hip

It’s been a bit of an emotional weekend for us Canadians – our “national rock band” The Tragically Hip performed their final concert on Saturday night in a performance that was half mourning and half celebration.

Earlier this year, lead singer Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer – but instead of fading away, Gord and the band decided to rage against the dying of the light and put on a 15 show tour across the country (after Gord underwent radiation treatment, chemotherapy and brain surgery).

If you’re not from Canada, you’ve probably never heard of The Hip, but to give you an idea of how big a deal this was to Canadians: Canada’s national broadcaster the CBC broadcast the three hour concert live with no breaks or commercials (instead of previous scheduled primetime coverage of the Rio Olympics), nearly 1/3 of the entire population watched the concert (including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who was there rocking a full-on Canadian tuxedo and who was just as emotional as everyone else) and tens of thousands gathered in backyards, around campfires and in public parks to watch and listen with friends and fans.

The Hip’s lyrics are cryptic and enigmatic and everyone has a bit of a different personal association with their music, so in this post I thought I would share a few photos that I associate with three specific Tragically Hip songs.