Life of Dave

Life of Dave

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

"You are ahead by a century"


I’m sitting here thinking and typing, listening to “Trouble at the Henhouse” and “Up To Here” which I’d forgotten I had until the concert last night, and also various other tracks I’ve pulled up from Youtube (“…in my opinion, the drug is ready…”). At the concert I was trying to sing along but realized I remembered embarrassingly few lyrics (“…I put it off, I put it off, I put it off again…”). Some fan I am. To be fair to myself however, hearing those songs again (“…just what our apartment does while we’re not around does not concern us…”), especially from the early albums actually choked me up a bit hearing them blasted loud in an arena setting.


It’s really interesting and a bit enlightening for me to listen to my old favourite albums again and realize how few lyrics there actually are in the Hip’s songs. And upon closer examination I probably shouldn’t be surprised that they’re more poetry than I’d expected. A lot of times they don’t make a lot of sense. They’re often more thought fragments than stories really (“…lies over time with no apparent purpose…”). And for some reason I’m attracted to that.

A Hip concert really is a magical, often hypnotic experience. Another thing I’d forgotten.
I don’t remember after which encore it was, maybe after both, or maybe it was after the seemingly endless applause following “Grace, Too”, but Gord looked out at the audience and seemed quite authentically awed. I know the circumstances of this concert tour are extraordinary but it was a truly Canadian cultural moment to see a nation come together to celebrate a man (and don’t forget the rest of the band) that’s shunned potential wider commercial success internationally in persisting in promotion of Canadian culture and history domestically.
I commented to my wife that Gord didn’t say much to the crowd throughout the 2 hour-plus concert but as she pointed out, there’s really nothing to say (“No dress rehearsal, this is our life…”).  Gord’s struggle is out there and we just have to be grateful we have a chance and a venue (multiple venues actually) to give back to him and the band.
“They shot a movie once, in my home town. Everyone was in it, from miles around…
Having never seen the skit on which the band’s name is reportedly based, I none-the-less feel pretty confident that the “tragically” portion of the name was not intended to be taken quite so literally.


Sunday, July 3, 2016

Canada Day

Happy 149th Birthday, Canada!










The VSO performed in Whistler.