The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

Ten years to the day. Two fans who were at Rexall Place for Edmonton night one tell the story - the presale tricks, the tight circle on stage, and the night the building went to church.
Episode Summary
Edmonton, night one. July 28th, 2016. Rexall Place - months before Rogers Place opened its doors - and The Tragically Hip's first of two nights in Oil Country on the Man Machine Poem Tour. Ten years later, Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour sits down with Britain from Wainwright and Dave from Edmonton, two fans who were in the building. Amber from Meadow Lake joins long enough to drop the ticket story of the series - her seniors' exercise class watching her land eighth row on the floor through the Tales From The Hip fan club presale, in tears - before the connection gremlins claim her. We hope to hear the rest of it someday.
The road to tickets is half the fun. Dave is the lapsed fan brought all the way back - off the bus during the Bob Rock years, pulled in by 'In a World Possessed by the Human Mind', then all in the moment the news about Gord broke: two sets of four from Ticketmaster, first spin. Britain - 40 shows deep - worked the presale, then discovered Ticketmaster would upgrade seats right up to showtime, held his target ticket hostage online while he waited on the phone, and turned row 17 into row 11 centre. Then he drove the 200 kilometres from Wainwright and did it all again two nights later.
Inside the building, the panel remembers the band opening in that tight huddle at the front of the stage - a support group, buddies in the garage, there for Gord - before the intermission and the thunderstorm video interlude gave way to the full rock show. The album-by-album set list format gets called a stroke of genius, the In Between Evolution sampler delivers 'Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park' as a sleeper highlight, and 'Scared' - "pleasure doing business with you" - leaves Britain levitating somewhere above the floor. Dave's word for it: church.
There's real talk about saying goodbye - during the show, on August 20th, 2016 when CBC paused its own Olympics for 11 million of us, and not until the Long Time Running documentary made it land. The word this panel keeps coming back to: celebration.
The Panel
Britain from Wainwright - 40 shows and counting, equidistant from everywhere and willing to drive. Video-recorded the entire night from his seat on a monopod; the footage lives on YouTube under his handle, Britstones, and the audio lives in his iTunes library.
Dave from Edmonton - the returning fan who got to say goodbye in the same barn where he saw The Hip as a younger man. Now the commissioner of the great Hip song bracket running daily in the Facebook group - 128 songs enter, one leaves.
Timestamps
00:00 - Welcome and panel introductions
02:00 - Dave: a lapsed fan hears the news and is instantly all in
04:44 - Amber's presale: eighth row floor, witnessed by a seniors' exercise class
05:58 - Britain's Ticketmaster upgrade trick: row 17 becomes row 11 centre
09:20 - Rexall Place over Rogers Place: one last night in the old barn
12:25 - The set list: album by album, a stroke of genius
15:30 - The In Between Evolution set and 'Gus: The Polar Bear'
19:14 - The vibe: celebration, church, and levitating through 'Scared'
23:21 - Production: the tight circle, the dark stage, the thunderstorm interlude
28:31 - When did you start saying goodbye?
33:14 - Encores: the 'Courage' singalong, and 'Flamenco' into 'Ahead by a Century'
38:19 - August 20th, 2016: watch parties, basements, and CBC pausing the Olympics
43:18 - Long Time Running and the Mansbridge interview
44:56 - The catalogue: Bob Rock albums, reissue wish lists, and no duds
49:54 - The songs that take them back: 'Gus' and 'Scared'
57:44 - Final thoughts: once in a lifetime, for good and sad reasons
59:49 - Plugs: Britstones on YouTube and the song bracket
Resources & References
Setlist and tour-debut data: hat tip to setlist.fm - 'Flamenco' made its tour debut this night
Audience recordings of the tour live at The Tragically Hip Archive
Britain's five-part video of the show: search Britstones on YouTube
The Escape Is at Hand origin story (and the Neu! 'Hallogallo' connection) comes from This Is Our Life by Michael Barclay
The documentary discussed is Long Time Running
Dave's 128-song Hip bracket runs daily at facebook.com/groups/tthpods - round two is going to be brutal
Related listening: Yer Hipstories - Victoria, July 22 2016
Join In
This series is a living audio time capsule, and it only works if the community brings the goods. Were you at a stop on the Man Machine Poem Tour? Share your Hipstory and be part of the record. Want more from the network between episodes? Subscribe to Yer Letter, the monthly newsletter from jD.
Closing
Huge thanks to Britain from Wainwright and Dave from Edmonton for taking us back inside Rexall Place - and to Amber from Meadow Lake, who the bandwidth gods took from us far too soon. The takeaway this week is the word the panel refused to let go of: celebration. They did it for us. We got to be there. So there's that.
Next up, after a day off: Edmonton Night Two, July 30th, 2016, with a whole new panel. Get after it.
Connect
Facebook group: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: jd@tthpods.com
#TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #GordDownie #ManMachinePoem #InGordWeTrust #YerFavourites

