Tragically Hip Doc Shows Why They Should’ve Been More Than Canada’s Favorite Band

On Sept. 5, 1989, the Tragically Hip, arguably Canada’s most influential and culturally significant rock band, released their debut studio album Up to Here. Exactly 35 years to the day, the four surviving members of the group gathered at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre to screen a documentary that charts their slow-burning career, The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal.

“It’s not the dream of an artist, where you’re maybe seeking perfection,” guitarist Rob Baker tells Rolling Stone. “The dream was to be onstage in front of people, with my friends and rocking out — we achieved that dream fairly early and lived it for a long time.”

“We were always incremental — gig by gig, record by record, tour by tour,” adds bassist Gord Sinclair. “We always had our eye on the near horizon. And it’s kind of like we’ve woken up [now], where you look back and say, ‘That’s a lot of horizons.’”

With The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal tapped as the official kickoff to the Toronto International Film Festival, the film took home the People’s Choice Documentary Award. The four-hour, four-episode film was the first docuseries to do so in the category.

“You watch yourself up there and you get slightly emotional,” says guitarist Paul Langlois. “I think it’s a story of commitment, really. In the end, we all committed — no matter what.”

The day after the screening, the Hip are standing high above Toronto in a corporate skyscraper. Best friends since childhood, the bandmates are at the Amazon Prime offices doing promo for the film with an array of national and international media outlets ahead of its release on Prime on Sept. 20.

“Your career is step-by-step, so it’s not like you’re being parachuted into the circus,” Baker says of the media frenzy in Canada surrounding the film’s release. “But being away from it for eight years? That was an adult dose yesterday.”

Eight years ago was the last time the Tragically Hip took the stage in front of a live audience. It was the culmination of a cross-country farewell arena tour, which finished on Aug. 20, 2016, at the K-Rock Centre in the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ontario. The show was nationally televised on the CBC to a viewership estimated to be around 12 million.

Editor’s picks

“After the last show, we didn’t really know what to do,” says drummer Johnny Fay. “We were just kind of floating out there. We all went through it on our own, in this fog.”

That untethered feeling, lost in a haze of depression and fear of the unknown, came in the wake of the death of Hip lead singer Gord Downie. The livewire, larger-than-life frontman died Oct. 17, 2017, after a courageous bout with brain cancer, much of which unfolded in the public eye. He was 53.

“An idea would come along and there was no enthusiasm, no nothing,” Fay says of the band’s future following Downie’s death. “We didn’t want to do anything. But then we gradually hooked back up with Jake Gold.”

Gold, executive producer of the documentary, is the Hip’s longtime manager. He’s also one of the main players in taking the group from dive bars and local fanfare to hockey arenas and the national spotlight.

“[Jake] was really trying to get us to do some stuff and look for old, great recordings,” Fay says of the Hip’s extensive archives, a plethora of material that’s carefully being unveiled. “So we had a purpose, but we found each other again. If we’re together, it’s kind of therapy in itself.”

Related

Another key figure behind The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is its director, Mike Downie — Gord’s brother. The project was a labor of both love and legacy.

“I wanted to create an experience for the hardcore fan that would take them back to those live shows and listening to a record when it first came out,” Downie says. “Then there’s the casual, lapse fan, where I want to kick them in the ass and remind them just what a great band this was.”

There’s also a third category the film hopes to reach: a global audience that might not be aware of the intricate story of the band and all its human elements. “The documentary is a fabulous on-ramp for that person,” Downie says. “You start at zero and we’re going to get you to a hundred.”

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Tragically Hip. Formed in 1984 in Kingston, the members were a rag-tag bunch of rock and blues freaks coming up in an era where their contemporaries consisted of big hair, bigger egos, and polished rock radio songs. The Hip were none of those things, they were simply themselves.

“[The Hip] were five high school friends that came from a small town,” Downie says. “They stayed true to themselves and became so woven into the Canadian fabric.”

Initially, the Hip were conjured from an undying love of Sixties and Seventies British rock that, coupled with Gord Downie’s Beat poet lyrical aptitude and Jim Morrison-esque stage presence, became a Canadian rock juggernaut. The group won 17 Juno Awards, including Entertainer of the Year and Group of the Year. Nine of the band’s albums reached Number One on the Canadian charts, alongside numerous radio hits. From 1996 to 2016, they were the biggest-selling band in Canada.

The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is not just a nitty gritty tale about a group of musicians in search of their destiny. It’s also a look at the band’s mission of probing what it means to be from Canada — a sometimes misunderstood country, politically and culturally. “For many Canadians, that quiet pride [for the Hip] is real,” Downie says. “The music touches the heart. It’s that connection, and then a little bit of a history lesson about these Canadian individuals and places.”

Even in the midst of his sickness, Gord Downie gathered an astonishing strength and conviction in his final days to relearn the songs he wrote and performed for decades. It was a testament to his unrelenting passion for performance, and also his desire to give fans a heartfelt goodbye.

“When we set out to do this documentary, we wanted to figure out what it was about this band that Canadians so identified with,” Downie says. “I think what made the Hip matter to so many people is that authenticity. They had this confidence in themselves that was magnetic.”

Immediately following the screening of the film, the bandmates stepped onstage to meet a passionate crowd. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who is interviewed in the film about his lifelong love of the Hip, also appeared with the band.

“For decades now, you guys have been the embodiment of an element of Canadian identity that is not just about you, but about your love for this country,” Trudeau said. “And about the extraordinary mind and soul that was your brother, Gord, and what he brought to this country.”

Leaving the theater, the band members waved to the throngs of faces cheering from across King Street in David Pecaut Square. With King Street closed for the premiere, the Hip and their extended families walked shoulder-to-shoulder down to John Street.

Standing on a platform atop a school bus parked in the middle of the street, Toronto-based Choir!Choir!Choir! led a Tragically Hip singalong of numbers klike “Grace, Too,” “Ahead by a Century,” and “Bobcaygeon,” as the band stood below and watched.

“With illusions of someday/cast in a golden light,” they sang in “Ahead by a Century.” “No dress rehearsal/this is our life.”

Along with the documentary, a coffee table book, This Is Our Life, is on the way, and a commemorative box set for Up to Here, arrives Nov. 8. In preparation, the band dropped the previously unreleased track “Get Back Again,” which recently topped the Canadian rock charts — the Hip’s first Number One radio hit in 15 years.

Trending

The surviving members are fielding reunion appearances on a “case-by-case basis,” but have no immediate plans to take the stage. To note, the Hip have only played twice publicly since that final show with Gord Downie: with indie-pop singer Feist at the 2021 Juno Awards, and backing Indigenous singer-songwriter William Prince in 2022 for a tribute to Buffy Sainte-Marie as part of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“To get together with friends, to make music with each other, that’s kind of where it all started,” Baker says. “We did it out of the love of music and friendship. And so, what you have in the end is what you started with — it was good then, it’s good now.”