A FAREWELL, AND A FIGHT
When the house lights go down and the spotlight shines on Gord Downie on Monday, Calgarians will experience a concert unlike any other. The Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem cross-Canada tour is the band’s bittersweet farewell to fans, launched after its frontman, its heart and soul, was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer. Ostensibly, this tour is Downie’s way to ride out a remarkable career filled with hit songs and poignant anthems that laid bare some of this country’s less than stellar history.
It’s also a chance for the close-knit band from Kingston, Ont., to revel in each other’s company for a while longer.
“What we in The Hip receive, each time we play together, is a connection; with each other; with music and its magic; and during the shows, a special connection with all of you, our incredible fans. So, we’re going to dig deep and try to make this our best tour yet,” they said in announcing the tour back in May.
The concerts are also an opportunity for fans to show their appreciation back, to wear their hearts on their sleeves for a man and his music. It’s been said The Tragically Hip links us as Canadians. An entire generation would go a step further and say they define us. Whether it’s painting pictures of lake towns or the great plains, prison breakouts or the wrongfully convicted, hockey games or music clubs, The Hip’s deeply layered songs teach us about being Canadian. They teach us about the importance of our country and the history that we share.
But beyond revelling in Downie’s brilliance possibly one last time, Canadians should also see this tour as a call to action. A call to do what each of us can to help eradicate cancer.
Because Gord Downie, unfortunately, is not an anomaly. Two in five Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime, about one in four will die of it. Those statistics translate into cold, hard numbers: almost 200,000 diagnoses and 78,000 deaths this year. Young or old, musicians or public servants, cancer strikes every demographic. And it’s only getting worse. The Canadian Cancer Society forecasts that by 2028 to 2032, the average annual number of new cancer cases will increase 79 per cent compared to the 2003 to 2007 period. This translates to 277,200 new cases in 2028 to 2032, up from 154,975.
So The Hip tour provides an opportunity to raise the level of awareness and discussion, to raise our voices, our energy and dollars in a cause that’s meaningful. At the most basic level, it’s an opportunity to join Downie and his bandmates in a collective fist pump against cancer.
It is, after all, rock n roll and that’s a most appropriate response.