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jD convenes the expert panel to dissect "700 Ft Ceiling," the song that lands like a baseball bat to the face right in the middle of Trouble at the Henhouse.
The conversation starts warm — everyone's summertime Hip pick, from "Membership" to "Morning Moon" to "Summer's Killing Us" — before turning to the puzzle at the centre of the track: what exactly is a 700-foot ceiling? (Aviation term. Lowest layer of broken or overcast cloud sitting 700 feet above ground.)
The panel unpacks Gord's habit of collecting phrases for their sound rather than their meaning, the wintery outdoor-rink imagery, and the Lou Reed-flat melody that barely distinguishes verse from chorus.
Things get spicy on placement. Tracy calls it filler and skips it. Mikk and Jamie agree the song detonates a gorgeous opening run — "Gift Shop," "Springtime in Vienna," "Ahead by a Century," "Don't Wake Daddy," "Flamenco" — and kicks off what Jamie dubs the album's weird second half alongside "Butts Wigglin'" and "Coconut Cream." The Kids in the Hall theory gets floated. So does the grunge theory. Everyone concedes it hit much harder live than it ever did on record.
Then the episode's real gift: Mick and Jamie tell the story of renting the Bathhouse for a weekend — sleeping in the studio, playing pool while spinning We Are the Same on vinyl, Billy Ray wandering in at 10pm with stories, engineer Niles behind the board, Gord's training bike still parked where he left it. Once-in-a-lifetime stuff, told well.
Next week's shuffle: "Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park" from In Between Evolution.

Key Quotes
"It's like an alarm clock goes off." — Mik, on where the song lands on the album"It is like a baseball bat in the face." — jD"Think about how many shows they played after 2004 that they did not play this song. That's why it ranks low. Guys, I'm telling it like it is." — Jamie"I think this is kind of Gord's secret talent — he listens better than everybody." — Mik"He says '700-foot ceiling' like four times, but the second or third time it's '700 and sinking,' which is just cool." — Jamie"It kind of felt very lived in. There was nothing you couldn't touch, nothing you couldn't sit on." — Mik, on the Bathhouse"I'll get emotional if I talk about it." — Jamie, on being shown the band's jam space"Well, I know what we forgot to do this week. We forgot to listen to the goddamn song." — jD
Tale of the Tape — Trouble at the Henhouse
Released May 7, 1996 — the band's first simultaneous Canada/USA release
Winner, 1997 Juno Award for Album of the Year
Record 5 of 13
Self-produced with Mark Vreeken — the only time the band worked without an outside producer
Recorded at the Bathhouse

"700 Ft Ceiling" live stats (via The Hip Base and setlist.fm)
Played live 130 times — 3 times as an opener, 7 times as an encore
First played October 21, 1995
Last played November 27, 2004 (retired; not performed on the final tour)
Ranked #76 in the Tragically Hip Top 169 countdown — did not crack the Top 40

This week's poll: 47% / 47% split, with 6% "tolerating" it.
Songs & Albums Mentioned
Tragically Hip songs
700 Ft Ceiling · Membership · Morning Moon · Coffee Girl · The Depression Suite · Summer's Killing Us · You're Not the Ocean · Ahead by a Century · Gift Shop · Springtime in Vienna · Don't Wake Daddy · Flamenco · Butts Wigglin' · Apartment Song · Coconut Cream · Let's Stay Engaged · Sherpa · Put It Off · New Orleans Is Sinking · Little Bones · Titanic Terrarium · Emergency · Fireworks

Tragically Hip albums
Trouble at the Henhouse · Day for Night · Fully Completely · Road Apples · Phantom Power · We Are the Same · In Between Evolution · Live Between Us

Other references
Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy — source of "Butts Wigglin'"
Rick Beato's interview with Billy Joel — the "vowel movements" idea Joel credits to Keith Richards
Grunge-era touchstones: Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Creed
Lou Reed — Tracy's comparison for Gord's vocal delivery on this track
It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken — the stage adaptation, seen in Hamilton, now touring
Tom Green's interview with Paul Langlois, filmed in the Bathhouse jam space

