[surferguy]

I wrote this last night as I reflected on what we are embarking on:
For the Ticket Holders


It is Thursday July 21, 2016. In approximately 24 hrs the first chords will be struck and as the finger starts to wiggle the landscape of a nation in transition will emerge.


We sit on the eve a tour under a pleasant summer sky looking forward to the next month and the lasting memories our lucky tickets will bring. A group of five artists along with their families and crew will set out to visit 10 cities and the highways that link them to deliver 17 performances. Tomorrow evening, The Tragically Hip and their Man Machine Poem tour – tagged as their last – begins with eager yet sadden anticipation in Victoria, BC.


We must reflect on what this concert series will mean to our country. An entire generation of music lovers grew up under the umbrella of their melodies. From some the introduction came via a scratchy version of Last American Exit on an old Rowe AMI jukebox in the corner of bar. Others found them via underground bootlegs cassettes of their first years as a touring band. These bootlegs commonly found them belting out covers of Gloria and going into deep rants about the D train rumbling overhead. For myself I found them in my middle teens watching video clips of Locked in the Trunk of a Car on Much Music. I then waited for four hours to watch the same rotation again…. so I could hear them again.


What was common for most people who came into contact with this band was that it stuck with them. We globed onto their music as their catalogue grew. Everybody has their story of Ahead by a Century or Three Pistols. We all know somebody who can play Wheat Kings on a guitar. We watched them on Saturday Night Live. We listened to them as they subtlety provided the soundtrack to our youth. We grew with them.


Now 30 some years later we are handed a rarity, a band supposedly going out on its own terms. For some this will be the first opportunity to see the most enigmatic front man in rock history. For others it will like shaking hands with an old friend. I have no idea what is in store for these shows. Will it be a barn burner? Acoustic sets? A catalogue blown wide open with anything on the table? An entire night of unplucked gems? The curtain will be pulled back on this mystery as this wave rolls across the provinces.



The biggest take away to state is that we – the ticket holders- are the lucky ones. We get to see our band one more time. We get to hear the classics one more time. We get to cross our fingers that “The Bear” is written in sharpie on that sheet of paper at their feet, one more time. We get to watch a man deliver his swan song while fighting with his mic stand. We get to watch as these men pass from living to legend before our eyes over the next 30 days. No dress rehearsal. Be excited and be sad, cheer and cry, sing along and whistle. But mostly remember…remember to feel lucky.


You get to go, You get to be part of it. The supposed final tour from a band that has given us their life’s work, their art. Now it is our turn to give. We must show The Man, The Machine, The Poem that he is appreciated and adored for all that he has poured into our lives. We get to show our love for Gord. For Magnificent Gord. Because as the lights go up in Kingston on August 20th our lives will be a little less full and a little less complete.


August 1 is the date printed on my stub. I’ve bought the ticket and I’ll take the ride. I have no idea of what that evening with The Tragically Hip will hold. But I can assure you of this. I will be richer for having seen them.