Please note: Canada will be closed this Saturday night.
Don't try to call. Don't bother to send emails or text messages to Canada. No Facetime, Messenger, Tweets, SnapChat...nothing. And even if you know a Canadian that happens to live outside Canada, don't bother them this Saturday evening either...trust me, they'll be busy. Maybe, just maybe if the person you're looking for is 85+, you MIGHT get them, but don't count on it because we Canadians love our Canadian experiences...and we're about to have one.
Let me explain.
If you put down your cell phone and hit mute on the TV, step outside and point an ear in the direction of Canada on Saturday evening - chances are you may just hear the distant sound of an entire nation singing along to The Tragically Hip.
If you're not familiar with them, I won't go into much detail about the band (you can Google that...which you should if you don't know them) other than to say that many of we Canadians have a special connection to The Hip. Whether their songs take you back to that night at the bar dancing with your friends; singing around a campfire with a guitar; to a family wedding dance at the community hall; a special moment with a loved one; seeing them live on stage; sitting alone in the dark with the music cranked to 10; or that talent show in high school where you played one of their songs - many of us here in Canada have a favourite song. Mine is Fiddler's Green.
So, "what's up Saturday night?", you ask. Saturday, we'll see what is to be the last show by The Hip. You see, their lead singer Gord Downie has incurable brain Cancer. Gord is not just a singer - he's a poet. There's a story behind every chorus, and the songs he's written have a little piece of Canada in every verse. He's us - and we're him. So we need this Saturday to celebrate life - Gord's life.
And how did Gord and the band want to acknowledge what they're all going through with Gord's cancer? Hit the road and perform, of course. And Saturday they wrap up that tour with a show in their hometown of Kingston, Ontario. It will be hitting the airwaves from Newfoundland to the Yukon...streaming online, on TV and radio waves of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. So every Canadian can watch, sing, and cry a little - together. (Tks CBC, btw.)
Chantel and I didn't get tickets to catch them on this tour. Instead, we're making a donation to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research at the Sunnybrook Hospital Foundation, in Gord's honour. I hope you'll consider that too. Help Gord be a part of making even more memories for those that come behind him, and find a cure for this type of cancer. The link to donate is below...don't forget to share it.
So, now you know where Canada will be on Saturday night. Feel free to join in - try to catch it online or turn up the stereo and sing along...it's bound to be quite the show.
And thanks Gord...
Watch Live:
http://www.cbcmusic.ca/…/how-to-watch-tragically-hip-concer…
Written by: Jeff Bishop
