Tragically Hip opens Artpark run with sublime show
The Tragically Hip opened its four-night run at Artpark on Tuesday evening with one of the finest, most energetic and well-received shows it has played in our neighborhood. If this show offers any indication, it’s going to be wild, torrid, emotional and awfully fun week with the Hip.
What made Tuesday so special? It’s hard to nail it to one particular thing. Maybe it was the venue, which was lawn free Tuesday.
Perhaps it was the participation of the crowd, which truly seemed to “get it,” following the band as it made its journey through its considerable catalog, and feeling the pulse in front-man Gordon Downie’s performance as much as it succumbed to the power of the rhythm section and the subtle interplay of the twin (and sometimes triple, when Downie strapped on his acoustic) guitar presence.
Maybe it was the set list, which was oh-so-fine, and drew liberally from every phase, while acknowledging the new lease on life that is the sublime “We Are the Same.”
Could it have been the divine convergence of all of these variables? “Divine” feels like a keeper word—Tuesday’s show had that element of otherness to it, as if providence was indeed intent on smiling down on the proceedings.
When the Tragically Hip is one, it’s really on. The shows that boast this element of otherness are the best ones, because one who is attuned feels the building the band is playing in lift off the ground, find some sort of space to hover in that is its own, and then transform into a private playground where all the rest of it is forgotten.
Enough of the purple prose, for now. The facts are and were these. The Hip came out to rapturous applause, opened with the “We Are the Same” three-part beauty “The Depression Suite,” assaulted an inspired “Family Band,” then luxuriated in an airy, spacious “Gift Shop.”
The rest of set one — for the Hip is now offering its fans a two-set, three-hour show — included a sublime “The Last Recluse,” a muscular “New Orleans Is Sinking,” a tender and emotive “Bobcaygeon” and a new Hip classic in the form of “Speed River,” which positively made the tail feather shiver.
The band returned after a brief break with an acoustic mini-set that included “Thompson Girl” one that got the crowd considerably riled, “Fiddler’s Green.” (This was certainly a high point among many.)
“Ahead by a Century” was a movie-in-song, and probably conjured its own childhood reflections for everyone there. Downie was singing so well, and he had been throughout the evening — “Sing the words, serve the song,” as he told me once — but this song offered that stirring tenor in stark relief against the Rob Baker/Paul Langlois open-tinged acoustic melange.
“Nautical Disaster,” “In View,” “ The Exact Feeling,” “The Dark Canuck”—could any Hip fan have left feeling even the slightest tinge of disappointment? One for the ages, indeed.
Concert Review
The Tragically Hip
Tuesday night in Artpark Mainstage Theater. Additional performances at 8 p. m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
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