Canadians bid adieu to beloved band whose singer is dying
The impromptu tribute by an emotional sold-out crowd that included Prime Minister Justin Trudeau began what was expected to be the final performance Saturday by Tragically Hip, a group known as Canada's Band, and lead singer and songwriter Gord Downie, dubbed Canada's unofficial poet laureate.
Downie has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and fans across Canada and abroad gathered at viewing parties to tune in and bid him farewell.
The bluesy rock band is better known as The Hip, and Downie is known for penning paeans to Canadian life: about hockey and desolate small towns, about literature and the French explorer who named Canada.
Despite being diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive cancerous brain tumor, an energetic Downie was in fine form as he and his bandmates played an epic 30-song set, punctuated by three encores.
Downie, who started the show wearing a metallic silver suit and hat with a "Jaws" T-shirt underneath, hugged and kissed his bandmates — guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay.
The Hip then segued into songs from their last album, "Man Machine Poem," before running through tracks from "Music @ Work," ''Road Apples," ''Phantom Power," ''Up To Here," ''Day For Night" and "Trouble at the Henhouse."