People Mentioned
Gord Downie · Paul Langlois
Billy Ray — Bathhouse caretaker and keeper of the stories
Niles Spencer — Bathhouse engineer
Mark Vreeken — co-producer, Trouble at the Henhouse
Patrick Downey — filming Billy Ray for the documentary
Greg — JD's co-host on the earlier podcast series

Links & Plugs
Kingston weekend events — Friday mixer at a pub · live record listening party August 21 at 4:30 at a pub · Sunday brunch at Morrison's. Email jd@tthpods.com to get on the list.
Mik Perlus — Ragged Islands — Mick's EP, recorded over three days at the Bathhouse. Includes a cover of "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken." Available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and other streaming services. Named for East Ragged Islands, Nova Scotia.
Jamie — Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish — with English and Russian supertitles. Recently ran at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto (roughly 17,000 attendees during Jamie's run). Coming to the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, February 13 – March 14, 2027.
The Hip Handbook — JD's new AI-built discography and stats tool, debuting on this episode for the Tale of the Tape.
The Hip Museum / Museum After Dark — referenced for the grunge angle and album background.
Next Week
"Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park" from In Between Evolution.

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Ten years to the day. Three fans who were at Rogers Arena for Vancouver night two tell the story - the tickets, the Fiddler's Green goodbye, and the night a one-year-old slept through history.
Episode Summary
Uncharted waters - we never do third ones. Vancouver, night two. July 26th, 2016. Rogers Arena, the third stop on the Man Machine Poem Tour, and the night The Tragically Hip opened with Fully Completely - just like the set-list sleuths predicted. Ten years later, Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour gathers three fans who were in the building: Craig from Langley, Tina from Prince George, and Jay from BC - currently in Ottawa, so probably working for CSIS. We're careful what we say.
The ticket stories run the full range. Craig and three coworkers all hit Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. sharp and every one of them scored - no bots, no drama. Tina borrowed a friend's Amex presale code, landed 13th row at the back, then got a phone call: Ryan was trading her his row seven, side of stage seats, because the bigger fan deserved the better view. Jay missed Victoria for a high school reunion, struck out on Vancouver night one, and was mid-refresh with his whole family when his dad popped up with the last row of the lower bowl - exactly where he likes to sit.
Then there's the night itself. Tina brought her daughter - the day before her first birthday - who took in the whole scene, collected high fives across the concourse, and fell asleep against her mom the moment the music started. The panel digs into the songs that hit differently: Craig's 'So Hard Done By' that suddenly wasn't funny, Jay's 'Fifty Mission Cap' with Bill Barilko's ghost and the shiny hats, a 'Music @ Work' section that produced 'Toronto #4' - bonkers - and the 'Fiddler's Green' that became Tina's goodbye moment, her "hey man, thanks" to the band that got her through everything. Plus the 'Grace, Too' moment both nights: three minutes of guitar and an entire building screaming.
Ten years on, the reflections go deep - how Long Time Running reframed everyone's memories, the Spirit of the West parallel at the Commodore, and Tina on what Gord's Kingston challenge to Trudeau has meant to the Indigenous community: a legacy that goes beyond the music. The word this panel lands on: gifted.
The Panel
Craig from Langley - 18 shows deep, first one in 1993 with his buddy Gord. Went to both Vancouver nights, predicted the Fully Completely opener in writing, and reunited with Dan, his old drummer, before the show.
Tina from Prince George - Day For Night-era fan with the deep-cut lyric tattoo to prove it. Brought her daughter to the show the day before her first birthday; that kid is now a proud Gord Downie fan.
Jay from BC - then working at the BC legislature in Victoria, now in Ottawa (no further questions). Walked out of Rogers Arena and bought Calgary night two, because this couldn't be his last.
Timestamps
00:00 - Welcome: officially into uncharted waters
01:59 - The person you think about: Tina's daughter, one day shy of her first birthday
02:47 - Craig reunites with Dan, his old drummer
05:30 - Hearing the news: gutted at work, glued to the Sunnybrook press conference
06:25 - Craig's on-sale: four coworkers, four wins, zero problems
07:44 - Tina's Amex presale and the row-seven trade from Ryan
09:57 - Jay: a muted newscast, a missed Victoria date, and dad grabs the last row of the lower bowl
15:50 - Songs that hit different: 'Daredevil' both nights, 'So Hard Done By' not funny anymore
18:27 - Tina: earmuffs, the crashing-waves interlude, and realizing this is the last time
22:45 - Jay: the 'Fiddler's Green' surprise, 'Fifty Mission Cap', and 'Toronto #4'
28:36 - The outfits, the set-list formula, and touching all 13 albums
30:56 - Gord's memory, the lyric monitors, and showing up how he wanted to show up
34:14 - The SNL performance, the Sheldon Cooper theory, and the emoting
37:25 - When did it dawn on you? The goodbyes inside the show
39:37 - Rowdy going in, stunned coming out: tears and the emptying arena
44:05 - The 'Grace, Too' moment: three minutes of screaming
48:03 - The one last tour that was actually one last tour
49:08 - Ten years later: how Long Time Running rewrote Jay's memory of the night
53:28 - Craig: full circle since 1993, and the Spirit of the West parallel
56:54 - Tina: Kingston, the challenge to Trudeau, and the Downie Wenjack legacy
01:00:08 - Final thoughts and a song from that night on the way out
Resources & References
Setlist and song-count data: hat tip to setlist.fm - roughly 71 different songs across the tour, touching all 13 albums
The rehearsal and monitor moments discussed come from Long Time Running
The first-ever live 'Fiddler's Green': MacEwan Hall Ballroom, Calgary, on the World Container Tour
Learn more about Gord's Kingston challenge and its legacy at the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund
Related listening: Yer Hipstories - Victoria, July 22 2016
Join In
This series is a living audio time capsule, and it only works if the community brings the goods. Were you at a stop on the Man Machine Poem Tour? Share your Hipstory and be part of the record. Want more from the network between episodes? Subscribe to Yer Letter, the monthly newsletter from jD.
Closing
Huge thanks to Craig from Langley, Tina from Prince George, and Jay from BC for taking us back inside Rogers Arena - the trades, the tears, and the toddler who slept through the whole thing. The takeaway this week is Tina's word: gifted. We watched them pull a rabbit out of a hat, and we got to say goodbye. So there's that.
Next up: Edmonton Night One, July 28th, 2016, and one last night in the old barn. Get after it.
Connect
Facebook group: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: jd@tthpods.com
#TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #GordDownie #ManMachinePoem #InGordWeTrust #YerFavourites

