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Gord Downie


Esau.

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Twenty years ago today I fell in love with five guys from Kingston:

On August 15th, 1991 I saw The Tragically Hip for the first time.  It was a night that will forever stand out in my memories, and it marked the beginning of a long-term love affair between The Tragically Hip and I.

 

The Ottawa Congress Centre was packed, and I mean packed - there must have been 2,500 crammed in there.  Based on the success of New Orleans Is Sinking The Hip had made the jump from bars to concert halls, but when Road Apples dropped and exploded across the country the band found themselves seriously under-booked, honouring contracts in venues that were much too small for their burgeoning fame.  This was certainly one of those cases; I’m sure the band could have filled the 9,000 seat Civic Centre on this run.

 

(A cool fact: The Hip said in an interview that nobody in Canada would have to pay more than $20 to see them on this tour.  A fan in Toronto wrote to tell the band that with service charges the Toronto show cost $20.50 so The Tragically Hip hired people to stand inside the Toronto venue and hand fifty cents to everyone who walked through the doors.)

 

I grabbed a pair of beers and wedged myself into a spot about twenty feet from the stage.  Beyond that I didn’t move for the rest of the night, except as the tide would take me.  It was so packed in there we were jammed together like commuters on a Tokyo subway, and with the crowd raging to the band the whole room would drift one way or another as a single, amorphous beast.  One minute we would be standing straight up, then the crowd would shift and I’d be leaning to my left at a forty-five degree angle, another shift and my body would be pitched in the opposite direction, again standing at a perilous angle.  It was a weird feeling almost falling over again and again while knowing I could never actually fall down - there just wasn’t room.

 

At one point the kid in front of me craned his head around and said to me, “My feet aren’t touching the ground.”  Honestly.

 

Up on stage the band was absolutely on fire.  The newly-shorn Gord Downie commanded the stage with teeming confidence, fronting a band that was well-juiced from an obviously relentless touring and recording regimen.  And with just the EP, Up To Here and Road Apples to draw upon the material was utterly top-notch.

 

This was the end of the era of real rock and roll shows.  I’m talking balls-to-the-walls, screaming, fist-pumping, general admission, stage diving rock and roll.  Not the ticket-scanning, stay out of the aisles, two-beer limit, print at home, big screen, VIP section, two-song encore, “sit down I paid for these seats” concerts of today.  Back in the day a concert was an event, just as weight-lifting and javelin-throwing are events.  

 

Yes friends, back in the day a concert required sweat, stamina, and a good deal of training to get the full experience, and I think this may have been the last real rock and roll concert I ever attended.

 

Throughout the evening a couple of people had jumped on the stage only to turn and jump immediately back into the swarthy crowd.  But during New Orleans Is Sinking some moron leapt onto the stage and as he ran back towards the crowd with security giving chase the guy grabbed Gord Downie, pulling the singer down with him into the pit area between the crowd and the stage.

 

From my vantage point it looked like Gord went down pretty hard, and he wasn’t coming up.  The band played on, looking down into the pit and back and forth at each other quizzically, and still there was no Gord.  I was convinced he had gotten hurt and the show would soon be stopped.  It seemed like at least a minute or two before he finally dragged himself back on the stage, shirtless, sweaty, and clearly very, very angry.

 

Teeth and fists clenched Gord paced back and forth across the stage furiously as the band chugged along exchanging worried glances.  A few times he went up to the microphone as if to speak, only to turn away, utterly speechless with anger.  I was 100% sure it was just a matter of seconds before he stopped the show and stormed offstage - I can’t remember ever seeing someone that angry.  

 

It was like watching an animal that had just been caged for the first time, crazed with fear and indignation and just waiting for an opportunity to attack.

 

And then, finally, pumping with adrenaline Gord Downie went to the mic, and instead of lashing out, instead of cancelling the show, instead of screaming at people that love him and still try to pull him down, he sang:

 

“I had my hands in the river, my feet back up on the banks.  I looked up to the Lord above and said ‘hey man, thanks’.”

