Dan Aykroyd, wearing a classic Canada t-shirt introduced the band. Thirty seconds in, watching lead singer Gord Downie wiggle his foot on tiptoe as the band were playing “Grace, Too,” looking almost sinister, I KNEW I had to pay attention. It was an OH MY GOD moment for me. As they progressed through the song, I was transfixed by the sounds and the sights of it all, Gord's stage presence reminiscent of Mick Jagger, Gordon Sinclair’s Oh Face as he played the bass, Rob Baker’s very long hair, Paul Langlois’ backing vocals, Johnny Fay’s drums. It was numinous.
Later in the show, they performed “Nautical Disaster,” which I’ve since learned was inspired by the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. Watch these as soon as you can, as NBC has them pulled as soon as they discover them. Even on Hulu, SNL has stripped out The Hip performances.
So, the next morning, I got up early to get to Musicland so I could buy the cassette as soon as they opened. I’ve not done that before or since. No other band had that kind of effect on me, but I didn’t yet know.
Listening to “Day for Night” as I drove home, I was sure I had discovered something great. Every song seemed just right, not only the songs themselves, but the order of the songs. It just worked exceptionally well for me.
At some point, I found the band’s website. I don’t remember everything about it, but there was a long video that had a scene of several of the group jamming in a trailer. Never released as an actual song, it was just astounding that they were able to produce something so amazing off the cuff like that.
After moving from Seattle to Yakima for a job with Borders Books, I purchased “Live Between Us”, a live album recorded at Cobo Arena in my hometown of Detroit, MI. I’d not heard the albums between “Day for Night” and the live album, so many of the songs were new to me. It actually took me several listenings to really get how awesome these songs were. ”Don’t Wake Daddy” and “Ahead by a Century” stood out to me as particulary remarkable. I remember distinctly sharing those songs with a coworker who was familiar with the band while we were both on break. It was very impressive, but even then, I still didn’t know.
I also bought “In Violet Light” and “Phantom Power” around that time, and of course “Fireworks” and “Silver Jet” stood out from those albums. And then “In Between Evolution” was released in June of 2004 and the music world would never be the same for me again. At that point, I knew. I KNEW. They were the greatest band of all time. I hand sold that album like nothing else. I made sure to tell every customer I could about how astonishingly, amazingly good this band was. I even made a point to bring it up to people at church. “It Can’t Be Nashville Every Night”, “Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park”, “Vaccination Scar”, and “As Makeshift as We Are” stood out for me on that album.
The band were going on tour for IBE, and I had planned to go to Portland, Seattle, and Spokane to see them every chance I could, but I stupidly blew my money on poker, and wasn’t able to go to any show for that tour. I’m still kicking myself for that mistake, 12 years later.
So I moved back to Seattle later that year, and kept telling everyone how great this band was, the best band out of Canada since Rush, the greatest band of all time. I continued to hand sell everyone I could at work whenever we had a copy of their work in stock. I scoured used CD stores in the University District for their older stuff. I bought “Live from the Vault” collections on their website. I special ordered “Hipeponymous”. Then I heard they were coming to the Sasquatch Festival for Memorial Day weekend in 2006. I made sure to get tickets, and drove from Seattle, playing all of their music I had on the trip. Unfortunately, the weather turned nasty, with very heavy hail shortly before they were to take the stage, and my date did not want to stay any longer, so I missed their performance. Of course, I was extremely disappointed at having missed them again.
At this point, “World Container” was released, and I bought it the day it was released. Unfortunately, I didn't like it as much as their previous albums. IBE had been so remarkable, it was hard for them to achieve the same level of greatness to me. I did realize that the chorus of “In View” was the best possible ringtone, so it’s what I use.
I got engaged just before WC came out, and bought tickets for the show at the Moore Theatre at the end of March, which also happened to be at the end of my honeymoon. I was finally able to see them live! We had pretty good seats, about 6 rows back, on the right aisle. I don’t remember the name of the opening act, but Gord called them the best band in the land. I posted to the Hip Story Project about the whole experience. My wife created a shadow box with my ticket as the inspiration.
“We Are the Same” came out in 2009, and I saw the band’s show at the Moore again. And then tragedy struck. Gord’s wife was diagnosed with cancer, so of course the band took a break while they dealt with that.
The events inspired their next big single, “At Transformation” from the album “Now for Plan A”. When the band came to Seattle, I saw them at the Showbox SODO. It was general admission, so I took extra effort to arrive early. Several years earlier, I had appeared on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. While we were in New York City (get a rope), we went to the Central Park Zoo, where I purchased a stuffed “Gus” toy, and I brought it to the show. As I was walking up to the club, I found Paul out back smoking, and I showed him Gus, and requested they play the song. He wasn’t sure if it was on the setlist, and I didn't want to be a nuisance, so I went on to the door to wait for when I could get in. There were only a few people ahead of me, so I knew I’d be able to get a good spot. We had about an hour before the show started when they let us in to the lounge, and when the auditorium doors opened, I ran to dead center in the front row. Unfortunately, there were a few rude people who kept shoving me down the line, and I eventually had to stand sideways to maintain my spot. When the band came out, Gord looked and pointed right at me as I held up Gus. They started with “At Transformation,” and then went into Gus for the second song! Unfortunately, the videos I shot had a problem and had to be scrapped. It was still a great show, and I made some great friendships with the people in line.
Continued in Part 2.
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