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Ten years on, jD sits down with three fans who were there the night the Tragically Hip played Vancouver on the Man Machine Poem tour — the second stop of Gord Downie's final run across Canada. Tina, Joe, and Shaun walk through the whole arc of that evening: the scramble for tickets when floor seats and Ticketmaster luck meant everything, the electric-but-apprehensive mood in the building as everyone wondered how Gord would hold up, and the moment his shaking hand during "Three Pistols" turned nerves into relief.
The conversation ranges from the emotional gut-punches — "Grace, Too," "Bobcaygeon," "Tired as Fuck," and "At Transformation" — to the craft behind the show: the band huddling close around Gord like a bar band again, the retrospective set lists that pulled from nearly half their catalog, and the stripped-down staging that only fully landed watching the final concert on TV. Along the way there's talk of secondary-market ticket gouging and dynamic pricing, the pride of a country coming together over a rock band, and how each of them found their way home that night carrying a feeling Tina sums up perfectly: "How can you feel so empty and so full at the same time?"
Next episode: July 26 — Vancouver Night 2, with a new panel.
Tina from Vancouver
A devoted Hip fan (by her own admission the bigger fan in her household) who scored floor seats, row 26, through Ticketmaster while nearly everyone she knew was shut out. "Grace, Too" was the song that hit her hardest that night. By day she works for a Canadian pet-treat company.
Only One Treats — Canadian-made pet treats with a single ingredient. Find them on Facebook, Instagram, and other socials, and in local pet food stores.

Joe from Vancouver
A lifelong musician (playing in bands since he was 15) and an entertainment-lighting professional — a rental account manager for a major North American lighting company. He got into Vancouver Night 1 on a spare ticket from his cousin's daughter, sat on Rob's side of the arena, and has played Rob Baker in a Hip tribute, which shaped how closely he watched the band that night. "Bobcaygeon" is the song that still takes him back.
Blue Collar Overdrive — his Bachman Turner Overdrive tribute band (Joe on bass, handling the Fred Turner vocals).
Website: bluecollaroverdrive.com
Facebook: facebook.com/bluecollaroverdrive
Upcoming shows: Kamloops Rib Fest (Aug 9), Langley Rib Fest (Aug 14), Retro Fest at Sun Peaks (Aug 24)

Shaun from Vancouver
A big fan who first heard the news — Gord's diagnosis and the one last tour — while riding the SkyTrain out to Surrey. He got a ticket on the first crack through Ticketmaster and watched from the rafters, just happy to be in the building. "Three Pistols" is forever linked for him to the image of Gord's shaking hand. Outside the music, he runs a pair of travel websites and recently drove an EV across Scandinavia to the top of Europe.
thislifeandtrips.com
myevtrips.com

Connect with the Podcast
Website: home.tthpods.com
Reach jD: JD@tthpods.com
A presentation of the Tragically Hip Podcast Series.