 

And the room absolutely exploded.  This was pure rock; a true moment in the cosmos of three-chord emotion and certainly the most unbridled display of pure rock and roll ethos I’ve seen, and it made my soul explode with that feeling.  And it wasn’t over yet.

 

“Sometimes I feel so good I gotta scream.  She said ‘Gordie, baby, I know exactly what you mean’.  She said.  

 

“I swear to God she said…”

 

When Gord screamed the scream that comes after that line he let all the anger out at once and we all felt it - the demon escaped and took over the room.  He screamed again, and people started throwing their beer cups.  

 

Downie came to the front of the stage, shirtless and without a mic, his arms at his sides with his fingers spread wide and his head raised to the ceiling, screaming for his life.  His eyes clenched and his head shaking from side to side, a thousand beer cups bounced off his body as the crowd pelted the angry beast.  I can see the beer cascading through the air, lit up by red and blue light cans, Gord taking it in like a Baptism of fire.  I can still hear Downie’s acoustic screams audible above the electrified band and the manic crowd.

 

Watching those beer cup bounce off of that man as he screamed primally at a rabid audience hypnotized by rock and roll is probably the single most enthralling moment of my entire concert-going history.  It’s not just a visual memory, it had nothing to do with the song, it was a magnified burst of that feeling that made me fall in love with live music in the first place, that intangible, indescribable orgasm of intense emotion that makes you go blind and senseless with bliss, makes you throw your hands in the air and scream like a madman on fire.

 

The kind of feeling that makes you throw a pair of $6 beers into the air at a rock and roll show.  

 

I haven’t felt that since. 

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http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=588202

 

The Tragically Hip
MTS Centre
Winnipeg, MB
August 5, 2016

** 16 BIT **

Source: Zoom H5 (internal mics X/Y) @ 24 bit/96 kHz
Mastering: .WAV's > iZotope MBIT+ (dithered and downsampled to 24 bit/48 kHz) > Sound Forge Pro 11.0 (Build 299) [Join individual .WAV files; Sony Clipped Peak Restoration plugin; iZotope Mastering Suite (declick); smooth levels, minor edits, normalize, & fades] > CDWav (tracking) > iZotope MBIT+ (dithered and downsampled to 16 bit/44.1 kHz) > Trader's Little Helper (level 5) > FLAC > TagScanner 5.1 (tagging)
Location: Section 314, Row 8 - Just to the left of centre directly behind the stage.
Recorded by: Chris Raffard
Mastered by: Dennis Orr
 

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Different source then the one I posted previously for august 10 Toronto.

http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=588198

Title: That Night In Toronto 10/8/16
Artist: The Tragically Hip
Venue: Air Canada Centre
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Date: August 10, 2016

Source:
CA-14 (Cards) > CA-9100 > Sony PCM-M10 (24bit/48kHz) > Cool Edit Pro 2.1 (Boost, dither and
resample to 16bit/44.1kHz) > CD WAV (Track splits) > Trader's Little Helper (Flac level 6,
aligned on sector boundaries) > Tagscanner 5.1 (Tagging)

Taped by: Mike Silver

 

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Stumbled across the first video on youtube. Curious I did some searching and found Geddy Lee talking about it. The Hip played Limelight in honour of Rush's induction into the Canadian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1994). I figured it had to be shared here. It's only a one minute clip, I'm guessing this is from a rehearsal judging by the room they are in. I'd love to get a complete video, or at least audio of them playing this

It doesn't get much more Canadian then this...

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Velvet said:

IN!!!  We'll probably get onsite super-early, like 5pm or so.  

If you want to buy a t-shirt get there early, the lineups for merch are insane.

In London they had merch tents outside the show so you could buy and take the stuff back to your car before entering.

See you tonight Otown!

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Kingston is really going all out.  Very cool. Market square sounds awesome.

 

 

Quote

 

The Tragically Hip will perform at the Rogers K-Rock Centre on August 20, 2016 beginning at 8:30 p.m. CBC will livestream the concert across Canada and the City of Kingston – with partners, Kingston Accommodation Partners and the Great Waterway – are excited to be hosting the livestream at Springer Market Square.

