Hip tribute bands carrying on Downie legacy

CAMBRIDGE, Ont. — Lead singer William Bishop doesn’t look a thing like Gord Downie, which might be considered a setback for any tribute band trying to emulate the Tragically Hip.

He rocks a full beard, has a thick head of hair and his build is larger than Downie’s frame ever was. Somebody once told him he looked like Steven Page quit the Barenaked Ladies to join the Hip.

Yet the lead singer of the Artificially Hip takes those remarks in stride. When his Hip tribute band performs they’re focused on more than just appearance.

“I don’t have control over that,” he says. “What I do have control over are things like stage presence, vocal tone and spirit.”

And that’s where Bishop shines as he channels Downie’s unmistakable persona while his band rehearses among the basement furniture of a suburban house in Cambridge, Ont. He hugs the microphone stand in the way Downie often did, pausing to throw his hand on his hip in contemplation, another of the singer’s trademark moves.

Then he launches into the midsong banter that Downie made his own.

The Artificially Hip are one of a number of Tragically Hip tribute acts performing in the coming days to mark the first anniversary of Downie’s death on Wednesday.

Pubs and concert halls nationwide have booked pseudo-Hip performers for the occasion, including Practically Hip (Toronto), the Fabulously Rich (Charlottetown), the 100th Meridian (Saskatoon) and Way 2 Hip (Ottawa) to name a few.

More than 15 Tragically Hip cover bands are active across the country playing music festivals and local bars each month.

They walk a careful line between honouring one of Canada’s most respected bands and profiting off their legacy – a balance that’s even harder to strike knowing the untimely death of the Hip’s lead singer at 53.

Many formed years before Downie revealed he was facing terminal brain cancer in 2016, but in some cases the newer bands were built on a shared love for the Hip after they returned to the national conversation.

Toronto outfit the Fabulously Hip surfaced around the same time fans were pulling out their CDs to revisit longtime favourites, like Ahead By a Century and Blow at High Dough.

Lead singer Alan Ribeiro says he covered Hip’s songs at his own shows for years, but the idea of a cover band only took shape when it became impossible to ignore the pent up demand at Canadian bars.

“You have a whole bunch of people that love the Tragically Hip’s music and they’re suffering because they don’t have the Tragically Hip coming out and doing a show,” he says. “In a way, the cover bands are filling that need.”