I receive Google Alerts every time The Tragically Hip are mentioned in a news story. Throughout their current US tour I've been reading several articles from the States that suggest The Hip are bigger South of the border than they have been at any time previous.
An article from today's Chicago Sun-Times even goes so far as to call them "overnight critical darlings". It's as if critics in the United States have suddenly awakened to realize how awesome this band truly is. Here's an except from the Sun-Times piece.
Heroes in their native Canada, where the Toronto-based band has gained a reputation as a sort of Pearl Jam of the north with its grinding, blues-based guitar rock forming the perfect setting for Gord Downie's pointed, often-enigmatic lyrics and angry, authoritative howl, the Hip bring their tour behind the "In Between Evolution" CD to the Riviera Theatre tonight.
"In Between Evolution," the band's 10th album, has garnered a surprising wave of critical kudos. Time magazine called it the band's "best work in a decade," while Maxim dubbed Downie & Co. "a Canuck national treasure."
It's been exactly fifteen years since I first discovered this band and I enjoy their sound as much now as I did then. I've always been perplexed by their lack of success in the United States but took pride in the fact they were our national treasure. The States can borrow them and coddle them as their overnight darlings if they wish, but at the end they belong to us. My tix for November 26th arrived in the mail this week and I can't wait to welcome them home.
