The final concert was at the Rogers K-Rock Centre with a free live viewing at the Springer Market Square in downtown Kingston.
From the Kingston Whig-Standard dated Monday, August 22nd, 2016 -
"The Hip knows how to put on a show
If you didn't get it before, you probably do now, this whole celebration of The Tragically Hip that the rest of the country's been busy doing all summer.
The band rolled into their hometown Saturday night to play the final show of their Man Machine Poem tour, and what a night it was.
It wasn't so much a concert as a singalong, with the band leading the 6,000 or so in the arena, the thousands more in Springer Market Square and millions more across the country. This night was not one to be disengaged; this night was one in which you sang, and you sang loudly and proudly.
That's one of the things about a Hip show -- it's not an audience in attendance, it's a community.
Before the show even started, you could see beach balls were being batted about, a giant Canadian flag passed over heads around the arena. Look a little closer and you also see a wonderful camaraderie: the high-fives and hugs among strangers, the "how-many-times-have-you-seen-them?" conversations, the signs supporting Downie in his fight against cancer, the chanting of "Hip! Hip! Hip!" and then "Gordie! Gordie! Gordie!" and the spontaneous singing of O Canada. That this is their hometown -- with the band's family and friends undoubtedly in attendance -- made it that much more special.
For me, the packed, steamy Rogers K-Rock Centre has never felt as intimate as it did Saturday night.
And when the band finally appeared onstage and launched into Fifty Mission Cap, that celebration of all things Hip began in earnest. If you didn't get goosebumps, well, I don't know what to tell you.
As they have this entire tour, The Hip have been playing mini-sets from many of their albums. Saturday night was no different.
The band, bunched together onstage as they were 30 years ago playing any venue that would have them, kicked off with material from Fully Completely, their third album, and one of their most popular. Courage, the second song and perhaps the most poignant in light of Downie's diagnosis, was anything but Saturday night. On the contrary, it was a reason to pump your fist into the air and sing at the top of your lungs.
After a rocking version of At the Hundredth Meridian, the band transitioned into songs from the relatively new Man Machine Poem. While the tracks held their own, many of the crowd slipped out for a beer or bathroom break.
As "Machine" ended, the crew reconfigured the stage, including bringing in a new drum kit, so the band stood farther apart, perhaps reflecting their evolution from playing to a handful of people at a Kingston pub to filling arenas across Canada.
Downie, who didn't say much when the band played here two years ago as part of the Fully Completely anniversary tour, was chattier Saturday night, taking the time to address Prime Minister Justin Trudeau -- who sat in a suite above the crowd -- to talk about First Nations issues, and how the young PM was going to fix them.
And then they jumped into select tracks from Music@Work, Road Apples and then Phantom Power before leaving the stage, with Downie, who preened and pantomimed throughout the night, telling the roaring crowd that they will pretend they're going to leave, but won't, and instead return to the stage shortly.
Upon their return, they went back to their first album, Up to Here, and played the two songs that got them noticed, New Orleans is Sinking and Blow at High Dough. Sandwiched in between was Boots or Hearts, my favourite Hip song, and, judging by the way those around me joined in, I wasn't alone.
After another brief interlude, they returned to the stage, this time drawing from Day for Night. If you hadn't seen a video clip of Downie, his anguished face projected on the big screen, crying during Grace, Too in his other performances -- that was the reason I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep it together for the entire show, frankly -- you did Saturday night. It was still moving the second time around, and, looking around, I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
Of all the songs they played over that two-and-a-half-hour show, the songs that stood out for me were the ones that got your head bobbing and fist pumping, like Poets, or Little Bones.
One can talk endlessly about how The Hip made Canadiana cool -- and there has been no shortage of terrific stories this summer on that very topic -- and it's all certainly true.
Despite all of that, The Tragically Hip proved Saturday night that they are, above all else, an incredibly tight rock 'n' roll band with an exceptional canon of material who knows how to give their fans what they want. It's as simple, and as complicated, as that.
As the band finished and stood onstage arm in arm, soaking in the deserved adoration as they have after each show on this tour, I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to be there that night, among that community, how lucky people were to be able to watch it anywhere beside their fellow Canadians, and how lucky we are to have them in the first place." (
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Play List
Here's the set list from Saturday night's show.
1. Fifty Mission Cap
2. Courage
3. Wheat Kings
4. At the Hundredth Meridian
5. In A World Possessed by the Human Mind
6. What Blue
7. Tired As F---
8. Machine
9. My Music At Work
10. Lake Fever
11. Toronto #4
12. Putting Down
13. Twist My Arm
14. Three Pistols
15. Fiddler's Green
16. Little Bones
17. The Last Of The Unplucked Gems
18. Something On
19. Poets
20. Bobcaygeon
21. Fireworks
First encore
22. New Orleans Is Sinking
23. Boots Or Hearts
24. Blow At High Dough
Second encore
25. Nautical Disaster
26. Scared
27. Grace, Too
Third encore
28. Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
29. Gift Shop
30. Ahead By A Century