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Ten years to the day. Three fans who were in the building for opening night in Victoria tell the story - the tickets, the silver suit, and the night the Man Machine Poem Tour began.
Episode Summary
First stop. July 22nd, 2016. The Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, where The Tragically Hip opened the Man Machine Poem Tour and, as jD puts it, tore the place up. Ten years later, Yer Hipstories: Reflections From The Final Tour gathers three fans who were there - Chris from Kelowna, Dave from Campbell River, and Jay from Edmonton - to take it from soup to nuts: hearing the news, chasing the tickets, and living the night.
The ticket stories alone are worth the price of admission. Dave had seen The Hip 19 times and never sweated a ticket - until dynamic pricing and the bots turned this on-sale into the most stressful of his life. Chris dumb-lucked into fabulous seats through a venue voucher he had to drive to Victoria to redeem - and ended up on CBC, Global, CTV, and CNNalong the way, posting his mileage in a very Canadian unit: 12 Tragically Hip songs per hundred kilometres. Jay stared down 45 minutes of "sold out" on Ticketmaster before row four on the floor appeared for him, his wife, and his two-year-old daughter - then did it again and landed row two for Vancouver.
Then the lights went down and 'Boots or Hearts' opened the night. The panel remembers the acoustic-style start, the deep cuts up front, Gord Downie's glittering silver suit and feather - and Chris's reading of it all: this was the band flipping the bird at cancer and controlling the narrative. Jay's daughter got a wave from Gord during 'Blow at High Dough' - a moment you can spot in the documentary. Dave got 'The Luxury', played for the first time since 2000, at his 20th show.
There's real talk about the four "Man Machine Poem" songs played each night - 'In a World Possessed by the Human Mind', 'Machine', 'What Blew', and one more with a title we can't print here - plus where everyone was on August 20th, 2016, from inside the Kingston barn to packed small-town bars in Dorintosh, Saskatchewan, and Vanderhoof, BC. The word the panel lands on: gratitude.
The Panel
Chris from Kelowna - longtime search and rescue volunteer, then living in Vanderhoof. Drove 1,000 kilometres to the show with his brother and an iPod co-pilot, and became the national media's favourite Hip fan for a week.
Dave from Campbell River - joining from Halifax on the other end of the country. Victoria was his 20th Hip show; he carried on to Ottawa and Kingston, and he has never said goodbye.
Jay from Edmonton - then in Calgary, tent trailer in tow for a family vacation on the island. His two-year-old daughter is the little girl in the headphones in the documentary. Victoria was show 39 of 40.
Timestamps
00:00 - Welcome and panel introductions
02:01 - Ticket stress: bots, dynamic pricing, and pure persistence
08:27 - Chris's media tour: CBC, Global, CTV, and CNN
11:16 - The opener: 'Boots or Hearts' hits different
13:51 - 'Blow at High Dough' and a wave from Gord
16:29 - The silver suit, the feather, and flipping the bird at cancer
22:14 - The "Man Machine Poem" songs live
28:09 - A farewell party and the beginning of a goodbye
35:47 - August 20th, 2016: Kingston, and the bars that held the rest of us
41:34 - News: the live record and the National Celebration rebroadcast
42:46 - Final thoughts on Victoria
50:42 - Gratitude and what comes next
Resources & References
Setlist and play-count data: hat tip to Hipbase and setlist.fm
The documentary moments discussed come from Long Time Running
National Celebration returns: a live record on August 21st, and the CBC rebroadcast on August 22nd
Related listening: The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: The Darkest One
Join In
This series is a living audio time capsule, and it only works if the community brings the goods. Were you at a stop on the Man Machine Poem Tour? Share your Hipstory and be part of the record. Want more from the network between episodes? Subscribe to Yer Letter, the monthly newsletter from jD.
Closing
Huge thanks to Chris from Kelowna, Dave from Campbell River, and Jay from Edmonton for opening the vault on opening night - the nerves, the tears, the feather, and the wave. The takeaway this week is the word Chris found and everyone kept: gratitude. They chose the stage. We got to be there. So there's that.
In two days, the series crosses the Strait to the mainland: Vancouver, July 24th, 2016. Get after it.
Connect
Facebook group: community.tthpods.com | Instagram: @tthpods | YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods | Email: jd@tthpods.com
#TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #GordDownie #ManMachinePoem #InGordWeTrust #YerFavourites

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/tthtop40/donations

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy