New Wax Wednesday

Courage — it couldn’t have come at a better time. Those who know where that line comes from and how I’ve only slightly altered it here will get the gist of, shall we say, the hint of something more familiar. It all relates to the fact that I’m still in awe of what The Tragically Hip — and especially their late, beyond great lead singer and lyricist Gord Downie — accomplished on their final Canadian tour in 2016.

In the wake of the impending 10th anniversary of the 15-date run that was dubbed the Man Machine Poem Tour — but one that also served as both the band’s and Downie’s fond farewell — The Hip have just announced that Live July 22 – August 20, 2016, a 3LP set commemorating the best, 29-track sampling of that tour’s expansive setlist, will be released on August 21, 2026, via UMe.

Having seen the next-to-last night of that tour at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, on August 18, 2016 — which, overall, was (yep!) Hip Show #92 for me — I’m more than pleased to see that one song in this collection, “New Orleans Is Sinking,” was culled from that particular show. (For the record, “N.O.” was the fourth song The Hip played during that night’s 25-song set.)

As but a taste of what’s to come, and in honor of the still ongoing Stanley Cup Playoffs, here’s the official audio clip on The Hip’s official YouTube channel for “Fifty-Mission Cap,” which came from their show at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on July 30, 2016.

Some stats now. Longtime Hip audio maestro Mark Vreeken handled the mixing and mastering duties for Live July 22 – August 20, 2016 (and he’s also done a Dolby Atmos mix of it all too, for those of you fellow fans of fine 360-degree music experiences). The 3LP collection is most likely being pressed in Ontario, and if I get further confirmation about that, I will add it here.

At the moment, the best place to preorder Live July 22 – August 20, 2016 is directly from The Hip’s official site. In their U.S. store, the SRP is $90, and you can get it here. In their Canadian store, the SRP runs $100 CAN, and you can get it here. I, of course, have already preordered mine, in addition to the companion 2CD set ($25 U.S.; $30 CAN).

I can’t yet rate the Sound for Live July 22 – August 20, 2016 until all six sides have been on my turntable, of course, but I can attest that the Music on it rates a 10 right out of the box — if not ultimately a 10.5 or even 11 once I absorb the full set inclusive.

One more aural embed before we go any further. Again coming from The Hip’s official YouTube channel, here’s the audio for another favorite of mine, “Locked in the Trunk of a Car,” which came from the band’s forever final performance at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario, on August 20, 2016.

When I told one of Gord’s brothers, Patrick Downie — who has been hands-on in helping cultivate Gord and The Hip’s legacy across a number of artistic platforms — what I thought about the 2016 show I saw at the Canadian Tire Centre during a phone interview we were conducting in October 2020, he replied, “That was a great one! I remember the Ottawa show as well. That place is actually one of the nicer places, I thought, in terms of just the structure of the arena itself. When everyone lit up their phones at times, it was out of this world.” Indeed, I can attest to that spectacle firsthand.

Sadly, Gord Downie passed away from his battle with glioblastoma on October 17, 2017, at the relatively young age of 53. The fact that, in the midst of all that pain and treatment he had going on behind the scenes, he was still able to perform at a herculean level on that 2016 tour continues to boggle my mind.

As for the band’s own respective POVs in terms of these crucial, historical live performances, first check out guitarist Robby Baker’s YouTube Short about it all right here.

When I was conducting all the band interviews for the liner notes I wrote for 2021’s 30th anniversary Road Apples box set, we all also talked about that final 2016 tour, even as raw as it still felt to us all — but most especially to them. “As we got older, we got better at what we were doing,” Hip bassist Gord Sinclair said to me during a previously unpublished portion of our May 2021 Zoom interview, in regard to the band playing so many songs live that had been recorded years, if not decades, earlier. “Sometimes, we would be like, ‘Oh man, I wish we could go back,’” he continued. “‘Now that I’ve figured out how to play that part, I’d love to go back and do it again’—which, as you know, is the pitfall of recording music. It’s always just about getting that moment in time.”

When it comes to evaluating what specific performances/mixes to put out on live Hip collections like Live July 22 – August 20, 2016, one go-to rule Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay established early on once the band agreed to begin releasing more historical content on a fairly regular basis is what I call finding and agreeing upon a positive, shared experience. “Whether we’re listening to board feeds or individual mixes, Johnny and I have been very particular about listening to each other,” Sinclair noted. “And that really set us on a course of not just looking for a ‘definitive’ performance but getting through it from start to finish at the same time and embracing the beauty of what special moments we might find in the middle of it.”

Some more info for you, now via the official press release along with the expected MM additives. There will also be an exclusive CBC rebroadcast and global livestream of The Tragically Hip: A National Celebration — the official document of the band’s aforementioned last show in Kingston, Ontario — on Saturday, August 22, 2026, on CBC TV, CBC Gem, CBC Radio, and CBC Music’s YouTube page.

More specifically, the CBC will rebroadcast the concert commercial-free, just as it originally aired at local time (7:30p.m. NT), nationwide on both services. (Pre-show festivities will begin at 7p.m.) The rebroadcast will be available globally on CBC Music’s YouTube channel and throughout North America on SiriusXM on CBC Radio One (Channel 169) and Canada Talks (Ch. 167). At the same time, the Live July 22 — August 20, 2016 album will air in its entirety on SiriusXM’s The Tragically Hip Radio (Ch. 757) and Iceberg (Ch. 758).

“It is hard to put into words how meaningful it was for CBC to broadcast The Tragically Hip concert to an audience of millions 10 years ago,” said Sally Catto, General Manager, Entertainment for the CBC in the above-noted official press statement. “For three hours on a summer night, all of Canada paused to celebrate and pay tribute together through the power of music. The Hip will always have a unique, special relationship with their fans, and we’re honored to relive this historic concert again this summer.” (Me, I watched that final show in Kingston live on the CBC just across the border here in Western New York, since we thankfully get the national Canadian channel on the local cable system. That final show still gets to me, tbh.)

Finally, I’ve been told that communities across Canada are already planning ways to commemorate and celebrate the decade since The Hip’s final show. If you want to know more and/or get involved with any of that yourself, you can follow along on CBCMusic.ca/thehip for any and all updates leading up to the August 22, 2026, airdate.

In the meantime: Viva Das Hips!

THE TRAGICALLY HIP
LIVE JULY 22 – AUGUST 20, 2016
3LP (UMe)

LP1, Side 1
1. At Transformation – Winnipeg
2. In View – Calgary
3. In A World Possessed By The Human Mind – Kingston
4. Family Band – Hamilton
5. Lonely End Of The Rink – Hamilton

LP1, Side 2
1. Something On – Toronto
2. Locked In The Trunk Of A Car – Kingston
3. Opiated – Winnipeg
4. Nautical Disaster – Kingston
5. New Orleans Is Sinking – Ottawa

LP2, Side 3
1. Yer Not The Ocean – Calgary
2. Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park – London
3. At The Hundredth Meridian – Toronto
4. Daredevil – Toronto
5. Bobcaygeon – Calgary

LP2, Side 4
1. Lake Fever – Kingston
2. Escape Is At Hand For The Travelin’ Man – Kingston
3. Flamenco – Edmonton
4. Putting Down – Kingston
5. We Want To Be It – Toronto

LP3, Side 5
1. Fifty-Mission Cap – Edmonton
2. Little Bones – Kingston
3. Greasy Jungle – Toronto
4. The Last Of The Unplucked Gems – Winnipeg

LP3, Side 6
1. Fiddler’s Green – Hamilton
2. Machine – Kingston
3. What Blue – Toronto
4. It’s A Good Life If You Don't Weaken – Toronto
5. Ahead By A Century – Kingston