The Hip

I love Canadian band The Tragically Hip. They've been around for over 20 years, enjoy largess in Canada and sell out huge venues. When they travel west they generally play more intimate clubs to a small Canadian ex-pat crowd in the US. Last week they sold out three nights at the Troubadour and I was fortunate to be in the audience one night. The Hip are hall-of-famers from Kingston, Ontario (not too far from my hometown) and have a kind of bluesy, introspectively lyrical sound. The lead singer/song-writer, Gordon Downie, has a soothing natural verbrato to his voice and a natural gift as story-teller. Even after all these years they still rock! At times, the music was a little too loud for the space but didn't detract from the quality. The guitarist is proud of his collection of instruments and played a different one about 10 times. Two sets, two encores, and over two hours of entertainment made it a very satisfying night. These snapshots are from my iphone so they aren't so great.