the band -- Paul Langlois on rhythm guitar, Gord Sinclair on bass, Johnny Fay on drums and Rob Baker on lead guitar -- took us through the much-loved Ahead By a Century, Fireworks, with its great lyrics about "loosening my grip on Bobby Orr," the country-sounding Morning Moon and another favourite, Courage.
As a big evening moon started slowly to appear in the southeastern sky, the Hip went acoustic and did Thompson Girl, yet another from Phantom Power (isn't that an album!!), Coffee Girl, from the new album, and one Downie said they never, ever, ever, do in concert, but would do tonight for "the cat with the sign." That was Fiddler's Green, stretching back to 1991's Road Apples. The crowd adored it.
As of press time, the Hip stuck to their acoustic guns and dedicated the iconic Wheat Kings to David Milgaard and Gail Miller, part of what Downie called the "great Canadian tradition of human fallibility."
Yes, rock 'n' roll, politics and the Tragically Hip. Another great Canadian tradition.
"We're forced to bed, but we're free to dream"
Dana
