Tonight’s Pick: The Tragically Hip @ the 9:30 Club
The Tragically Hip is probably the most Canadian rock band ever. The evidence? They managed to chart a single about disappeared hockey player Bill Barilko—and they have band members named Gord and Gordon. Can Rush say the same? No. But the Tragically Hip has more going for it than socialized medicine and an elongated “o.” The Hip is the thinking man’s arena rock, with lead singer Gordon Downie playing the Canuck lizard king, spouting opaque verses and dropping absurdist rants atop Tim Hortons–fueled guitar leads so tough they could be put to work as lumberjacks. Haters might dismiss the Hip as the poor man’s R.E.M., nothing more than a bar band with a mildly edgy frontman, but no. The Tragically Hip is an awesome bar band with a mildly edgy frontman————and some killer songs about hockey. The Tragically Hip performs with Joel Plaskett Emergency at 8 p.m. at the 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW. $25. (202) 393-0930. —Aaron Leitko
8:28 pm
The Hip are from Kingston, ON, Canada. I'm from Kingston, ON, Canada. I'm proud of these guys. My daughter went to see them just last Saturday nite, Feb 23, at our brand new K-Rock Centre, and it cost her $85.00. You guys got to see them for $25.00. How do you rate?
Not only do they write songs about Hockey, they write songs about Canada. They wrote a song about a prison break in Kingston's Millhaven maximum security, and a song about 'Bobcaygeon', a 'blink & you might miss it' village near Peterborough, ON. However, their best song ever, with a most memorable beginning guitar riff, is "New Orleans Is Sinking". These guys are awesome. Next to The Guess Who, they are Canada's National Band. Beauty, eh?