The Kingston Public Market will close at 2 p.m. so set-up for the live-stream can get underway.

Set-up should be complete by 4 p.m. The area will feature:

  • Large LED screen with concert-quality sound
  • Official concert merchandise
  • Food vendors
  • Selfie and signing walls

 

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I'm planning on watching the live stream at Gage Park in Hamilton...unfortunately the closest I will be getting but I just felt like I needed to be around people, even people I don't know to take in the last show and share in that moment. Hadn't even thought about the weather factor.......

Hope Ottawa was just as special as I keep hearing Hamilton was

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AUDIO

THE TRAGICALLY HIP
Kingston, ON -- Rogers K-Rock Centre
2016-08-20 -- 147:10

source: recording of live performance from CBC-FM R2: cable FM > RX-596 > R500 (SBM) > R44 (24/48) > HD
Mastered and posted to DIME by stevemtl on 2016-08-21: HD > Soundforge (@24/48: trim, edit, L2 level adjust, downsample, L2 dither) > CDwave (track cut) > TLH (flac level 8, ffp, md5) > TLH (torrent) > DIME

975.16 MB (1,022,526,086 bytes)

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=569558

 

VIDEO

The Tragically Hip
A National Celebration
Rogers K-Rock Centre
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
August 20, 2016

Lineage: CBC Music LIVE Webcast -> Livestreamer -> FFmpeg (edit) -> .ts
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280x720 16:9 1800 Kbps 25.00 fps
Audio: AAC 128 Kbps 48.0 KHz stereo

  2.13 GB (2,283,688,948 bytes)

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=569545

 

VIDEO

The Tragically Hip
August 20th 2016
Kingston,Ontario
K-Rock Centre

A live CBC Broadcast (No Commercials either!)
Channel 6
Recorded in SD on a Magnavox (model MWR10D6) Stand Alone Dvd Recorder (in 2.5 hour mode to fit entire show)

352 x 480 (im sure better quality ones will show up but this is what i was able to do!
256 kb/s AC3 CBR Audio
Stereo 2 Channel
NTSC
mpeg 2

  4.32 GB (4,640,761,916 bytes)

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=569502

 

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You can sign up at dime, doesn't take long and they have fair ratio rules. I'm sure the audio/video will pop up on other trackers though.

There's this one up now as well (its HD so large files), at Trader's Den - you also need to be registered - they also have fair ratio rules, and like dime, it's a pretty active site.

HD VIDEO

The Tragically Hip

Rogers K-Rock Centre

Kingston, ON,

Canada

08-20-2016

Backhaul 1080i h264 31mbps DTS-HDMA5.1-ALANiS.mkv

Lineage: 89W (Galaxy 28) KU-Band Satellite > TBS6983 > TSReader Pro 2.8.48 > VideoReDo > .MKV
Video: h.264, 1920x1080i, 16:9, 31 Mbps average, 29.97fps
Audio Track 1: DTS-HD-MA 5.1 Lossless / 1509kbps min
Audio Track 2: Mpeg-Audio Layer-2 2.0 384kbps
Runtime: 02:56:53

Full Size: 40.93 GB

Just a note: this is the backhaul feed that CBC used for their broadcast. This has way better picture quality (31mbps 1080i) and no channel logo

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=127508

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What an incredible night on Saturday, I am so grateful for it!We went to Kingston and I got a miracle and Velvet found a ticket for little over face. I still can't believe it!  We were sitting behind the stage. The show was intense, the full arena hot and sweaty. it was a celebratory vibe. so amazed by Gord doing this whole tour and being so solid throughout!  i just can't believe it!  The other guys onstage were smiling and soaking it all up and you could see their love for him so clearly. seeing them all walk offstage together at the end was sad. what a crazy thing. (((((i heart Gordie)))))
we walked over to the square after where it looked like a great time was had by all partying and watching the big screen.  we've been watching some of the show today and it looks and sounds fantastic.  way to go CBCi will be watching this for a long time to come.  Now, continuing to send vibes that Gord can stay strong.

In Gord We Trust :D

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